(upbeat rock music) - Our friends just went crazy.

- And we were screaming.

(Charlie vocalizing) (upbeat rock music) - It was like electricity jolted through my teenage brain.

Like, oh my gosh.

- I had never seen anything like that.

- You know, it was emotional.

It was rock and roll.

(upbeat rock music) (reflective music guitar music) - [Narrator] Westport was, and still is in many ways, a beautiful Connecticut town with some classic New England characteristics.

That beauty helped attract a community of people in the arts decades ago.

In the 1950s and sixties, prominent writers such as Max Schulman and A. E. Hotchner lived there.

Well-known artists such as Stevan Dohanos and Hardie Gramatky were also residents and local settings often made their way into New Yorker cartoons and Saturday Evening Post covers.

In the theater world, by the mid 1960s, the Westport Country Playhouse was well established and featured top actors and actresses.

And thanks to the impact of the Beatles in the British invasion, Westport started down the path of making its mark in the world of rock music.

- [John] This is John Lennon of The Beatles.

There's nothing like WMCA Good Guys in Liverpool.

As our thanks to the Good Guys for spreading Beatlemania in America, we're gonna be the first to spread Good Guy mania in England.

- I began working at WMCA in the fall of 1961, and I stayed there until after they went talk in the late sixties, early seventies.

Beatles changed the way people thought about music.

We jumped on the bandwagon, of course, with our jingles at WMCA with the Beatles package, "Yeah, Yeah," and all that stuff.

I remember doing one of the shows for B. Mitchell Reed.

We were giving away the Hohner harmonicas, the kind, the Beatles play as a prize with the Good Guys sweatshirts that they would call up to win.

Before the Shea Stadium concert, the Beatles were appearing at Carnegie Hall and there was a press conference, and WMCA wanted to give away a lock of Ringo's hair as a prize.

Joe O'Brien whipped out a pair of scissors, and Ringo backed up, and John Lennon said to him, "Ringo let him take the hair."

And they clipped off a piece of Ringo's hair, and we gave that away as part of the prize with the Good Guy sweatshirts.

- I started listening to radio and I was about 11-years-old, AM radio, and most of us got gifts of like a clock radio or a transistor radio for Christmas or birthday, or an occasion like that.

And it was our window to the outside world of music.

It was something that wasn't local.

- I remember The Beatles on Ed Sullivan very clearly, and it was a very exciting time and a very exciting performance, you know, for a young kid.

- The one that got me was, "I Wanna Hold Your Hand."

And I remember getting home and putting it on that funky little record player, and literally wearing that thing out.

- I remember distinctly Klein's down on Main Street, going in on Saturday mornings.

I don't know how I got there.

I don't know whose money I used, but Sally White ran the record department there in the back and rows of 45's.

And I don't know how I remember it, but I remember buying records like "Positively 4th Street," by Bob Dylan, "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" by the Animals, and probably two or three records every Saturday.

(rock music) - My first band, the first job I ever played was actually at what's now Westport's Town Hall in the auditorium.

It was Bedford Elementary School back then.

I was in the fifth grade and we played The Kinks.

We played, "You Really Got Me," "All Day And All Of The Night" and "Tired Of Waiting."

And the girls screamed when we played just like The Beatles so it was really exciting for us, as well.

- I taught myself how to play by listening to 45 RPM records of Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs doing "Sugar Shack," the Rolling Stones, "Get Off My Cloud" and Beatles 45's, and I did that all without a drum set.

There must have been a shortage of drummers in town because I was asked to join my first band by guys that were two years older than me.

So we started a band called The Wild Sect.

- I would say it was the sixth grade when I was climbing the stairs at the YMCA to take guitar lessons.

There was an older kid coming down, and after about three lessons, I remember him saying to me, "Hey, you want to start a band?"

Initially inspired by the Beatles, I remember seeing that they had these collarless jackets, and if we could have found those, we would've probably worn those like Jerry and The Pacemakers and everybody else.

But the blue blazers came in, and it was really because of the Beatles.

