20 STORIES FOR 20 YEARS
Barry Lewis Goes Way Back
As the former executive editor of the Times Herald-Record and a longtime journalist covering Sullivan County, Barry Lewis has reported on Bethel Woods from before the groundbreaking, through the debut concert, and he’s continued to return through the years.
“In the early 2000s there was talk about casinos, and everybody had a scheme, but nothing ever developed. And so there was the malaise of Sullivan County.
Here comes Alan Gerry. You know: ‘local boy makes really good.’ When word came out that Alan Gerry had bought the property, it just changed the landscape. For so long, people won political races saying never again would there be a festival. Woodstock is romanticized now, but a lot of people in Sullivan County wanted that never to happen again.
When we heard it was being built, we got word in the newsroom that Alan had hired a world-famous architect. And it was like, wow—this is not only going to be big, he hired the best in the world. And then, not long after, we heard Alan let the architect go.
One of my most memorable conversations with Alan was asking him about that, and he said that the architect wanted to have water around the buildings, around the outside where the parking area would be. Alan asks him, ‘Where are people going to park?’ And he says, ‘Blast underneath. It'll be parking underground.’ And then, like a day or two later he tells folks, ‘Just pay the architect what we owe.’ Alan had a vision.
As it slowly started getting built, I remember visiting the bathroom. And I had never seen a bathroom as nice as these things. The copper fittings... this is unbelievable. He was able to bring almost an emotional revitalization. There was so much riding on, how was Bethel Woods going to turn out? Because there was nothing in the county. Nothing was getting built despite all these promises of all these developers. And he built it better than anyone could have expected.
At the opening 20 years ago, with the New York Philharmonic, the oohs and the ahhs of people as they passed by that copper roof, and at the pavilion... people were blown away. It was like nothing they had ever seen. There was such an emotional uplift that it's hard to put in perspective now.
I was there, a day or two before opening night in 2006, and I thought, is it going to get built in time? These workers were putting down the pavers, and there's a lot of bricks. And I asked one guy, ‘how will you finish the walkways in time?’ He said, ‘I was just told, keep going.’
That opening night...I think it was like 75, 78 degrees. Not a cloud in the sky. People got dressed up for this. You got the New York Philharmonic, the world's greatest orchestra. They played Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. And then at one point, The New York Philharmonic starts playing something, and it sounds vaguely familiar, but it's taking a while for people to figure out what it is. And then the entire orchestra puts on these dark sunglasses. And they’re playing Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Purple Haze.’
Since then, I’ve been to close to 100 shows at Bethel Woods, so it’s hard to pick a favorite, but a few definitely stand out. I still laugh when I think of Cyndi Lauper’s first appearance at Bethel Woods in 2008. She goes out into the audience, she comes to where I’m sitting and sort of straddles the seat and my face was in her chest. One of my reporters saw it on the big screen and says, ‘I think my editor’s face is in her chest.’ At another concert, Rod Stewart was kicking autographed soccer balls into the audience. I've been a Mets fan my entire life and I've never caught a baseball at Shea or CitiField, but I've got a Rod Stewart soccer ball.
Alan's relationship with the Borscht Belt resort era is so embedded. He was able to make that connection with Bethel Woods, fortunately through Robyn Gerry suggesting to her father, ‘We could do something with this,’ and for him having the vision. He could have cut corners on those bathrooms and the paving and the landscaping and people still would have gone to it.
And not only is he a great businessman, but really that visionary aspect is what makes Bethel Woods so special. To sit down with him and to walk the grounds with Alan, you can't help but admire someone who was able to think beyond the economics of Bethel Woods. He really wanted to make sure this was going to be talked about for generations.”