Memorial Coliseum

November 4, 1975

By Ken Kingery

A few days before the event, as Chairman of the UPC Cultural (Committee), I was informed by the road manager for the Moscow Symphony that all staging must be done by members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). Keep in mind that the Program Council already had a lot of competent stagehands who knew how to do this work. Yielding to such a demand would force the UPC to fork over lots more money to local union members who had no experience setting up events with University of Alabama-owned equipment; and were mostly employees at local movie theaters, clueless (in terms of) setting up for a live event like this one. Of course, in 1975, Russia (USSR) was a communist country run by Leonid Brezhnev. They were always going to side with labor union workers over student workers. I demurred at their request and stalled for as long as possible because I didn’t know what to do. On Nov. 3, the day before the concert, I finally went to Billy Gardener, the staff member who was head of the UPC. He was our boss, so I asked for his advice. He told me to show their manager the check that was already made out to them for $10,000 and tell them that I would gladly rip up the check and cancel the performance should they continue to insist on using the unskilled IATSE local labor union. That evening, I met with their manager and heard his demands. After listening to him, I pulled out the $10,000 check and said that the UPC executive director authorized me to cancel the event scheduled for the following evening and tear up the check I was holding in front of him. You have never seen someone change his mind quicker. Upon realizing what we were prepared to do and knowing he already had hauled an entire symphony orchestra into Tuscaloosa, he capitulated immediately. He agreed to let the students set up for the event. Of course, the show was a huge success. The young pianist Vladimir Viardo, who was in his twenties, and already a decorated classical star by then, performed magnificently. It was all stunning -- the event was presented to an appreciative audience in the school’s largest indoor performance venue.