Lumbardos. The two brothers, they both had bands. She listened to big band music in my uncle of jazz. He was always listening to jazz. Those were the influences i had. Was your mother a performer . My mother became a very famous, she was the founder of the freedom rise. If you get my book, it will blow your mind about shirley kornfeld. Shes the star in my family, not me. Today, you are the star. Mr. Kornfeld i am just a representative of a dream. Capitol records was a new concept and you took a commanding position. How did that come about . Mr. Kornfeld my good friend charles called berman, who just sold his stock in martha stewart, chairman of the board of records for 15 years, we met, if you read my book, we met by accident at Queens College night school, and he had just taken over the job working for Donnie Kershner from evans kershner music. I had already had a record out when i was 16. I was signed when i was 16 so i had a record out, and it died and nothing else happened. I ran into charles and you read the book, youll crack up, the story is hysterical how it all happened. We met, next day i go on with the demo i made and i play it for Donnie Kershner and they signed me. Here i am signed to music, dauphin king, brian wilson, jan barry, great writers. There i was. It was so simple. You wrote a song and you played it for Donnie Kershner, because if elected, you had a budget, and those days, they were smaller studios. Im trying to remember the names, but i dont even remember. But we got to dick charles. That would make you the most. You get three hours, and and you do 10 songs in three hours. I dont even remember if it was two track at the time. We were cutting two track. What happened is jerry and carol put out locomotion, a two track demo, and then hey girl. Freddie scott was the handyman and he sang hey, girl. I did a song called can i you called tonight you are going to fall in love with me. He got so good at doing demos that a lot of us went into producing records. Then you left capitol records. Mr. Kornfeld before capitol i had run mercury and roulette. So it was the third drink. It was my biggest. I was the first Vice President of rock in music businesss history because that is the way the pr went out. Vice president of rock and that was just coming in. It was about 1956. It is when i was hanging out with the movie crew and i signed quicksilver, stuff like that. That was the start of rock. I will talk to you later but about that. Mr. Kornfeld matthew is a total lunatic. He used to drink his own urine. He did, and he had his daughter do it, too, and he thought that was the key to a longer life. Anyway, that is a private story. Sorry, matt. He lived near malibu, so thats how i knew. What was that Tipping Point that said gee, im going to create the woodstock music Arts Festival . I was running capitol, i was very successful. I had no budgets. The president chairman of the board loved me. I probably signed the first year where i had no limits. Nobody could say no to what i wanted to do. With in the studio debbie harry. Axelrod was producing the walls, linda ronstadt, things were happening in the company. Then one day, and i was known as grabbing an open door for everybody, and my secretary said there is a kid out here with long hair. I did have bird summer who i produced three albums with. I knew the guys who wrote hair. She said his name is michael. I said, does he have an appointment . She said, no. I said, ask him if he can come back tomorrow. She got back on the phone and said, he is from bensonhurst. I brought him in. His story is, i was sitting on my desk smoking hash. [laughter] that is so bizarre because i had not even gotten high yet. Hes the one who got me into grass. John sebastian gave me a joint one time. That was the extent of my drug experimentation. And langley, had just got his headshot. The Police Closed them down in florida. I was already living in the tallest building in manhattan, the penthouse apartment and still in my jeans and with my wife, i had a new baby. Life was wonderful. And capitol paid for everything. So this guy michael lang came in and we became friends instantly. He did not have money, so i supported him for a year and half and one night we were shooting pool, we were playing bumper pool and i was on the 40th floor, and i looked out over, it was the highest residential building at that time, and you could look at over the whole city. Michael said, you are tainted. You dont go to concerts anymore. I said michael, ive been doing this since 1956, and ive seen so many concerts, ive played so many clubs. Im in the studio all the time and i write and you dont do that stuff. Your way of getting connected to music is to go see it. Mine is to make it. So when i said, what if you took a broadway theater and had, just