http://www.salon.com/2016/03/28/behi...o_make_a_deal/
“Focus,” says Andrea Zito (Annie Parisse) as she walks into the American Century Recordings conference room. “They’re playing Wollman next week.” There’s a bunch of grousing around the table at this pronouncement. “Yodeling fans rejoice,” Richie (Bobby Cannavale) observes sarcastically. They’re not wrong–it’s just this side of a novelty number, electric guitar, yodeling, a drum solo, lots of organ, and even some flute–but Andrea is also dead on when she points out, “That ‘Hocus Pocus’ is hanging on just south of 40.” The song would actually reach #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stay on the charts for 19 weeks.
New Yorkers of a certain age will understand that “Wollman” means the Wollman Rink, an ice skating rink in Central Park that in the summertime was home for the Schaefer Music Festival (later the Dr. Pepper Music Festival), one of the greatest live music bargains ever. In 1973, floor seats were $2 and “balcony” seats (really just bleachers on a promenade above the rink) were $1.50. The lineups were amazing, the venue was general admission, and you were surrounded by the park and the skyline. If you didn’t want to pay, you could sit on the rocks just adjacent to the rink and hear pretty well. And, yes, Focus did play Wollman Rink in August of 1973, with Livingston Taylor as the opening act.
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