We Had Friends In High Places--Metro Government

Much like our Governors, Nashville Mayor Beverly Briley was an early and steadfast supporter of Sing-Out South.

Here he is above proclaming the week of November 6-11, 1967 as PACE Week in Nashville. You'll remember PACE was the magazine we sold at our shows along with other Sing-Out related materials. Those in the photo along with Mayor Briley include (left to right) Glenn Nave, presenting the Mayor the latest UWP album, Linda Short, Jerry Baker, with a copy of PACE Magazine in hand, and Glenn Nave's mother.

Here's some more of the promotion we did for PACE MAGAZINE Week in Nashville back in 1967. I am sure this was paid for by Tom Cummings, the owner of the sign company who hosted this outdoor board. He was a very generous supporter of Sing-Out, as was Mayor Briley.

In the photo above, the Mayor greets some cast members at the old Green Hills Shopping Center. Those I can identify are Bobby Johnston (back turned wearing the letter jacket), along with Tempe Marsh and Wanda Ricks.

The Mayor was a promoter of Sing-Out from the beginning. Another major sponsor of the orginal visit to Nashville by Sing-Out '66, he also came back to town early, leaving a session of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, so he could intoduce the original SOS cast at its premiere show at Hillsboro High School on Friday evening, March 25, 1966.

Later that year, when the city was taken over by a large convention of Shriners, he invited SOS to perform for them at the Municipal Auditorium downtown. It was one of our first performances since reforming SOS after the Estes Park conference.

The next spring in April, 1967, Mayor Briley showed his interest again in SOS by inviting the cast to perform at the city's annual State Of Metro Breakfast to celebrate the city's birtday as a combined Metropolitan government.

This is an event I have been involved with for many years, as a reporter and on-air TV analyst as well as a mayoral aide. I always take pride in remembering my first visit to the State Of Metro was as a performer in the SOS cast.

Another way Mayor Briley showed his support for Sing-Out was with transportation. I have mentioned before the 4 bus loads of SOS cast members (over 250 people total) who went to Cookeville to see Sing-Out '66 perform at Tennessee Tech University on February 27, 1966. According to an article in THE NASHVILLE BANNER (published the day before on February 26) Mayor Briley paid the cost of the buses out of his own pocket.

The Mayor also treated the national cast in style when they came to town. From the very first visit they made here in January, 1966, their buses, like the ones seen above, we met at the county line and escorted through the city by their own police motorcade. These motorcycle officers were known as "Newman's Raiders," named after their commander.

To say the least, the national cast members were impressed. In one BANNER article, dated March 29, 1966, then-cast member Glenn Close was quoted as saying: "Nashville is my second home. I literally fell in love with the people there. They're wonderful."

And the feeling seemed to be mutual, with the city taking great pride in how it treated the national cast.In fact when Sing-Out '66 was on tour in West Germany in the spring of 1966, THE BANNER ran a photo of their buses receving a police escort there with the caption:

"Germans Can't Match Newman's Raiders"