made it free . Well use my money because you dont have any. When we run out of money, we will close it down. We will try to get the biggest acts we can and make it free. He said well, i started to work on a thing in miami called miami pop but what happened is it rained and it folded. It was called a festival. That stuck in my mind, festival. Then my late wife, may her soul rest in peace, said what if you took it outside . And then the bell went off. Then i saw the field. I said yeah, well if we took it outside, michael, suppose we had hendrix and joplin and all these people. How many do you think would come . He said 50,000. I said 100,000. My wife said more than 300,000. Just like that. I swear to god, i looked up that and i saw the field, off that terrace and saw that field. I was spaced out. I was looking at a dream that had come true. I had seen it before. I had seen it the year before. Because we talked about it for four months or five months, and then they wrote the book. Michael didnt say a word. I did all the talking. I talked him into the 250,000. That was a start, you know . Location, location, location. Mr. Kornfeld we were always going to call it woodstock even though there wasnt enough land at woodstock to have it in. I had the band at capitol. One of my best friends was living up there, richie was living up there, everyone was up in woodstock or coconut grove, florida or sausalito in california. That was the way it was. Location, michael did a stupid thing. He went out and built a site on the hill with no permit from the town. That wiped out the budget. I didnt even think i was going to sell tickets. I was shocked. When it was all over, we were 1 million in debt. It cost 2. 4 million. The initial budget was 250,000. Michael went 600 over budget, i went 60 over budget. But i had too many people on the road still. I did not promote it very heavy. I planned it out. I knew how to promote records. Id been writing songs so many years, and they were buying my songs. I knew my audience. I knew them, and i knew the program directors. I got disc jockeys talking about it. It was really, like bruce, who lives here. He said woodstock was not your greatest promotion, Tracy Chapman was. Hes right. Woodstock was easy for me to promote. I knew exactly what to do and it wasnt me. I was a messenger, not the creator. I knew from whatever power i had tapped in on, i knew what to do. Up at the you end park . Mr. Kornfeld the real story is im sitting in my apartment and my cousin lived on 52nd street and had a neighbor who was a gay interior designer. His uncle was maxi asstor. The whole other thing is all lies. All lies. Totally. I get a phone call from this guy who says, mr. Kornfeld, i live next to your cousin, lenore, and yasgur has a cattle farm up in new york and hes going to lose it. He needs 60,000 desperately. I said, look, let me have his number. I said michael, there is a guy named max yasgur. This is the true story, not michaels story. This is the honest truth. There are witnesses to this story and it is in my book. People that heard the conversation, you know . Mike went and met with max and made a deal for the farm. It was 60,000 originally. When i got up there, i could not believe it. I just got from closing a movie deal and we went from warner bros. Michael says take the , motorcycle. We are all over these farmers lands, 12 farms here, and we have 40,000 people on the land. I said, why didnt you get releases . He said, you have to do that. I said, michael, first of all, i dont ride motorcycles and second of all, you should have taken care of this. That is your part of it. Im on the other side of the fence, in new york. I need people there. So i went from doortodoor to door, i drove the motorcycle and went with a pad, and i have the right to sign for Woodstock Ventures. If you had your whole whole life invested in this farm and all of a sudden everything was getting trampled, and you said i want 60,000, i wrote Woodstock Ventures owes 60,000 to be paid within 120 days. I did that to about 16 farmers. I went to every farmer. Some were very nice. I wound up having coffee and a piece of pie. And some of them came to the door with shotguns. That was my greeting to woodstock. After i got totally wasted with and nikki garcia. [laughter] i noticed one of the things you were able to get the acts, is because you paid 12,000. Mr. Kornfeld that is all [expletive]. That is not true at all. There is no set price on anybody. The first act signed was flagstone. His manager was a friend of mine, so people can say this and that, but i knew dave kaplan for 15 years before woodstock. He was in the music as this, and so was i. There was no set price on anybody. That is a fable. Of the bands selected there, did you have your alist and blist . Mr. Kornfeld no. What