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Mother a Gawd: How Kevin White saved Boston
By adamg on Fri, 04/04/2008 - 12:41pm
Boston Maggie explains why Kevin White did a lot more to keep Boston from erupting in rioting after Martin Luther King's death than James Brown.
For one thing, there's the fact Brown only agreed to perform if the city came up with $60,000 to pay him:
... Yes, it was better for the City that a whole bunch of people stayed home and watched James Brown "do his thing". That would not have been possible without Mayor White coming up with the 60K and arranging for the local PBS channel to air it live and repeat it immediately afterwards.
Another footnote that makes the 60 grand easier to swallow. ... Kevin White didn't have that kind of money in the City coffers. So he went to the Vault, a group of business men who had formed to handle certain financial crises. Kevin didn't get $60,000 from them ... he got $100,000 and used the rest for things like starting up "Summerthing"!!!!
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Comments
Pay the Cost to Be the Boss
To put it in perspective, a quick google search shows $15k/year was the salary offered to fresh-outta-school lawyers in NYC in 1968 by "large firms", Pittsburg police earned about $6k that same year, and minimum wage was a buck-fifty.
So, the good ol' Godfather of Soul was looking for twenty years of minimum wage salary for that performance.
Seems just a tad greedy.
The Vault
The Vault also helped White and other Boston mayors build support for redevelopment projects in the city throughout the mid-20th century.
Wonder if they're still around?
Re: The Vault
The original players in "The Vault" are long gone after nearly two decades of Menino-rule.
However, similar groups continue to have disproportionate access to City Hall, Menino, and the BRA.
The best example of this phenomenon is City Hall itself. In 1996, the Boston Redevelopment Authority simply took City Hall Plaza from the City by eminent domain, free of compensation, as instructed by the new Mayor.
A decade and several failed plans later, the BRA is still preparing to develop its valuable acreage, which is why Menino keeps talking about moving City Hall to Southie.
That's right, City government itself is being evicted, the latest victims of the BRA's urban renewal bulldozer.
In order to facilitate "redevelopment" of this area (again!), the Mayor and the BRA entered into a joint venture with a bunch of developers calling themselves The Trust for City Hall Plaza (the new "Vault"). This new "Vault" (headed by Trust chief Norman Leventhal) still plan to build a hotel and garage on City Hall Plaza (I'm guessing they'll change the name ;-). If they can get rid of the federal building on the West side of the Plaza, this new Vault will complete the transformation of "Government Center" in to simply an extension of the Quincy Market/Fanuiel hall tourist mecca.
Oh Heavens!
This sounds awful! Oh wait, no it doesn't, it sounds like the BRA is trying to redevelop City Hall Plaza into something useful, attractive, and that would put the land back onto the tax assessors roles, not to mention heal a scar that it rendered on the City decades ago. Regardless of whether the conspiracy between the City and (oh help us!) wealthy real estate developers exists, who do you propose should redevelop City Hall Plaza, the Department of Public Works? The BRA has certainly done plenty of harm to the City (e.g. the West End) and perhaps continues to hold more power than it should to waive zoning requirements for private developers, but suggesting that the BRA's involvement in redeveloping City Hall Plaza, or the City's partnership with private developers is part of some unjust conspiracy is absurd and a bit naive as to how real estate development works.
City Hall
Just because Shirley Kressel says it, doesn't make it true.
Salary or Concert Production Costs?
It sounds like a lot, but if the $60K was for the entire band, all the roadies, equipment, travel etc. it really isn't as much as it seems.
Even if you volunteer for a show, you still have to pay your people and their expenses.
...except if you actually read up about it....
The concert was cancelled. Then when they were threatened by Brown's agent in Boston (Byrd, a popular DJ) that doing so would spark riots, White got WGBH to broadcast it live and replay it. Brown then held him over the fire and demanded $60k to pay for "gate" losses from people staying home to watch it for free.
