The Mellotron Group

That was the Electric Theater AKA The Kinetic Playground,  owned by Aaron Russo, 
who later was Bette Midlers manager. This was the old Michael Todd theater. The 
seats were taken out, floor leveled, and theater screens were placed from 
ceiling to 8 feet off the floor creating a circular room. A projection booth 
called the eye was installed in the center of the ceiling (accessed from the 
floor above) which projected a Filmore type lightshow around the entire room. 
The stage sat against one wall. Nefarious activity as the cause of the fire was 
the rumor at the time.

I hung out there...saw all sorts of shows....Jeff Beck with Rod Stewart singing, 
Jefferson Airplane, Zep (first Chicago performance), Iron Butterfly, T Rex on 
and on and on.........

When it burned all the activity moved two blocks east to the Aragon Ballroom 
where I worked for a year.  




________________________________
From: Rick Blechta <rick@rickblechta.com>
To: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, July 27, 2010 9:50:55 AM
Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] mkII

  


On Jul 27, 2010, at 10:25 AM, djacques@csulb. edu wrote:

When I saw King Crimson in 1969 the Poseidon tron was on stage. I remember those 
metal handles on the side.
>According to Ian McDonald, they actually wound up with THREE on that tour. When 
>Crimson appeared at Electric Playground (I believe) in Chicago, there was a 
>suspicious overnight fire of unknown origin, and one of the MkIIs (or possibly 
>both) got an unexpected bath. They managed to dry it out with hair dryers, but 
>another was hastily dispatched from the UK in case it was needed. Ian thinks 
>this is the MkII that eventually wound up in the hands of Genesis. 
>

S'truth!

Rick