MC 36: MICHAEL PEIRCE EVENING AT POPS PHOTOGRAPHS, 1970-1977, bulk: 1971-1973

MICHAEL PEIRCE

Michael Peirce was the official photographer for “Evening at Pops” television series in the early 1970s. He also photographed the “Evening at Symphony” concerts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, typically conducted by Seiji Ozawa, airing from 1974 to 1979.

EVENING AT POPS

“Evening at Pops” is one of the longest-running programs on WGBH-TV, the Boston affiliate of PBS, airing from 1970 to 2005, and was launched shortly after PBS. It was envisioned to be the public television version of a variety show, but with a world-class orchestra. There was already regular/monthly taping for local radio broadcasts in Symphony Hall, so the preparation was already in the works when executive producer William Cosel produced the first 12 programs for the first season. “Evening at Pops” was a joint production with WGBH-TV and underwritten by Digital Equipment Corporation and public television stations. The performances were taped before live audiences who were sitting around tables, drinking and eating cabaret style. The show made the Boston Pops a familiar and welcome visitor to households all over the U.S. and even beyond its borders. They featured headline guest artists such as Big Bird, Boston Ballet, Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Atkins, and New York Rock & Roll Ensemble.

A number of special performance traditions continued during the first decade of “Evening at Pops,” such as New Years Eve and Fourth of July performances. Arthur Fiedler was also able to continue Old Timers’ Night, an event which had grown from a 1932 performance he conducted titled “Gay Nineties Night,” in reference to the 1890s. The audience was given wicker hats to wear, and were encouraged to sing along to classic tunes. A new tradition popped up with the first Holiday Pops concerts given in 1973, and resumed in 1975, becoming an annual event and developing into one of Boston’s most popular holiday traditions.

Arthur Fiedler conducted the Boston Pops Orchestra for 50 years, and that includes the first nine years of “Evening at Pops” shows. Arthur was born in Boston on December 17, 1894, into a musical family. He was named after Arthur Nikisch, the famous Hungarian conductor who led the BSO from 1889 to 1893.Arthur attended the Boston Latin School until the age of 14 (1910) when his father retired from the BSO and moved the family back to Europe. Arthur showed musical talent but didn’t commit himself to a career in music until 1911, when he entered Berlin’s prestigious Royal Academy of Music. A versatile musician, Arthur Fiedler was hired by the BSO as a violinist in 1915 but switched to the viola section in 1918. He was also frequently seen playing the piano, celeste, organ, and various percussion instruments. In 1930, Arthur Fiedler was appointed the 18th conductor of the Boston Pops. Fiedler’s success was immediate. His dashing good looks and personal charisma helped. But it was his genius for programming and self promotion, his tireless energy, and his colorful personality that propelled him and the Pops to worldwide fame over the next five decades.

Fielder shaped the orchestra’s personality during his tenure, compiling shows with lighter classical music, popular music, Broadway show tunes, and novelty songs. Fiedler often said, “We play all kinds of music, except the boring kind." John Williams took over from Fiedler when he passed. In Williams' tenure, 1980-1993, the television production side increased because of Williams' willingness to make allowance for a production stage in front of the orchestra and his understanding of the importance of lighting. Keith Lockhart took over in 1995 after Williams stepped down. “Evening at Pops” discontinued in 2005, after four Primetime Emmy Awards nominations and one Peabody Award in 1971. The Boston Pops Orchestra and Lockhart continue to perform and tour.

BOSTON POPS ORCHESTRA

Adolf Neuendorff conducted the first Promenade concert on July 11, 1885. The "Promenade Concerts" were distinguished from “Popular Concerts” in the following ways: auditorium concert seating was removed and replaced with tables and chairs; food and beverages were served; and the concert program was divided into three parts with two intermissions. While the new format of these concerts stuck, the term “promenade” did not. For the rest of the 19th century, while officially called “Promenade” concerts, they continued to be referred to informally as the "Popular" concerts. Eventually “Popular” was shortened to "Pops"— the name officially adopted in 1900. There were seventeen Pops conductors, beginning with the German Adolf Neuendorff before the establishment of the modern-era Pops by Arthur Fiedler—the first American-born musician to lead the orchestra— who, in his nearly 50-year tenure as Pops Conductor (1930-1979) established the Boston Pops as a national icon. Beginning with Arthur Fiedler and continuing through the innovations introduced by John Williams and the new-millennium Pops spearheaded by Keith Lockhart., the Boston Pops has become affectionately known as "America's Orchestra"— the most recorded orchestra in the country.

POPS BROADCASTING HISTORY

In the spring of 1926, WEEI was the first radio station to air a series of nine Saturday-night concerts, greatly expanding the audience. Over the next thirty years, broadcasts of Pops concerts could be heard on WBZ, NBC’s Blue Network, ABC, and their affiliates. Boston’s public radio station WGBH began broadcasting the Pops concerts in the spring of 1952, and in 1958 the classical commercial station WCRB began carrying the concerts. Starting in 1970, the television program Evening at Pops, a joint production of WGBH-TV and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, made the Boston Pops a familiar and welcome visitor to households all over the U.S. and even beyond its borders. The Emmy Award-winning show continued on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network until 2005. In more recent years, millions of viewers have enjoyed Holiday Pops television specials and the Pops Fourth of July Spectacular on local, cable, and national network stations.