(swanky guitar music) - The Beatles impacted so many of us in a variety of ways back then.

But really the biggest impact of the Beatles in Westport is probably the following situation.

There was a classmate and a friend of my older brother, Mark's, a kid named Dick Sandhaus, who when he saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, he said, quote, "It changed everything."

It elevated the importance of music to him and his world.

Now why should that matter?

In 1965, Dick Sandhaus ran for class president at Staples High School, and his big campaign promise was, number one, he was gonna have the best junior prom ever.

And number two, he was gonna make it free.

Well, Dick ended up winning.

So now he was stuck with a bit of a situation.

How am I gonna pay for this?

He came up with an Andy Hardy type inspiration, let's put on a rock concert.

(rock music) (rock music continues) (rock music continues) So then Dick decided, how would he put the plan in motion?

He realized the Junior Class Treasury had no money left over, so he decided to approach the SSO, which did have money.

The head of the SSO, a kid named Paul Gambaccini, was a huge music fan who had a subscription to Billboard.

The two of them came together, they put together some research, and they ended up making a presentation to the Board of Education.

Lo and behold, the Board of Education approved a budget to hold a rock concert at Staples.

Dick and Paul went through the Yellow Pages and started cold calling talent agents who represented some of the biggest bands around.

They actually ended up getting meetings, but when they showed up for the first meeting, the agent looked at them and said, "Are you kidding me?

You're the ones who called up?"

The agent thought that they were a vice principal or a faculty member.

They didn't get a great reception the first time around.

But then people saw that they were willing to spend some money and some agents even started sending them records, and they finally lined up The Beau Brummels.

(rock music) There were a couple of big concerns.

What kind of sound system would they use?

Dick and Paul lined up a bunch of local bands to bring their gear.

- I remember the first concert distinctly.

I was in seventh grade, part of a little posse on my street that was right behind Staples High School.

So we could walk up there, and The Beau Brummels to us could have been the Beatles.

I mean, they looked like the Beatles.

They modeled themselves on The Beatles.

I mean, this was big.

The auditorium was packed.

We were screaming.

- They were actually scared of the students jumping up and down on the seats and breaking them.

They hired, according to Dick, every off-duty cop they could find, they had a bunch of other people stationed around the perimeter of the auditorium.

- I mean, the music was bold.

The music was loud.

The music was good.

- The Beau Brummels were really skeptical coming in.

How good could this be playing in front of a high school crowd?

But they ended up being stunned by the level of enthusiasm, the reception they received.

They told Dick after the show that they felt like they were the Beatles.

That's how loud it was.

So, because of the success of the Beau Brummels, Dick Sandhaus and Paul Gambaccini had established the fact that they could get it done.

And now talent agents were taking them seriously.

They did a lot of research in Billboard Magazine.

They actually went into New York to see groups, and they saw The Lovin' Spoonful.

and they lined up The Lovin' Spoonful for the next Staples concert.

However, the Spoonful did start to take off.

Their manager didn't want to go through with the contract.

So now Staples was stuck with a cancellation.

Because of the rapport that Dick Sandhaus had established with a talent agent named Frank Barcelona, he said, "Listen, even though we can't give you The Lovin' Spoonful, we'll make it up.

And so Frank Barcelona delivered The Animals.

(rock music) - [Narrator] The crowd reaction at the Animals concert was emblematic of the times.

According to one local newspaper, Eric Burton quote, "Rolled over on the stage floor at one point and moaned loudly that he was in need of a drink of gin.

Pandemonium broke out.

The crowd of screaming teenagers rose from their seats.

Some of the girls crying dolefully" end quote.

A band with local ties, The Remains, also performed at Staples during the 1965-66 school year.

Their appearance was booked as a fundraiser for the Staples Music program.

Although The Remains had not had a national hit single at this point, they had a major record label deal, had recently been on the Ed Sullivan Show and had also recently been the subject of a feature article in the New York Times by noted music writer Robert Shelton.

- Because two of The Remains, Barry Tashian and Bill Briggs, were Staples graduates, they represented a success that other young musicians in town could follow, and they were a big inspiration to me.

