Hello in There (Bette Midler)

I was once hired by Atlantic Records to photograph Bette Midler doing a radio interview at the studio. I arrived there on time, only to be met with disbelief. No one had told Ms. Midler that a photographer was coming. Her hair was up, and she was in a pink button-down shirt. She had glasses. She was absolutely lovely and gracious about it all, and certainly looked good enough to have her picture taken doing an interview, but she was also very, VERY clear. It was just NOT going to happen. Basically, BETTE MIDLER wasn't there, only the lovely and talented Bette Midler, who said she would absolutely make sure I got paid anyway. And I did. But there are no pictures to go along with this post.

Soul Man (The Blues Brothers)

I was teaching music in the Bronx while I was shooting rock and roll at night. Teachers get 10 sick days every year, which they tend to hoard and then use mostly for mental health days. I'd use mine to work. If I'd get a call from a record company to come in and do a shoot during school hours, I'd take a sick day. As a music teacher, I wasn't responsible for a class, so I didn't feel too guilty about it. Most of my jobs were after school ended anyway.

One on my favorite "days off" was spent at Atlantic Records in NY doing a signing photo for the Blues Brothers. The Blues Brothers were Jake and Elwood Blues (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd of Saturday Night Live fame.)  

I rode up in the elevator with Danny, who was a really nice guy who shook my hand and introduced himself to me as if he wasn't famous and I didn't already know who he was. Which I did think was really kind of cool. And down-to-earth. Not John Belushi though, he was there with a flunky who'd light his cigarettes for him. 

The Blues Brothers (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd)
sign with Atlantic Records 1978

I suggested hats, sunglasses, and cigars for the record executives, which was a bit unusual for this kind of photography. Then it got a little crazy-- records were thrown so hard they would stick in the ceiling. And fall down, usually on someone's head. It was a really fun shoot. But Belushi never got out of character for a minute, which did seem strange. Of course, we all know how things turned out for him, just a few years later. So sad.

Double Vision (Foreigner)

I spent Thanksgiving 1978 in NYC photographing the band Foreigner. First, the show in Madison Square Garden. Then backstage for your basic platinum record picture. But it was Thanksgiving, and afterward there was a party up at the Promenade Cafe at the Rockefeller Center Ice Rink. After the backstage photos, the band went back to their hotel to change and I went up to the party. I scarfed down a bit of Thanksgiving turkey (standing up I must say) waiting for the band to arrive. My job was to follow them, and photograph them all with friends and family. When they got there, the band members went off in 7 different directions. And I would go from one to the other taking pictures. An interesting way to spend Thanksgiving.

But wait, where are the photos? These are tearsheets. Now it's not like I don't have photographs of Foreigner, I have plenty. I just don't have any for Thanksgiving 1978. And why is that you may ask? Good question. Well, sometimes a record company publicist would want to buy all the photos from a shoot for the label. It would pay much more than the shooting fee I'd usually get and I wouldn't have to shop the photos around myself. Sounds pretty good right? But DO NOT DO THIS! I'm sorry I did. I was young and stupid. Even though I have a ton of other backstage gold/platinum record photos with bands, I wish right now that I had them all. I can't even say I sold any other Foreigner photos, and I did photograph them again. But once you've given them up they are gone. My photos from that night ended up in the trades, and in the Atlantic Records weekly news bulletin, but all I have is a couple of tearsheets. I didn't even get a photo credit. 

So now it's Thanksgiving 2010. I'm having dinner with my family. I'm getting ready to write this story, and I tell them about the Thanksgiving I spent running after the band Foreigner and their families. "Wait a minute," my niece says. "Foreigner? My friend's father is in that band." She tells me her friend's name and I name the father. And wouldn't it have been great if I could have passed on a picture of her friend's father and grandfather?