Lou Adler didn’t say much at the opening reception for the new Grammy Museum exhibit on the Roxy Theatre, the intimate rock club he co-founded 50 years ago this week. When you’re the King of the Sunset Strip you don’t have to.
Adler, 89, was easy to spot in the crowd that turned out Sunday to celebrate and see and “The Roxy: 50 and Still Kickin’” at the museum in downtown Los Angeles. In a black beanie, yellow jacket, black-and-yellow pajama-like pants, and yellow Crocs, he was impossible to miss.
Friends greeted him warmly. Strangers asked to take selfies. Through it all, Adler smiled, taking in the surroundings – the photographs of legendary stars on stage, backstage, upstairs at the On the Rox private club – that covered the walls of the museum gallery.
“He’s a man of few words and great impact,” said musician Cisco Adler, the second of Adler’s seven sons, in a film on the history of the Roxy that screens on loop on one gallery wall.
And he doesn’t miss a thing.
“He’s also a guy who at his age, still cares about the font on the napkin,” Cisco Adler continued. “And will be up all night thinking about this font or that font.”
The photographs make up the bulk of the exhibit, and 10 or more of the photographers who shot them were at the opening on Sunday, Sept. 17.
Joel Bernstein shot opening night, Sept. 20, 1973, when Neil Young kicked off the first of six shows over three days at the brand-new Roxy on the Sunset Strip. His images depict not just Young and his band in performance, but scenes backstage – guitarist Nils Lofgren in a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt, drinking from two bottles of tequila at the same time – and out front – Elton John stepping out of a car to greet David Geffen on the sidewalk.
Different sections show various aspects of the Roxy. The classic artists who have played the venue included images of Linda Ronstadt with her friends in Little Feat outside the club before her 1973 shows, Peter Gabriel…
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