On June 29, 1967, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center hosted its first-ever “special” (non-classical) event, featuring singer, actor, and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte. His musical collaborator, Miriam “Mama Africa” Makeba, opened the show, along with newcomer Queen Esther Marrow.

Belafonte in SPAC Opening

By Marilyn Nason for the Post-Star.

If the success of the fabulous Harry Belafonte and Miriam Nakeba opening the second session of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center last night is any indicator, the season is off to a fantastic start. Nearly 10,000 people provided one of the most enthusiastic ever at SPAC, and with just cause. Mr. Belafonte is everything ever written about him, ranging his material from Calypso, Jewish and Americana tunes to some excellent footwork (including even a bit of ballet) and an absolute Mitch Miller-type sing-a-long.

For the latter, the handsome young performer took one of his best known songs, “Matilda”,” and divided the audience

by sections including the lawnseaters, and really brought the packed house when he divided the women in the audience to over and under 40 years of age.

Miss Nakeba is a truly compelling performer in her own right, and the troupe is completed by an interesting young singer, Ester Marrow, some 12 singers and a six-man orchestra.

The Belafonte group will give a repeat performance tonight at 8:30.

On the social side, the cool night brought out a good portion of fur jackets and stoles and a handful of evening gowns and tuxedos.

Summer Saratogians, making the first performance of SPAC as true devotees, included Admiral and Mrs. Gene Markey, and Mr. and Mrs. C. V. Whitney and daughters, Heather and Cornelia. A host of local and area residents were also noted in the mammoth crowd.

Crowd Fills SPAC to Hear Belafonte on Opening Night

By Howard Healy for the Times Record.

The program says simply “Belafonte in person.” There are no selections listed; no curtain time; only a few essential credits for guests artists and staff members.

And yet the Saratoga Performing Arts Center was filled to capacity on its opening night last night – and with several thousand more seated on the surrounding lawns.

Name Drew Him

Belafonte, of course, was the word, the name that drew them. For a good long time his name has been making sellouts in theaters and concert halls in this country and abroad.

He was up to his level last night at SPAC. His voice was mellow and smooth; his songs were folkish and delivered in an easy but deceptively polished way.

There were the moments, too, when he joked with the audience and it was done as smoothly as ever.

The one large difference, though, was Belafonte, the popular singer, starting a new trend at the prestigious Saratoga Center. He knew this, and he stated it in frank terms.

“If we are not up to snuff,” he told his audience, then we may prevent a lot of other artists from making tens of thousands of dollars.

“Up To Snuff”

I’ll admit I had my misgivings about the new approach at  SPAC. But Belafonte got it off to a good start. He was up to “snuff.”

Not all of the program was Belafonte, of course. Sharing a deservedly large billing on the program was Miriam Makeba and debut artist Esther Marrow.

Miss Makeba was as excellent as ever, and her repertoire, which is a mixture of African dialects and rhythms, as fascinating as ever.

She has in her own way as much performing individuality as Belafonte has, and they make an excellent team.

Gospels Her Best

Miss Marrow, who comes from Virginia, offered several types of songs, among them a gospel selection that showed her at her best. Miss Marrow has a voice of good potential but it seemed, from this viewpoint anyway, that a more original style is needed.

In all it was a good new look for SPAC, a look that will hopefully – very hopefully – set the standards for those who will follow.

Harry Belafonte Turns Spirituals, Folk Songs into Works of Art

By George Murphy for the Democrat & Chronicle.

SARATOGA SPRINGS – Space is unimportant – merely an interval between things. What matters is how one fills it. 

Harry Belafonte, who opened the sophomore season for the Performing Arts Center last night, crammed his varied talents into two hours, leaving scarcely room for the stifled yawn.

Belafonte is no stranger to Eastman Theater audiences. He returns there each year like the swallows of Capistrano. If there were some among those in the amphitheater here who had not already seen or heard him in movies or in person or on television or records, they must have been quick-frozen and stored away years ago.

In reflecting upon his performance last night, I am tempted to use the phrase “work of art.” It is a term I do not like because I am not in favor of work. Besides, the term sounds pretentious, a word which has nothing whatever to do with Belafonte.

BUT HERE IS A FELlow who takes folk songs and spirituals, two mediums of communication not renowned for their aesthetic values, and makes of them, well, let’s face it – works of art.

Belafonte and Company (his guest artist was Mariam Makeba, South African songstress who tells the press “I never took lessons; I just sing”) got things started at 9 p.m.

Belafonte is not unaware of the attraction his almost feline grace has for the ladies, so we got our first glimpse of him in high-heeled brown shoes, brown trousers that looked as though they were painted on and a white shirt,  slit at the sides and arriving at a V just below the breastbone.

His program of old and modern folk ballads began with “The Rock Island Line,” and he was accompanied in this, as in most other songs of the evening, by five instrumentalists and 12 male singers.

Miss Makeba was very good, too, especially in her first song of the evening, “What is Love? Loving is Love,” which followed intermission.

Belafonte and Company will repeat their program here this evening.

Belafonte Triumphs At Saratoga

For the Bennington Banner.

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.”