- I saw them at Staples High School and they came out and did a version of "Hang on Sloopy," that started out, it was very dynamic.

(Charlie vocalizing) He started talking to the audience, and I'm talking about Barry Tashian who was the lead guitar player and lead singer, and then they went into, it was not like The Ramones, but it was one, two, three, four, one, two.

And they went into this tearing version of double time, of hang on... (Charlie vocalizing) I remember seeing the dust coming up from the, they were pounding the stage.

(rock music) ♪ I would lose all my blues ♪ ♪ If you promise that your love was true now ♪ ♪ And I don't know why ♪ ♪ I keep loving you the way I do now ♪ ♪ 'Cause you leave me alone to cry on my own ♪ ♪ I swear you got a heart that's made of stone ♪ (rock music fades) (air lightly whirring) - [Narrator] Paul Gambaccini graduated in June 1966 so Dick Sandhaus continued on his own in booking bands to appear at Staples.

The next big concert, starting off the 1966-67 school year, featured another epic record band, The Yardbirds, who had already scored two top 10 hits and who in a similar style to The Remains, liked to do rave-ups.

The lead singer for the opening act that night, a relative unknown named Steven Tallarico from Yonkers, became a star some years afterward performing as Steven Tyler.

That night left such an impression on him that Tyler talked about it in his speech during the induction ceremony of Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

- I first met Steve Tallarico at a Staples High School dance.

His band was known as The Chain Reaction, and they played all across the tri-state area.

You could tell that Steve was definitely the rock persona that embodied that whole spirit of the times.

In fact, he was referred to as being the Mick Jagger of the tri-state area.

So this was an event where I was gonna get some photos.

Normally, I wouldn't bring a camera.

It was considered kind of nerdy at the time, so we didn't have cell phone cameras, so you had to have a camera and bring flashbulbs with it in order to take photos inside the auditorium.

But here was my buddy, Steve Tallarico, opening with The Yardbirds.

So I snuck up to the stage, got really close, took a few photos of Steve, as well as The Yardbirds.

And I look back on those photos now, and it just amazed me that it was that period of time for The Yardbirds when both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page were part of the group.

That was really something to experience.

(groovy rock music) - After The Yardbird's concert, Dick Sandhaus went backstage with the band, and there was time before they had to go back to the city.

He asked what they wanted to do and since this was America and they hadn't really been here that long, they wanted to have cheeseburgers.

In Westport, at that point in time, everything closed up early, so there were no options to go anywhere.

So Dick figures, I'll invite them back to my house.

He called his parents.

They were a little hesitant, but they said, "Sure."

They ended up going down into the rec room and hanging out.

Dick's younger sister, Ellen, was beyond excited having this major rock band in her basement.

Because they're British, Dick's mother thought she would serve them some tea, which they did like.

But then Jimmy Page said, "Would you mind if I have a little scotch, please?"

Dick's mom whispered to Dick, "Is he old enough to be drinking?"

And Dick said, "I think so."

And so, she ended up serving Jimmy Page scotch.

(swanky rock music) (swanky rock music continues) - [Narrator] At the time The Rascals came to Staples, they had already had a number one hit and a new record, "I've Been Lonely Too Long," was rising on the charts.

- So we decided we wanted to meet The Young Rascals.

Our plan was to bake them a cake.

So we did that, and when we got to the stage door, nobody was around.

It was all locked up.

So we just started banging on the door.

Finally, somebody came and opened the door, and it was this big guy.

We said, "We have this cake for the Young Rascals.

Could we bring it to them?"

He said, "No."

We didn't know what to do.

We're like, "Well, could you give it to them," you know?

Then he just shut the door.

He took the cake and he shut the door.

We stood there for a while and he came back, opened the door, and he said, "They wanna meet you."

They kind of cheered when we walked in and there they were, sitting in this room and they were eating our cake.

Felix was there and he just grabbed me by the hand and sat me down on his lap.

