Big
A quarter-century ago “A Capitol Fourth” was an experiment in mega-scale television.
“People still can’t believe it,” says the show’s executive producer, Jerry Colbert. “They say, ‘It really is live?’ “
It is. The 25th televised concert airs Monday night on most PBS stations, mixing pop music (Beach Boys, Gloria Estefan, The O’Jays, Kimberley Locke, Il Divo), light classical and fireworks.
It will be a mass-culture experience with the emphasis on “mass.”
Colbert says a typical concert is seen by an estimated 400,000 people on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol and 13.5 million on TV. And after the show, they’ll witness the annual fireworks display.
Some performers are used to that. The Beach Boys have performed before even larger crowds at the Washington Monument.
“It’s all rock ‘em, sock ‘em,” Bruce Johnston, a veteran Beach Boy, says of such events. “We can’t be that subtle, but we can make sure everyone has fun.”
Others aren’t used to this at all. Early in her career, Faith Hill stared out at a crowd that was larger than the entire population of her tiny hometown.
“She was really nervous,” Colbert says. “She came off the stage afterward and just broke into tears – in a good way.”
These days, bigger networks emulate the concept. CBS airs the “Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular” on Monday at 10 p.m.
The PBS version has come a long way from its early days, Colbert says. “It was much more semiclassical then,” he explains.
Those concerts began in 1979 without TV. Colbert’s first telecast was in ‘81. Mstislav Rostropovich, a Russian native, conducted the National Symphony Orchestra, and Pearl Bailey, an American legend, sang.
Neither knew who the other was, Colbert says, but they got along fine.
“The audience kept demanding encores,” he says. “She just said, ‘Maestro, play it again.’ “
That telecast was shaky, Colbert recalls. E.G. Marshall, the host, held his script on a clipboard with rubber bands so the wind wouldn’t blow it away; the TV monitors were blank until the director hit them with his hand.
Soon, the production became more sophisticated. Since Erich Kunzel took over as conductor in 1991, it has also become more pop-oriented.
This year has host Barry Bostwick and Irish tenor Ronan Tynan, plus newer acts Locke and Il Divo and long-time stars The O’Jays and Estefan.
Then there are the Beach Boys. Johnston was 17 and driving to the beach with friends in 1961 when he heard the group’s “Surfin”’ on the radio.
“I was literally in my car, going to surf, when it came on,” he says. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is great.’ “
Four years later, he joined the group in time to help record “California Girls.” He would leave in 1972 when things were chaotic: “It got down to a smoking plane and a nonsmoking plane.”
He came back in the late ‘70s and has remained a Beach Boy ever since.
In the mid-‘80s, the group launched its own Fourth of July concerts at the Washington Monument.
“It was all Mike Love’s idea,” Johnston says, referring to a founding Beach Boy. “Those were huge.”
They also were banned by Secretary of the Interior James Watt, who thought they had become unruly. Legend has Watt criticizing the Beach Boys themselves, but both Johnston and Colbert deny that.
Watt’s boss’ wife, Nancy Reagan, was a big Beach Boys fan, Colbert says. Gradually, the Capitol lawn concert became a merger of the two worlds.
It still has the National Symphony and moments of weight and power. It also has the pop people and good times.
“It’s fun to have the Beach Boys,” Colbert says. “They have everyone from 18 to 80 on their feet. They’re really an American group.”
Over the years, he’s had a lot of favorite moments. There was the year Ray Charles performed his classic “America the Beautiful.” There was Cab Calloway in his 80s, giving his last major concert. There was contemporary Christian singer Sandi Patty; “the National Anthem she sings just builds and builds.”
And there was jazz great Sarah Vaughan, startled when she arrived for the dress rehearsal.
“She says, ‘This is a rehearsal?’ ” Colbert recalls. “It was the biggest audience she’d ever had.”