Wattstax
| Wattstax | |
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Theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Mel Stuart |
| Produced by | Larry Shaw Mel Stuart |
| Starring |
The Staples Singers Richard Pryor Carla Thomas Rufus Thomas Luther Ingram Kim Weston Johnnie Taylor The Bar-Kays Isaac Hayes Albert King Ted Lange |
| Cinematography | John A. Alonzo |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures (1973, theatrical), Warner Bros. (2004, DVD) |
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Release date
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Running time
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103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1,560,000 (rentals) |
Wattstax was a benefit concert organized by Stax Records to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the 1965 riots in the African-American community of Watts, Los Angeles. The concert took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 20, 1972. The concert's performers included all of Stax's prominent artists at the time. The genres of the songs performed included soul, gospel, blues, funk, and jazz. Months after the festival, Stax released a double LP of the concert's highlights titled Wattstax: The Living Word. The concert was filmed by David L. Wolper's film crew and was made into the 1973 film titled, Wattstax. The film was directed by Mel Stuart and nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Documentary Film in 1974.
Stax Record's West Coast Director, Forrest Hamilton, came up with the whole concert idea. Being in L.A. during the Watts Riots, Hamilton later became aware of the yearly Watts Summer Festival that commemorated the broken community of Watts, California. Hamilton contacted Stax Records and told them about having a benefit-concert for the 7th Watts Summer Festival. At first, Stax was not so sure on putting together a small concert, with big stars, for a small community such as Watts. Tommy Jacquette, the founder of the Watts Summer Festival, was contacted about the festival idea. With Jacquette being supportive, the concert idea was slowly developing into something big. Al Bell, who was very involved planning the concert, decided that if the festival was going to be as big as he imagines, the festival cannot just be held at a small park in Watts. It had to be held in somewhere big—like the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. A team of several Stax directors, including Jacquette, contacted the L.A. Coliseum to schedule a meeting. When the meeting took place, the managers at the Coliseum were not so convinced that "a small record company from Memphis can fill up the whole stadium". This was an expensive risk the Stax team was taking.
Stax picked a date, which was Isaac Hayes's birthday and also a few days after the 7th anniversary of the Watts Riots. Stax could now print advertisements saying in bold letters: "JOIN US AT THE BIGGEST RECORDING SESSION EVER... IN THE MAKING OF THE GREATEST SOUL ALBUM EVER! WATTSTAX '72 BENEFIT CONCERT." The name of the concert was formed to include "Watts", as in the neighbourhood, and "Stax", the name of the record company putting the show together. As more and more word got out about this big benefit concert, more tickets were being sold. All seats were reserved and only priced at $1.00. Stax wanted to make it possible for anyone to attend, so they made ticket prices cheap. As more and more money was coming in, Al Bell was becoming less and less regretful about putting on the production. The L.A. Coliseum managers could not wait to see what would happen on August 20 at 3:00 p.m. at their stadium.
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