• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Visits to Tom Donahue and Bob Mitchell's shows at the Cow Palace convinced Rich of the commercial power of live rock. On a mission to convert the Morocco Room "from a neighborhood cocktail lounge into a young hot spot," he began to feature live entertainment, leaning toward the R & B end of the rock spectrum. Emile O'Connor (called "Little E") and Wally Cox, two of his featured performers, talked Rich into managing them. "It was black entertainment, and a white Peninsula crowd," he says. "But if there were any blacks that came in, they were welcomed. We weren't segregated." Later, Rich was advised to audition a white act from San Francisco, the Beau Brummels. He remembers their tryout at the Morocco Room in 1964. "There were maybe four people in the place, and they set up and started playing, and that old hair on my arm goes up. And when the hair on your arm goes up, you got something. It was a big change, to go from saxophones and black singers to a white guitar sound. But I hired 'em."

Soon enough, "They said, `Be our Brian Epstein,' and that got my attention, because [Beatles manager] Brian Epstein was my hero." Rich's second management venture prompted a visit to the Morocco Room by Tom Donahue and Sly Stone, who had already worked with the Brummels at Autumn Records. Rich subsequently got to observe Sly in action at the Cow Palace and in the studio. "He was a very cool, low-key individual," Rich remembers about Sly. He supposes that "maybe at that time, because of his growing, there might have been a little bit of insecurity," which maintained Sly's low-key presence. This belied the young producer's manifest talent: "He'd get up and play in the studio, and I knew he could play just about any instrument. You knew he knew what he was doing."

Parallel club-owning and management functions continued for Rich, as did the connection with Autumn Records. He booked the Warlocks, later to morph into the Grateful Dead, and the Tikis, later more famous (albeit briefly) as Harpers Bizarre. On a single Labor Day weekend in 1966, Rich's earnings for booking the Jefferson Airplane in resorts north of San Francisco exceeded his take on the Brummels' two hit records. He decided to invest that money in converting another club on the Peninsula, in Redwood City, formerly a venue for big-band acts such as Stan Kenton and Count Basie. "When I walked into the place, for some reason they were just playing `Winchester Cathedral' [a quirky retro hit by the New Vaudeville Band]," Rich recalls. "And I said, `This place has the feeling of a church. I'm gonna call it Winchester Cathedral: "

Rich needed an energizing act to christen the Cathedral. Walking down Broadway, the neon-lit strip in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, he encountered Jerry Martini, who had accompanied George & Teddy on a Morocco Room booking. "I've opened a new club in Redwood City," Rich told Jerry.

"Well, I'm with Sly," said the saxophonist, who was still psyched from the recent Urbano Drive conclave. "Sly put a new band together."

"You're kidding!"

"No, you've gotta hear us."

Rich was summoned to the Stewart family basement for the next rehearsal of the Family Stone. "I'm walking down the stairs, and I hear it," he recounts. "And that hair goes right up on my arm. I go, `Oh shit, does this sound good!' And I go and sit down. They're just starting, but they're good. They were doing everybody else's music, they hadn't gone out on their own yet, but what they were covering was better than the originals, no doubt about it. Freddie singing `Try a Little Tenderness'? Whew! They could play! So I hired 'em that night."

The Cathedral and its opening act, Sly & the Family Stone, were aggressively promoted by Rich through newspaper and radio advertising. He assumed there might not be widespread familiarity with radio jock Sly as a musician. On opening night-December 16, 1966-there was a long line to get into the new club. And there was plenty for the patrons of the early