A Mighty Wind

In the news tonight...

...the music world mourns the death

of folk music icon Irving Steinbloom...

...an instrumental figure

in guiding folk music...

...from its humble beginnings in the 1950s

to its zenith in popularity in the 1960s.

Steinbloom managed the careers

of such million-selling folk groups as...

...The Main Street Singers,

The Folksmen...

...and the sweethearts

of the folk music scene, Mitch and Mickey.

Their music was the voice of a generation.

It carried a message of peace and freedom...

...and young people got behind

the message in a big way.

Steinbloom is survived

by his wife and three children.

What do you say, Mitch? It's up to you.

Are you going to be with us?

Yes, we do. We have all three Folksmen.

Of course, Alan, of course.

He was the first to--

We can't imagine doing this without you.

It's as simple as that.

We cannot conceive of doing this--

It seemed that the only fitting tribute

to this fantastic human being--

And I have to tell you,

my dad was really an amazing character.

And the only fitting tribute we could

come up with was a memorial to my dad...

...that would be a concert

that would be performed...

...by all of the fabulous groups

and people that he used to represent.

It's gonna be very fast. It's gonna be in

two weeks. And it had to be in Town Hall...

...because where else could we have

such an event? It had to be Town Hall.

And they had a hole in the schedule.

But it's a very sudden hole...

...and we've got two weeks

to put together this very complicated event.

But I'm pretty organized myself.

I've always been a very organized person.

When I was 12, I formed the J.C.P.L.,

the Jewish Children's Polo League.

We rode Shetland ponies instead of horses.

It was funny, my mom used to say:

"Well, if he has to fall,

he shouldn't fall from so very high."

She was very protective.

You could say overly protective.

I just like to think she cared about me.

Which she did, a lot.

And I was a member of the chess team.

And whenever we had chess tournaments,

I had to wear a protective helmet.

I had to wear a football helmet.

Now, who knows what she was thinking?

Maybe she thought

we might have fallen...

...and impaled our heads on a pointy

bishop or something, I don't know.

Now they don't allow no frowns inside

Leave them by the door

-There's apple brandy by the keg

-And sawdust on the floor

So if you've got a hankering

I'll tell you where to go

Just look for the busted neon sign

That flashes

Ea-a-oe's

Well, there's a puppy in the parlor

And a skillet on the stove

Hello, Mr. Stranger Man

-Who is that?

-Who are any of us?

No!

I'll take some of that.

-Mr. Palter has an altar, I see.

-Yeah. The Palter Porch.

-I knew you looked familiar.

-Just a little.

I think I used to work with your kids.

A couple of young guys...

Mark and I met at

the University of Vermont in about '61?

Late '61.

We were both interested in folk music,

and there was a big folk music scene...

...as there were on many colleges.

We formed The Twobadours.

-Two. T-W-O.

-Badours.

Because there were two of us.

That was the reasoning behind the name.

-Mark was a bass, really, a bass singer.

-I sang way down here.

And I was a tenor singer up there.

And so we had no lead...

No glue. No middle, no...

Vocalist. We went to New York

to see what was happening in the biz.

-We were playing at a place...

-The Folk Place.

At The Folk Place, which was a wonderful

club at the time and we ran into--

It was the flash point.

It really was.

Everyone-- It was like a big magnet,

everyone went there.

-He was singing, he was backing people up--

-I thought I was a guitar player at the time.

If you have enough vibrato on those blue

Fender guitars, you sound like a surf king.

I was drawn to the folk music as well

and I wound up down at The Folk Place...

...and met these two guys.

I could play the guitar. I could sing right

in the middle there, mostly sang for myself.

-Not a bad-looking gent, to boot.

-No, that's true. That didn't hurt.

We ended up getting together

and it just kind of...

-It clicked.

-It clicked.

And Mr. Irving Steinbloom came down

and he signed us to Folk Town...

-...which was the label to be on.

-Terrific label.

Later on we were

kind of moved down the food chain...

...to the Folk Tone label

which was a subsidiary.

It was a decent label,

they just didn't have the distribution.

-They didn't have any distribution.

-No distribution at all.

And the covers were printed

in two colors instead of four...

...which I noticed was a problem.

And they had no hole

in the center of the record--

No, you had to provide it yourself.

So the people complained

that you'd get this vinyl, in those days...

-...and it's up to you to center it.

-It would teeter crazily on the spindle.

And that was, of course, we had

no control over that aspect of it.

They were still good records.

Good product.

If you punched a hole in them,

you'd have a good time.

It's scary but it's true

So do what the Good Book tells you to

I guess it was in about 1958

in Greenwich Village.

My partner Chuck Wiseman

and myself had gotten together...

...with Fred Knox and Bill Weyburn.

We were lucky to be joined by one

of the greatest talents of our generation...

...any generation, as a matter of fact,

Ramblin' Sandy Pitnik.

And we became the Village Folk Ensemble.

And we were a great group. Great.

We had a good sound...

...but I always thought we should have

something bigger, a fuller sound.

And one night in 1960,

I'll never forget this...

...we were at a hootenanny and we

were jamming with the Klapper Family.

And all of a sudden, I heard it.

The sound that I'd been thinking about.

The harmonics were amazing.

I thought, "Well, there's five of us,

there's four of them. It's a neuf-tet."

And it was there, just in a moment,

it was all there.

The neuf-tet sound.

This thing clicked with The Klappers

too, so we joined forces...

...and became The Main Street Singers.

Well, 10 years and 30 albums later,

we disbanded, but we'd had a good run.

My partner Chuck Wiseman and myself,

we called it quits too.

I went my way and Chuck went his.

In 1971, after the breakup

of The Main Street Singers...

...Chuck Wiseman moved to San Francisco

where he started a business...

...with his two brothers.

The Three Wiseman's Sex Emporium.

It was very successful for a year...

...until they were sued over something

having to do with a box of benwa balls.

No, I need you, Mitch.

I need Mitch and Mickey. Mitch and Mickey.

That's the thing. You go together.

I love Mickey, but without you

it's not the same. You got to think--

I'm gonna tell you something, Mitch,

and I've never told anybody this before.

You were Dad's favorite. Okay.

Just deal with it. You were Dad's favorite.

I've never said this to a single soul.

Two weeks before he died

he took me aside and he said to me:

"Of all those ferkakte people,

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