Art And Barbara Squires
SOUTHWEST CONCERTS & THE PARAMOUNT THEATRE©
This story is largely unknown to all but a very small handful of people in Austin.
Southwest Concerts had a major impact on the process of saving the historic Paramount Theatre through an agreement we reached with them to co-promote rock concerts, comedy shows and Broadway plays. Beyond generating a sizeable part of our annual income, these events played a bigger role in the theatre’s nascent start. The stars and shows created a wealth of priceless publicity which brought tens of thousands of Austinites in to the theatre to really sit it for the first time in 25 years.
In other words, these shows – which we could not afford on our own – created the heat and profile critical to getting people in the door so that they could see – first hand – what the Paramount was and could be in the future. It could be argued that it would have taken a lot longer to gain momentum without Southwest Concerts active involvement, financing, entertainment prowess and strong business experience. It is even possible we may not have been able to achieve our vision of turning the Paramount in to a crown jewel of historic theatrical venues in the United States quickly enough to hold the public’s and the media’s attention.
Not long after we officially took over the lease to the Paramount in 1975, I met Michael Dunham. Michael was one of the finest bookers of rock and roll in the southwest. He had the distinction of promoting and surviving a Rolling Stones concert at the Astrodome in Houston back in the 1970’s – a mammoth undertaking for a one man company.
Early on, my original partners Chuck Eckerman and Steve Scott were facing some very harsh realities about money. We had none. The $7,000 we pooled was gone in the first two weeks of operating the theatre. The bigger problem is that we could not afford to put out 50% deposits for nationally prominent entertainment which was the primary reason for the restoration and rejuvenation in the first place.
Michael was associated with Art Squires. Art owned a company called Southwest Concerts in Houston. He was a major promoter controlling many of the Texas markets and other parts of the country for music concerts, Broadway touring plays and musicals, big time comedians like Johnny Carson and more.
Art came to Austin to meet with my two partners, myself and Michael in early 1976. Being an entrepreneurial spirit and a powerhouse in entertainment, he took an immediate liking to me, in particular, and to the Paramount in general. The Paramount could become another venue for his promotions. He had power with many of the commercial theatrical agencies who wouldn’t give us the time of day as we were unknowns in the business. That meant he could open doors for the Paramount to garner touring acts in music, comedy, variety and Broadway. And, he had money.
So, with a combination of Art’s muscle in the industry and Michael’s vast knowledge of promoting music concerts we struck a deal to create a loose knit partnership. Michael did the concert bookings. Art steered the occasional Broadway play or musical in our direction. He covered the deposits and any losses we couldn’t cover due to a lack of financial resources. I continued to actively book some of our own major musical acts in the jazz field and more esoteric theatrical events like Pulitzer Prize winning plays, ballet, classical music and variety acts. These theatrical agencies were more attuned to the not for profit performing arts world wherein we didn’t need Art’s power. I was making my own contacts along the way. We were off and running full steam ahead.
I’ll digress for a moment. In 1975, Austin was not a cultural mecca. The high tech industry would not arrive until the late 1980’s when MCC located itself in Austin. There were almost no major corporations. And, the people who had money didn’t give to the Paramount – period. I used to say you could put a silver dollar in their mouth and a penny would come out there ass for the arts. Whatever arts patronage there was in Austin was very limited. Those dollars ended up going to The Austin Symphony – the only major arts organization in Austin at that time. Ballet Austin was then the Civic Ballet – an amateur organization that did fine work but had no staff and all volunteer dancers. Zachary Scott Theatre was still a civic theatre – structured much like the Civic Ballet. The University of Texas had it’s own budget to put it mildly. They did bring in a few touring artists funded by a mandatory student entertainment fee that was a part of general registration for school. My point – there were no other organizations that would attract any real contributions and grants – that is until the Paramount showed up.
As a new organization, the Paramount received virtually zero contributed money for operations, staff and maintenance. Whatever funds we generated were 95% earned income through ticket sales and concessions. There were no corporate sponsorships in the entire decade I was the director. We were too small for the National Endowment for the Arts funding. The Texas Commission on the Arts had a pittance of budget. We may have received $5,000 a year. The City of Austin was just beginning to create a fund to help the slowly growing arts community by raising the hotel and motel tax 1%. That created about $150,000 a year that would be doled out to many organizations. Naturally, the Symphony got the biggest piece of the pie.
From 1976-1978, Michael Dunham booked over 90 concerts (about a 110 actual performances) in the Paramount of some of the biggest names in the business. Art was responsible for several important Broadway plays and musicals that raised excitement further such as Neil Simon’s Same Time Next Year starring Kathy Crosby, Neil Simon’s Chapter Two starring Brenda Vacarro and more.
