Belafonte Triumphs At Saratoga

Bennington Banner, July 3, 1967

SARATOGA – With 5 or 6 curtain calls and a lengthy standing ovation, Harry Belafonte and a sell-out audience last week firmly cemeted a love affair that skyrocketed the second season of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center off to a spectacular start.

The 5,100 seat amphitheatre’s reserved tickets were sold out, and people began eagerly gathering at the box office In anticipation of the general admission lawn tickets that went on sale at 5 p.m. before the performance. Although the weather became brisk toward the end of the evening, the patrons on the lawn were oblivious, completely enchanted by the Belafonte style and swept away in the moonlight of the Caribbean he was conferring up for them.

Belafonte was ably supported by his twelve man chorus in a program which featured Miriam Makeba, the exciting South African songstress and Esther Marrow, a dynamic new blues singer.

In a more serious moment, Belafonte thanked the audience for their enthusiastic response, and told of the “great responsibility” he felt in being “the first popular performer to appear in a house which has a tradition such as this.”