2003 Fall draft - Uwpiaa.org

y David Bliss Allen
Editor’s note: This is the first in a twopart
series on the musical heritage of
UWP.
The dozen songwriters who
contributed their songs to the
original Sing Out ’65 were longtime
friends and contemporaries. For the
previous ten to fifteen years they had
written full-length musical plays,
concert-like musical revues and
“special occasion” music – working
together or alone.
By August 1965, they sensed
they had combined the best of their
music in a promising musical review.
Yet none of them could foresee
that Sing Out ’65 was destined
within a year to become a runaway
“hit” on three continents, a critical
success that one New York music
reviewer called “one of the most
exciting musical reviews experienced
theater buffs have seen in decades.”
Nor did any of them dream that,
from its opening performance on
August 7 in a small Cape Cod town,
the show would be in continuous
production for the next 34 years,
making it perhaps one of the longest
running musical productions in the
U.S. and the world in the 20th
century.
The Sing Out Explosion
Sing Out took off like a rocket. In
three months, it traveled from Cape
Cod to the New York World’s Fair
where it performed to 20,000 people
– then to Washington, D.C., where
96 senators and congressmen hosted
a performance for 4,000 in the
Washington Hilton ballroom.
Crossing the country by train (the
“Sing Out Express”), the cast
performed in the Hollywood Bowl
for 15,000. Then came three national
television shows and the first
500,000-copy Sing Out album. This
was followed by a lightning trip to
Japan to perform in Japan’s traditional
Kabuki Theater – and then
before the prime minister of Japan
and a crowd of 12,000 in the Metropolitan
Gymnasium, then to Korea
to perform before the prime minister,
and more thousands.
In the course of the next 10
months, Sing Out grew from one
cast of 300 to three casts of more
UP BEAT
Up with People’s Musical Heritage ...
Sing Out’s Early Songwriters
From left: Ralph, Herbie, Steve and Paul
than 1,000. It crossed the United
States again and again, performing
in football stadiums, sports arenas,
civic auditoriums and universities,
and at the three U.S. military
academies. In 1966, it traveled to
Europe for mammoth live performances
and national TV shows in
Germany, Austria and Spain.
By the end of two years Sing
Out had toured to 17 countries on
five continents. An estimated 150
million people had seen their shows
live and over repeated national
television specials in many countries.
And what came to be known as “the
Sing Out explosion” was fully
underway.
Within the first year after “liftoff
” in Cape Cod, 150 regional Sing
Outs had sprung up from coast to
coast – and 100 more around the
world. Everyone, it seemed, was now
singing “Up with People” and the
Sing Out songs. During one record
week in September 1966, regional
Sing Outs across the U.S. performed
before 100,000 people. Worldwide,
there were eventually 400 local and
regional shows with an estimated
60,000 cast members. It was
Harambee Africa in Kenya, Sing-
Out Korea in Seoul, India Arise in
India, Sing-Out Venezuela, Sing-
Out Panama, Sing-Out Jamaica and
five casts of Sing-Out Puerto Rico
in Latin America. “Down under” it
was Sing-Out Australia. In Tokyo
Let’s Go ’66 was performing weekly
on national television. By late
August 1966, a Pennsylvania editor
told the Sing Out ’66 cast, “You are
on the verge of becoming one of the
world’s most powerful forces.”
This was the explosive beginning
of UWP in the 1960s. But who were
these original writers of the show?
And where did the inspiration, ideas
and the essential “magic “ of their
songs come from?
The Men and Their Music
Every “Uppie” alum knows the
names of Paul Colwell, and his
brothers Ralph and Steve – and the
“musical genius,” Herb Allen. The
four are near-legendary figures who
deserve the major credit for creating
and producing the music of UWP at
the beginning and through the years.
Like others in the remarkable
founding team of creative artists,
they developed their talents in the
years after World War II, writing
musical plays, revues and “special
occasion” music for Moral Re-
Armament – an organization that
was a powerful and effective force in
bringing reconciliation and the
concepts of “inspired democracy” to a
war-shattered world in the 1950’s
and 1960’s. MRA gave remarkable
hope and a purpose to thousands,
premised on the simple idea of
putting your own life right – and
then devoting your life to putting the
world right, to mending the wounds
and cares and divisions of the 20th
century. MRA was a significant
element in bringing reconciliation
between France and Germany after
the war, in uniting former enemies
all over the world, in helping to
rebuild the institutions of postwar
Japan. ... which explains why we first
find young Herb Allen putting his
musical training to work in warshattered
Italy in the early ’50s,
writing and singing songs in Communist
strongholds and industrial
suburbs of Milan.
The Colwells burst on the scene
in the mid-1950s, leaving behind a
promising career in Hollywood,
where they were recording for
Columbia Records and performing
on NBC’s weekly “Tex Williams
Show.” In the dozen years before
creating the music for UWP, they
traveled 174,000 miles to 37 different
countries on six continents. They
sang songs in 47 languages - Zulu,
Maharathi, Navajo, Japanese, Swahili
and Maori, to mention a few. They
performed before such world leaders
as President Eisenhower; Chancellors
Adenauer and Erhard of Germany,
Prime Ministers Kishi and
Sato of Japan; President Magsaysay
of the Phillipines; President Prasad
of India – all in all, a total of 27
heads of state, prime ministers and
presidents.
The “special occasion” music
they wrote was varied and eclectic –
songs for the important people they
were meeting, songs of hope and
inspiration for the world, songs for
entire countries. One of them, “Vive
le Congo,” became something of a
national anthem for the former
Belgian Congo as it gained independence
from Belgium. The Colwells
spent 14 dangerous months in the
often-violent country, giving 483
broadcasts over the national radio,
singing in many of the Congolese
languages. The minister of information
later said, “... without the work
of these men, there would have been
far worse catastrophe following
independence.”
Paul Colwell developed his
songwriting genius during these
adventurous years, singing before
kings, queens, presidents and ordinary
people. Years later, celebrated
cellist Pablo Casals spoke of the
“inspiration and delicacy” of the
music of UWP and asked, “Who is
your chief composer?” When told of
Paul Colwell, Casals said, “He is a
precious genius. Bach and Beethoven
would have loved his music.”
In the next issue: David Bliss
Allen explains the evolution of Sing
Out into UWP and pays tribute to the
people who contributed to its legacy.
10 fall ‘03