happened was michael got in touch with bill graham and he got in touch with the whole San Francisco group. In reality, sweetwater and nancy nevins were the first band to get a deal out of San Francisco. They never really happened, so that brought in santana, the dead, sweetwater, who am i forgetting . Starship, the airplane at the time. That was that group, and then i was talking with managers i knew and producers, you know . I putting bert summer because i produced him, and melody was a friend of mine. I got her a record deal and put her into woodstock. Michael, we both had a friend named hector morales. When i was a singer, he got most of the acts. He was living in puerto rico and i dont know what he was doing for a living but whatever it was, he was in puerto rico and he had a lot to do. I mention in my book, no one ever mentioned him. Also, no one ever mentions steve cohn, who was really the stage manager of woodstock. He is mentioned in my book. The pressure on him was so intense that he flipped out and i had to sit with him for four hours and talk him down. He lost it. The pressure got to him. He couldnt take it because when the rain hit, michaels stage wouldnt turn anymore. So to change the act, because if you took too much time with that many people, big chance for a riot. You couldnt have people sitting there for 45 minutes between acts. So when i watched his work, i was mesmerized and wanted to kiss every single one of these guys working. I even started to lift myself. I saw what they were going through because without the turntable, and they were doing changes in 20 minutes for bigname acts. That was amazing. That was really amazing. No, it is not true that jimi hendrix wanted to close the show because he was the headliner because if you listen, go into the archives of the Artie Kornfeld show, and youll hear my interview with the percussionist and the band of gypsies. Theyll tell you the story of jimi hendrix. Jimi said to me when he came up the stage, i said, what do you think . They were friends of mine years before woodstock and jimi said, artie, if i could have played at 9 00 when i was supposed to to a half million people, i was so tired and worn out, i did the best i could. It was only average. Which it was because id heard him play before. And it was average. Thats what he felt and that is what i felt. Were there bands you couldnt entice . Mr. Kornfeld no. I dont know what michael was doing. I was really busy doing the word of mouth. I was meeting with the black panthers, the weathermen, sds. I was traveling the country fighting every group that could cause trouble and making deals with them. The only deals i made is will we will give you medical assistance, Legal Assistance if you are busted and well give you food if you dont have any. With all of those groups . Mr. Kornfeld with all of those groups, and they accepted it. When they showed up, no problem. Obviously, there is a fear all thebut knowing groups might possibly take advantage of the situation . Mr. Kornfeld you dont read that because i dont have a pr person, but i wrote about it in my book. Such a fascinating concept. Mr. Kornfeld i knew what we had to do, you know . Youre said michael, 600 over, and he said, you know i didnt know what i was doing. If you think about that concert, there was not a lot of opportunity for sound checks. Mr. Kornfeld to tell you the truth, when the rain hit michaels crew came through. , michael did pull his weight. It took the two of us and my wife to come up with the idea and it did take michaels staff, because he went and bought the best he could get. Monk was doing the lights, doing sound, the best in the world. Steve cohen was an incredible stage manager. John morris was a pro. Everyones top drawer. So he covered himself. And i was proud that it held. When the rain hit, it was so terrible. It was such a threat to everybody and that is when the miracle happened. When the rain hit, the miracle happened because we had threat of being in jail for the rest of our life and committing manslaughter if someone died, and everyone on the field was just so up about it and when my friend, barry the fish, who was waswyer, never lost a case, hen he wasefender w with country joe and the fish. So he started chanting no more rain, and the rain stopped. I remember the mudslide. Did you . Mr. Kornfeld i did. I wanted to see what they are doing so i enjoyed it. I walked up on the field. I didnt go to the top. I walked to the shops. The one that said smoke shop, that was one of my best friends from college i played basketball with. The movie, which is iconic, you were instrumental in making that happen. Mr. Kornfeld according to the president of warner bros. , i was the only reason it happened. Honestly, thats true. It is just a fact. What happened, when i was at