'I saw myself in the Dallas County Jail. I wondered if I would get Oswald's cell'
Original title "Three Dog Night Takes a Hip Trip to Dallas,"
published August 7, 1971, by The New York Times Special Features.
By Mike Jahn
I had never been to Dallas. I had never been opposed to going to Dallas. It just was not one of those places I had ever thought I would find a reason to visit. Particularly, I never thought of myself going to Dallas with several dozen long-haired freaks from the rock press. It had to be an odd scene, and it was.
Three Dog Night, the highly successful rock band, decided to fly the rock press from New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco to Dallas for their performance in the Cotton Bowl. And to enjoy a barbecue at the ranch of Texas millionaire Gordon McLendon, owner of TV/radio stations and theaters around the Southwest.
It started, logically, it would seem, on an airplane in New York. The entire first class section was taken up by odd-looking people. This always throws off the stewardesses and other official types. And when a rock group travels first class, there is a certain sadistic enjoyment in sitting in first class with your shoulder-length hair and watching all the people in suits, ties and Playboy-man haircuts trudging by to get to their seats in tourist.
The first class section discussed rock 'n' roll all the way to Texas. It was calm until we passed over Texarkana. The minute the plane got over the Texas border one writer lit a joint (marijuana cigarette).
BR>Smoking dope under such conditions is known in some circles as liberation, in others as suicide. The stewardess started screaming about having police meet the plane at the airport.
Wonderful, I thought. Current underground paranoia lists the Dallas police as being known for planting marijuana on longhairs, then arresting them and sending them away to a jail for a long time.
I had arrived at the New York airport looking like a slightly longhaired tourist, and would leave the Dallas airport looking like a botanical garden. I began visualizing myself in the Dallas County Jail. I wondered if I would get Oswald's cell.
The police never materialized and the stewardess came to a party thrown by Three Dog Night later that day.
Frogs Everywhere
The Fairmont Hotel, a lavish one with two-story, plastic chandeliers, had each room specially prepared. Each had a basket of fruit, and a frog-shaped beanbag. A frog? The group's recent hit. it seems, "Joy to the World," talks about a frog named Jeremiah.
In Dallas, everything was frogs. There were frog shoulder-patches, frog press kits, and before the show went on at the Cotton Bowl there was a big fireworks display with a huge Jeremiah as centerpiece. Later, at the barbecue, I found a dead frog under my chaise longue, and showed it to a writer for Rolling Stone. "Do you think they planted it there?" he asked.The barbecue was on McLendon's 500 acres, which include a golf course, lake, swimming pool, tennis court, western movie set with saloon, bank, and church, movie theater, and a bar named Trader Vick's (the bartender's name is Vick). There were speakers in all the trees, delivering country music, presumably from a McLendon radio station.
I asked Bob Berkenfeld, who was coordinating the whole thing, about frogs. "A frog has sort of become the group's symbol," he said. "We had a man in costume, a six-foot frog, walking around in Dallas this week handing out leaflets. We took a poll and found out that when most people hear 'Joy to the World' they think of a frog."
Stay Out of the Woods
The press contingent arrived in a Continental Trailways bus. The ranch foreman, who wore a cowboy hat and carried a clipboard with a list of activities, met the bus. He addressed all these odd-looking people over the poolside P.A. system. He listed all the things you could do: swim, ride horseback, shoot at things, etc. "But whatever you do, stay out of the woods," he said. "There's a lot of copperheads out there."
Later, a writer sitting by the side of the pool lit a joint. The foreman came up to him. "I don't mind you doing that," he said, "but if you're going to smoke marijuana I'd prefer that you go into the woods."I must add there was no heroin use that I was aware of, and most of the press rather enjoyed the hotel bars and room service, where everything was charged to Three Dog Night.
Somebody else, sitting at the bar, commented on the scene. "This is like Shoot-Up at the O.K. Corral," he said.
Hippie Jet-Setters
One very political underground writer, 18 years old, invited eight of his radical friends from Dallas for a $150 room service meal, then tipped the waiter $50. I have maintained for a long time that a hippie is only a poor jet setter. The only difference between deciding not to go to work for a week and deciding to fly to Paris for brunch, is money. But this is beside the point.
The point seemed to be that Three Dog Night wants to play ball parks, but has had trouble convincing people that they can sell out such stadiums. So they did an experimental tour of three parks, in Alabama, Dallas, and Pittsburgh, and apparently proved that they can.The group grossed $137,000 for the concert.
They plan an extensive tour next year. "We won't make that much money on this tour because of 'promotion expenses'," Berkenfeld said. Yes, the press cost Three Dog Night a good deal of money - from $25,000 to $30,000. And, "the fireworks show alone cost $2,500," he said. "Did you know that one of those things that goes up in the air and explodes costs fifty bucks?"
We arrived on Saturday and left on Monday. Berkenfeld said goodbye. He and Three Dog Night were preparing to go to Pittsburgh for a similar concert the next weekend. "There's a six-foot frog walking around Pittsburgh this very moment," he said.
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