Art was able to squeeze the Paramount in for a five performance run of the all black Guys and Dolls musical which had been a major hit on Broadway. This was remarkable insofar as this was a national touring show – not a bus and truck show more suitable for a theatre the size of the Paramount. Actors Equity Association – which controls all professional actors in Broadway plays and tours – was about to blackball the Paramount for its lack of suitable dressing rooms and facilities. I couldn’t blame them. The dressing room area in the basement looked like the pit and the pendulum from a Vincent Price movie. We just did not have the money, yet, to make any substantive physical improvements to the theatre. The publicity generated by this fast approaching disaster was far reaching. We couldn’t have asked for a better public relations punch. In the end, we worked out a deal with AEA and the show played. Shortly thereafter, we are able to go after $120,000 of HUD money given to the City of Austin by the federal government. That money was used for several needs including a major upgrade to the dressing rooms and more. No Art Squires – no Guys and Dolls. No crisis – no media stampede to save the theatre and no justified plea for funding. See separate story of Guys and Dolls for details of an incredible story of what it took to cram a national touring show in to a European type opera house facility!!
That $120,000 coupled with a $15,000 grant from the Austin Junior League and $20,000 from the Austin Heritage Society was the only contributed income we would receive in the first three years of operating the Paramount. That money, however, was earmarked for bricks and mortar improvements, only. We still had to generate all of the money it took to operate the theatre, to pay modest salaries, maintenance of the facility and all the other expenses from ticket sales and concessions – period. That trend would continue throughout the first decade of the project – from 1975 to 1985 – until the time of my departure. I believe I probably averaged a salary of $20,000 a year over a decade of time.
Now let’s talk about Art Squires. He could be charming as hell. And, he could be a tyrant in the extreme. On the whole, he and I got along very well. Whereas Michael was a rock and roll promoter, I was more of a theatrical guy. Art’s real love was Broadway and the big MOR acts like Tom Jones, Johnny Carson, Johnny Mathis and the like. Thus, we spoke the same language and had the same general enthusiasm for the theatre – not the tawdry world of rock concerts. I’m kidding on that part. However, it was clear that the rock concert world was Michael’s domain.
Art helped in so many ways it would be hard to count or remember them all. Sometimes it was something small but something we really needed. He paid for us to have a wood orchestra pit covering built so that we could add more seats to the theatre and thereby gross more money. It wasn’t a big deal, cost wise. We did pick up about 30 more seats. More importantly, it put the artist and audience much, much closer to each other – a dynamic that is critical to maximizing the power of entertainment. It is that electricity and an osmotic, supercharged environment that makes for a never to be forgotten theatrical experience versus a show where the act is going through the motions. Thankfully, we had more of the former than the later by a wide margin. Our audience was a now a good 20’ closer to the stage. Any closer and the audience would have been a part of the show!
He could also gut you. I remember getting a two or three calls at home at night where he took personal shots at me for this or that. Art could be brutal. I told him I was not making any money and working my ass off 100 hours a week. He screamed in the phone, “Yeah, well you got a million dollars in ego”. He was partly right. Unfortunately, you ego doesn’t pay the bills.
He was nice enough to invite me to a major theatrical event in Houston – a theatrical play called A Matter of Gravity starring Katheryn Hepburn! That was a mind blower to see this legendary actor who was as powerful a force in motion pictures as any star that ever lived.
Something funny – well not so funny – happened during that performance. The rock act Queen was performing at the arena in Houston which was attached to the Music Hall via a long hallway. While barely discernible – and I was sitting in the first few rows – you could hear a tiny bit of the rock concert. At the end of the performance, Katheryn went out in front of the curtain and lambasted the City fathers for allowing such a breach of decorum to occur to the detriment of the audience and the actors. She did this, though, in her own classy fashion but her point was crystal clear. There was an additional irony to that night. I believe it was Pace Concerts and Louie Messina that promoted that Queen date. Southwest Concerts and Pace Entertainment would go to war over Pace’s monopoly of the arena – an arena built with City money that should have been available to anyone.
I would never have had that opportunity had it not been for Art. I would not have had many opportunities if it had not been for Art and Barbara. The Paramount would have been a lesser version of itself – some theatrical museum – an historical artifact of yesteryear. Instead, the Paramount became a major stop for a great number of tours, a National Registry of Historic Places, an official Texas Landmark, one of the most important anchors to the revitalization of an urban decay of downtown Austin and a magical place that brought and still brings happiness, joy and wonder to hundreds of thousands of entertainment fans from all walks of life.
There is not one mention of Southwest Concerts or Art or Michael in any part of the theatre, or the Paramount’s website covering the history of the theatre from 1915 forward. The fact is that neither the staffs nor the board of directors covering the last 25 years knows this story. I doubt that Art, Barbara, Michael and Southwest Concerts received any mention in the media over the years although it is possible Southwest Concerts did receive some mention in a printed program only if Art put it there. The media only focused on the visionary who made a hell of a lot of noise – me.
All in all, I doubt Art made more than $100,000 over three years of effort and risk if even that much. He did it for fun. He and Barbara did it because they could make a difference. That is putting it mildly.
See other related Paramount stories created through the efforts of Art, Barbara and Michael.