mercury, they came through with an act from canada, and i spent 80,000 and produced his act. When i was getting ready to go up to woodstock three or four days before, i read in variety, Freddy Weintraub becomes Vice President of films for warner brothers. I called freddy and he says youre not going to talk to me about that crazy thing you are doing upstate. I said, yes, i am, freddie, and you owe it to me. I went over and we sat for 35 hours and he even wrote about it in his book. His book is out. Freddy weintraubs book. As a matter of fact, in my book, there is a letter from Freddy Weintraub. It states how the woodstock movie happened. After 35 hours, it was over. Ted ashley came in. Ted ashley was my agent when i was producing the castles. So i had ted and freddie, and they both owed me. After 35 hours, they said lets forget it. We are almost bankrupt at a warner bros. Movies are not doing anything and documentaries are doing nothing. And after 30 hours, out of nowhere, we said, what if it is a disaster and 100,000 kids die . This thing will be the biggest movie in history. [laughter] they started laughing like crazy. Freddy just turned to me and said, ok, ted, what do you think . Lets get a couple of secretaries down and we sat there for another 10 hours and wrote a handwritten contract. I signed it, called michael and they were up there with no film, with 18,000 photographers and no film. I gave him a check for 100,000. He went to new york, bought the film and started shooting the woodstock movie. Thats how the movie happened exactly. How many camera guys did you guys have . Mr. Kornfeld i think about six cameras. At the time, it was major league. Mr. Kornfeld michael was involved in that part. We saw the amazing stuff, the Barbara Koppel stuff. We saw the documentarians work. The split screen concept fascinated us. We saw some of his work that he was working on and that was it. It took a while for it to come out. Did it get caught up in editing . Mr. Kornfeld no, first was the battle. They had to get through the battle. I really cant say anything because legality is involved but michael and i got screwed very bad. If i would have had more money, we would have won the case. Warners wanted me and michael out because i made the deal. My deal was 50 of the gross minus negative. They said, we wont have to advertise because you advertised it so much we wont have to spend a dime on advertising. It was 5050, us and warner bros. John and joel were rich kids. All they wanted to do was look good to their fathers friends. So we raised 1 million with albert grossman, who is a good friend of mine. And the night we came to sign, we were going to sell for them for three months, the movie, and we had 90 days to get the other 400,000 we needed. We didnt know, when i went to warners, they said they had to keep out of this and stay neutral. They were negotiating in bad faith with johns family. One of johns brothers went to college with one of the board, and they were negotiating the whole time because they knew all they wanted was the 1. 4 million back. They knew michael and i would stick to the 50 and that is what happened. Theodore keele, broke the New York Times strike, the litigator, he was my lawyer after i realized my lawyer wasnt heavy enough. I went to ted keele and he said we got them. He said im doing this pro bono, but it will take another 50,000 because ive got to get investigators to investigate this because i have the proof now that they lied to you, that they cheated you and it is going to revert back that you want 50 of the music. I didnt have the 50,000. I said to michael instead of this hitting the papers and ruining the name of the concert, lets take a 75,000 and walk. Thats what i did. You know . I walked from that and i walk right into eye of the tiger, rocking in the free world, all the records we did. Is it hard to watch the movie today . Mr. Kornfeld hard to watch the movie . When you had that bad blood . Mr. Kornfeld ive only watched it three times in 45 years. Is it hard to watch it . I think the director cut is much better, the 40 directors cut. No, it is like my baby. It is like watching my child grow up. It is easy to watch it. Ive seen it on tv. I have a copy. Ive only played it twice. I had 75 platinum albums and i gave them all to charity to be auctioned off. I have nothing on my wall, but i did see my woodstock sign sold for 9500 dollars on ebay about five months ago. I gave it to a foundation, which is a music Business Foundation that helps kids who are born to crack mothers and stuff like that. We raise about 200 million a year, it is that big. I run a Golf Tournament and we make about 60 million in a weekend. I was on the board. I give a lot of my income to the charity. The pied piper of woodstock, that moniker, do you like that . Mr. Kornfeld yeah. I wrote the pied piper, and it almost predicts woodstock. Follow the pied piper, and i will show you where it is at. Happiness, cant you see it is all around you . A new generation. What are you trying to prove, you know . It is your mind that is tricking you. Today, when you look at woodstock, 45 years ago, whats the message you walk away from . Mr. Kornfeld i have been working on the college for years now. I knew the future of america, to be saved, you have to keep the feeling. My internet show, the number one in the world, 18 million hits, everything in the archive has over 300,000 hits. Just meichael talking, and michael talking. So, im doing what i dreamed about. Generation, woodstocks going to hang around. Why do i know . There was documentarty festival, and these kids were so into woodstock. When i went to korea, the kids were so into woodstock. I spoke at 12 colleges in 15 days in korea, and all those kids were nuts. One college in seoul, a kid comes running from the back with a rolex watch. I want to give you a gift. A rolex watch. Swiss army my watch, because im not really into that kind of stuff. Was really touching, so i just told him, i dont need your excited. T he was all guy wavingere, this this watch. I had no idea what he was saying anyway. [inaudible] mr. Kornfeld thats why i do a radio show, every week. To try to come down in two hours. I know what to ask, and i have great acts on. Whats the legacy of woodstock . Of kornfeld the legacy yearsock is that, in 500 when we have forgotten about the beatles, if theres still people living, they will still remember that event. When Time Magazine listed the top 20 events of mankind, woodstock was number six. They said it was the greatest peaceful manmade event in history, all mankind, second to the man on the moon. The legacy of Artie Kornfeld is what . Mr. Kornfeld i am sitting here right now. 45 years later. [laughter] so thrilled. Mr. Kornfeld it will be my legacy. Thank you. Mr. Kornfeld my pleasure. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the contingency sampler is down. A little bit, to dig through. Soft surface, but here and there with the contingency sampler i run into a hard surface, which appears to be a cohesive material of the same sort. I will try to get a rock in here. You are watching American History tv. Every weekend, starting saturday at 8 00 a. M. Eastern, we bring you 48 hours of unique program exploring our nations past. American history tv is only on cspan3. I believe they are setting up the flag now. Check. Houston radio, over. Houston, loud and clear. Loud and clear, houston. Roger, buzz. This weekend on american artifacts, we visit the Virginia Museum of history and culture to learn about africanAmerican History from 1619 through the civil war. Heres a preview. Itse exhibition begins, 1519, with the arrival of the first captive africans on virginia shores. That marks the first recorded arrival of africans in british north america. There were two british privateers who brought about 50 enslaved people to virginia. The first shipment brought 20 negroes, as they were described in the historical record. Historians dont know much about these people. There arent documentary records or artifactual records of these people, so their history is often obscured or lost to us. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon us as americans to understand these pivotal moments in our history, and tried to imagine what the lives of these people would have been like. And we can do that, through the story of angela, who is one of the first captive africans who is brought to virginia, in 1619. We know very little about her, except the fact she likely came from a kingdom in presentday angola. She was a victim of the international, transatlantic slave trade. She was on a portuguese ship, that was sailing from the west african coast to veracruz, mexico, a large slave market town. During that transatlantic voyage, two british privateers attacked the portuguese ship, and captured about 50 of the enslaved people on board, including angela. The british ship then came to virginia. That is how angela arrived here. Learn more about africanAmerican History in our tour of the Virginia Museum of history and culture, sunday at 6 00 p. M. And 10 00 p. M. Eastern on american artifacts. Youre watching American History tv, only on cspan3. 1979, a Small Network rolled out a big idea. Cspan opened the doors to washington policymaking bringing you unfiltered content from congress and beyond. A lot has changed. On television and online, cspan is your unfiltered coverage so you can make up your own mind. More than 500 thousand students competed at the local level of National History day. Just 3000 students advanced to in june. The theme and 2019 was triumph and tragedy