Sally was talking to the other guys that were there, and they were talking and laughing, and I don't know how long we were there, but we had to leave because they were gonna go on stage.

We started walking back to our seats and to all our friends, we were like, "We just met The Young Rascals."

You know, they were like, "Oh, yeah, right."

(laughing) The Rascals came on stage and they said, we'd like to dedicate this song to Margie and Sally who baked us a cake, and our friends just went crazy.

They were like, "No way!"

You know?

- What I really noticed is that Felix was playing a B-3 organ, which I looked at that, and to me that was like the coolest piece of furniture that you could have.

You'd look, where's the bass player?

There is no bass player.

And then I noticed that he's playing bass with his feet.

They had the foot pedals for the bass.

And I noticed how he was walking the bass and playing and singing, and I went, "Well, this guy has got it together."

Snazzy is not the word for it, but they were very, very, very good and great vocalists.

- [Narrator] Even though Dick Sandhaus headed off to Amherst College in the fall of 1967, he still booked the major rock acts that came to Staples for the 1967-68 school year, The Doors, Cream and Sly & the Family Stone.

When the doors performed at Staples in September, they had appeared just four days earlier on the Ed Sullivan Show and had just topped the charts with the smash hit, "Light My Fire."

- I was lucky enough to open for The Doors at Staples.

I was in the ninth grade.

It was quite an experience because I was already a big fan of The Doors, you know.

I remember being backstage and seeing Jim Morrison and he went in one of the rooms and turned the lights off.

I don't know if he was meditating before he goes on stage or whatever he was doing, but I remember there was a cop who was kind of looking around and said, "What does he need the lights off for?"

And I was like, "This is interesting."

Another cop came down and just said, "I don't know.

What's he doing in there?"

"Well, what do you think he's doing?"

"I don't know."

I was thinking, "Yeah, what does he need the lights off for?"

(laughing) - My friend Kate and I were absolutely nuts about Jim Morrison.

So we hatched a plan.

We decided we were going to meet Jim Morrison, and the way we're gonna do it is to catch him when he was leaving the Staples Auditorium after the concert.

So we go to the concert and it's getting towards the end of the time where we think the concert's probably gonna be ending soon.

And we see Jim walk off the stage.

Well, the band starts going into an instrumental.

So Kate and I run out of the auditorium.

As we come around the bend, there's Jim leaving with what apparently was his limo driver, and they're heading towards the car.

We start running across the grass towards them.

And as we approach, I yell out, "Jim!"

I approached the door of the limo.

It was the back door.

Jim was standing on the other side of it, and that's all that separated me and Jim Morrison.

Instinctively, I just reached out with my left hand and touched his cheek.

And it was just one of those moments, "Like, Jim Morrison is real."

I yanked my hand back and we just looked at each other for a second or two and I said, "Goodbye."

He got in the car and left.

Kate and I went crazy at this point.

I mean, we're teenage girls.

We were running around on the grass outside the auditorium in circles, and I'm screaming, "I touched Jim Morrison!

I touched Jim Morrison!"

And Kate's my duet partner and she's going, "You touched Jim Morrison!

You touched Jim Morrison!"

(rock music) (rock music continues) - You know, I'm not a traditional rock-a-holic.

I was like every typical teenage girl.

I liked The Four Seasons.

I liked the Beatles.

I was on the bus one time with some friends of mine who I really kind of considered nerdy, and they said, "Ah, you're not gonna go to the Cream concert."

And I took it as a challenge, you know, and I ended up buying the tickets and going.

And I really, really became a rock fan at that moment.

I can remember I was sitting very close to the front and I loved making eye contact with the guys.

It was amazing.

They blew me away.

Ginger Baker and his drum thing, that was a whole experience in and of itself.

And I had never heard and did not expect a 20-minute solo.

It had to be 20 minutes long.

It was crazy.

And we were screaming.

We were screaming like little kids because it was so outside the box and it was so good.

It was crazy good.

- I was mostly interested in Ginger Baker's drumming, of course.

He had a unique style.

He added a primitive feeling to the music and managed to play lots of notes while maintaining the groove.

