UNICEF Benefit - Circus

More from UNICEF concert

January 10, NBC broadcast a rock & roll music special from the United Nations building in New York. Created by the Bee Gees and David Frost (who hosted the show) and entitled A Gift of Song, the program was over a year in the planning. It almost didn't get on the air.

By 8 a.m. that morning, recalls producer-director Marty Pasetta, we'd only edited a minute and a half of the show. Because of equipment breakdown, Pasetta didn't finish the final edit until 4:30 p.m., just four hours before air time.

NBC had a movie ready to go in case we didn't make it, Pasetta frowns. We started editing at 11 the night before, as soon as the audience had gone home.

Despite the performances seen by an estimated world audience of 70 million songs by the Bee Gees, Andy Gibb, Donna Summer, Olivia Newton-John, Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge, John Denver, Earth, Wind & Fire and ABBA - about half the program was cut.

We ran 22 minutes long in the taping, Pasetta notes, so a lot was left out. Home viewers will never get to see Cat Stevens's introduction, Donna Summer's duet with Olivia, Rod Stewart singing Me and Bobby McGee with Kris, John Denver's speech about his adopted children, and Henry Winkler's clowning with Rod Stewart.

It's cruel to have to eliminate those moments, says Pasetta, but this wasn't editing to save a performer from embarrassment; it was that we only had 90 minutes.

It took several weeks of all-day work to convert the 1,700-seat General Assembly into a concert hall. But by Monday morning, when the superstars filed in for their first 10 a.m. rehearsal call, Pasetta and his crew were ready for them.

On other TV specials, performers are generally kept isolated in their dressing rooms, but here they were thrown together in a backstage area that was very open, given some food and drink, so they all got talking amongst themselves. Sandwiches (ham, cheese, chicken salad) and soft drinks were served in a continuous round from the U.N. commissary.

Despite the coffee-and-danish informality, the performers were in awe of their surroundings. I was frightened at first, Gilda Radner told Circus Weekly. I never thought I'd be performing at the United Nations.

The U.N. has never done anything like this before, said Pasetta (whose credits include seven years of Academy Award telecasts, as well as the original Smothers Brothers show). It's always been stodgy things like string quartets and symphonies; they probably didn't know what they were getting into this time.

Even though they seemed a bit daunted by their environment, some of the talent still made their super-presence known. Dressing rooms consisted of curtains hung on poles in a second-floor corridor. There's hardly room to turn around, complained Donna Summer. Rod Stewart was late for one rehearsal and, unlike the subdued dress of the others, Rod showed up every where in outrageous red tights, tan socks and boots.

Olivia Newton-John brought her own hairdresser and costume designer, John Denver stood aloof and alone almost all the time (followed closely by his 250-pound bodyguard) while Andy Gibb bounced around and signed autographs for everyone.

Henry Winkler, sitting at the Central African Empire desk during the dress rehearsal on Tuesday, told a bystander: I don't think I should sign (this autograph) in front of all these people; I'll sign it for you later backstage. When the fan persisted, Winkler turned to a companion and asked, Am I talking English?

During the taping itself, Rod Stewart's group Gary Grainger, Carmine Appice, Phil Chen, Bill Peek and Jim Cregan - relaxed with ABBA in the lounge. ABBA's blonde Agnetha Faltskog sat with her 13-year old daughter Lise-Lotte, who was coolly unfazed throughout the proceedings.

Some criticism was leveled at Rod Stewart in the New York press since the song he donated - Maggie May - is an old one and not likely to yield much revenue. The Bee Gees donated their latest number-one single, Too Much Heaven. ABBA's song, Chiquita, was so new the group had stayed up most of the night before polishing the lyrics.

Behind the scenes and prior to the taping, Bee Gee producer Albhy Galuten worked furiously after a last-minute change replaced the finale number, Joy to the World with Put a Little Love in Your Heart.

Writing the arrangement was no problem, said Galuten. The problem was in the hall, which has a slap-back echo. The musicians were 30 feet from Maurice and they couldn't hear his vocal.

Amidst the controlled tension of the taping, only Gilda and Henry Fonda seemed untouched (she looked like a middle-class college girl and he like a misplaced, beardless Abe Lincoln). I rode here in the limousine with Fonda and Winkler, said Gilda. We talked about starting our own rock group. We were going to call it Henry, Gilda and Henry..