Sometime in the '60's:
Concert with Theodore Bikel at some large auditorium near Hartford, CT.
(opening act~a bright new-comer, a Ms. Judy Collins.)
Promptly at eight o'clock, Ms. Collins came on stage, took her place behind two microphones, murmured a few words of welcome and then started playing a song about whaling ships, sailors, a terrible storm or some such, my memory of the exact song had dimmed.
What has not dimmed is what happened next:
Midway through the third verse, four people came down one of the aisles without an usher, proceeded to find their row, began sliding in toward the middle of it while rather loudly discussing whether they had seats 20 through 23 or 22 through whatever....
People were shushing them.
They started to get into an argument with someone in the row about whether one occupied seat was one of the ones they had tickets for. . . . .
At that point, the house light came up and Theodore Bikel walked out on stage.
Ms. Collins stopped singing.
There was a hush.
Two of the idiots were still standing.
Bikel walked over to Ms. Collins, took one of the microphone out of the stands and said
"Good evening, Thank you for coming. We are going to begin again in a moment, but first .., he pointed out at the audience and the latecomers.,"you, you, you and you, have to leave. Your tickets will be refunded."
One of the women latecomers began to protest but she was drowned out by a huge round of applause and cheers which went on until the four had exited the aisle, gathered themselves and gone up the aisle.
Bikel replaced the microphone.
Ms. Collins adjusted it a bit and checked the tuning on her guitar.
I seem to remember Bikel blowing her a little kiss.
The house lights dimmed.
And she started playing just as she had some minutes before.
Joe(the place was glowing)Nation