He was also using double bass drums, which was rare at the time.

So my eyes were glued on him most of the night.

In fact, the next time our band got together to rehearse, we combined two drum kits together so we could practice doing double bass drum parts.

- [Narrator] When Sly & the Family Stone appeared at Staples, their first hit single, "Dance To The Music," had landed in the top 10 just one month before the Staples' gig.

- I was standing five feet away from Sly, right on the edge of a riser and never heard this kind of music really.

They absolutely blew my mind.

I'd never heard a band with so much rhythmic drive and energy that way.

I didn't know that a straight groove could be that powerful until I heard it from Sly & The Family Stone.

- [Narrator] In the spring of 1968, another major concert took place at Staples.

This time, one featuring a prominent folk singer and as a sign of the increasing social activism of the times, it was organized by local junior high school students seeking to raise money for an international cause.

- Well, I was vice president of the student council and I had a strong social conscience from a young age, I think because my mother was a Holocaust survivor.

And I sort of understood the precariousness of life.

So I decided that maybe I could get a bunch of kids to support me in doing some kind of charitable effort.

And I sort of stumbled upon this school-to-school program that the Peace Corps ran.

The way that I came upon Phil Ochs was I asked some adults in town, "How do you find a performer?"

And I may not recall correctly, but I think he did this for $600, and it was lower than his usual fee.

- [Narrator] By the late 1960s, the rock concert marketplace was unquestionably changing.

While The Beatles had played in stadiums and there were venues such as the Yale Bowl that hosted concerts in their end zone section, larger concert settings had been the exception, not the rule, but the economics started the change by 1968 as exemplified by the fact that a dedicated rock club, the Fillmore East, opened in New York and the new Madison Square Garden opened, as well.

Staples' ability to attract the biggest groups with hits at the top of the charts wasn't quite the same, but it still attracted some name recording artists.

In December of 1969, Buddy Miles played at Staples just 10 days before his appearance with Jimi Hendrix at the Fillmore East in the now fabled Band of Gypsies concert.

- His road manager, his name is Eric Burgess, a wonderful guy, he put it to Buddy.

He said, "Why don't you come out to Staples, they're doing shows, come out to Staples High School and do a concert and it'll be a good thing."

And I believe his response was, "Well, I don't have a band right now."

And he goes, "Well, I've got the perfect guys for you."

So he came up and it was really nice to meet him 'cause I was a huge fan.

I think he was kind of impressed that we knew all his material, you know?

And I remember him saying, "Alright, so what do you guys wanna play?"

I was like, "Let's do your stuff."

He's like, "Well, you're kidding me," you know?

"No, let's do your stuff."

(rock music) ♪ Can't buy it over the counter ♪ ♪ Can't get it from the store ♪ ♪ Ain't in a catalog or door to door ♪ ♪ Can't keep it once you find it ♪ ♪ Can't get it back once it's gone ♪ ♪ Can't put it in the bank ♪ ♪ Or take out a loan ♪ ♪ Time keeps moving on ♪ ♪ Yes, it does now ♪ ♪ Time keeps moving on ♪ ♪ It really does now ♪ ♪ Time keeps moving on ♪ (rock music) ♪ When I'm with you ♪ ♪ It's never enough ♪ ♪ When I'm alone ♪ ♪ It's way too much ♪ ♪ Of all the ways to spend it ♪ ♪ What would you like to do ♪ ♪ It doesn't matter to me ♪ ♪ As long as I'm with you ♪ ♪ Time keeps moving on ♪ ♪ Yes, it does now ♪ ♪ Time keeps moving on ♪ ♪ It really does now ♪ ♪ Time keeps moving on ♪ - There's a special place in my heart for The Remains and whenever our band gets together to play reunions, we always cover a few of their tunes as a tribute.

- If the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were ever to have a place for high school student impresarios, Dick Sandhaus and Paul Gambaccini, in my opinion, should be the charter members.

♪ One, two, three four ♪ (rock music) (rock music continues) (rock music continues) (rock music fades) (audience cheering)