From http://www.pbs.org/capitolfourth/concert_highlights_sub3.html :
The Creation of a National Institution
AN INTERVIEW WITH EXECUTIVE PRODUCER JERRY COLBERT
Jerry Colbert founded Capital Concerts, which puts on A Capitol Fourth and has overseen every production since day one.
"It's hard to imagine A Capitol Fourth is over a quarter of a century old," reflected Colbert. "It's a great honor to produce this special event that not only celebrates the birthday of our nation but the ideals we are founded on, and also clearly demonstrates how much unites us as Americans."
How did the original concert in 1981 come about?
In 1979, the National Symphony Orchestra began performing Independence Day concerts on the Capitol lawn. I proposed televising them. It took two years to raise the money for the production. The first concert telecast included conductor Mistislav Rostroprovich and singer Pearl Bailey, and neither had a clue who the other was but they made great music together. E.G. Marshall was the host, and the stage was so small that he had to snake his way through the symphony's violin section, pushing through the chairs, to get to the front. E.G.'s script was on a clipboard held down with rubber bands to keep it from blowing in the wind, and he had to flip the pages himself.
I began to wonder what I'd gotten myself into when I visited the old and rusty PBS TV truck. The director of the MacNeil-Lehrer Show was running it. I noticed that none of the monitors was working and worried how we would be able to do a live show without monitors. He hit the bank of monitors with his hand and they all turned on. I thought, this is not the way to a major live television show! In the beginning, it was chaos because we ...More...
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