Later, when the city balked at White's commitment to pay the $60k, Brown threatened to reveal that he had been paid to do the concert and that the money was coming from the city, which would have been political suicide for the mayor. It was extortion, plain and simple.
Brown's "social activism" had nothing to do with his performance in Boston, and VH1 typically heaped all the credit on the performer, not the mayor and community leaders.
If he'd been so concerned about potential riots in Boston from his concert being canceled, a)he wouldn't have needed substantial talking-into to do it and b)a giant dumptruck of cash and c)threatened to go public with information about the deal, which probably would have caused riots all on its own and d)as a result ended White's efforts as Mayor to improve race relations since it would have killed him politically.
But no- all Brown gave a shit about was getting paid.
So?
Its not like anyone is suggest James Brown jetted right out to Boston to save the city. He was in town to make money and in the end that's what he's being criticized for. Its also worth noting that part of the reason Brown demanding the payout was because he was already under contract for a television show he had just taped in New York. Not only was White's plain going to cost him ticket sales (the Garden ended up being only 15% full), it was going to cause him to break his contract in New York since it forbid him from appearing on TV until that show aired. I'm not going to say that James Brown was a saint here. Sure, he could have benevolently donated his services, but I'm not going to hold his feet to the fire for not doing so. Not all good work is done pro-bono, you know.
No, James Brown didn't do this alone. Its just a catchy title. He clearly played a vitally important role all the same. Even if he got paid in the end.
credit where credit is due
There's no miscarriage of justice, ill-gotten gains or undo credit.
White, Brown and others pulled off a major coup and Boston was spared the death and destruction that so many other American cities endured in the aftermath of the assassination of Martin King.
2008 Edition
As Obama loses the Whitehouse due a narrow McCain victory in Florida, Mayor Menino attempts to head off the looming riots with an ill advised Black Eyed Peas concert on City Hall Plaza.
And..
Thus ushering in the end of Boston as we know it.
Welcome to East Detroit. Enjoy your stay.
hIT mE !
I went to a James Brown concert in 2001 at the BB King club on 42nd street in NY. James was in his 70s and kicking it like he was 50.
I took some pictures, which he didn't mind but he did mind the flash and so sent an assistant to ask me to not use the flash. It was a nice way to handle it and I apprecaited it very much.
After the show, we waited by the stage door exit . James came out and gave everyone waiting a big hello and signed our tickets.
Hit me!
Thanks For The Linky Love!
I love your title! How old are you? Did you ever hear him say that? It used to send me off into a fit of giggles. I have to find a soundbite of that someday.
Kevin White's speech patterns
I became a Boston resident while he was still mayor, so yeah, I remember that (was also fun how certain Boston radio personalities managed to curse on the air by making fun of the way he'd say "the city of Boston").
This was in his later years, though, so I wasn't a real big fan - it was right after 2 1/2 came in and he responded by pretty much decimating city services in Allston/Brighton, where he wasn't getting many votes, anyway (I'm sure there were cuts elsewhere, but it just seemed like Allston/Brighton got hit the worst, but maybe that's because I lived there).
Yes!
Shitty of Boston!
Is that in ...
Massatooshits?
who me?
who me? 48. yes. i bet its on one of his songs. i haven't learned how to edit a wma or mp3.
Brown at least
Well, the JB one is pretty easy. Try here. For Kevin "Leave No Evidence" White, good luck.
Curley's Desk
I'm still waiting for Curley's desk to show up.
Curley's Desk
Awwww, come on! All the good he did for the city and you'd deny him one lousy memento? Think about it - Raybo never would have appreciated that desk, it didn't have a cup holder. Plus, wouldn't the Rascal King himself have been pleased to know that *his* desk figured so prominently into a scandal of it's own? I think it was fitting to have it disappear.
The more Ray Flynn brought that up, the less I wanted it found. He was such a letdown after White. Such a schlub (sp?).