Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland (1995)

This story originally appeared in the Asbury Park Press on Sept. 2, 1995.

Hours before the $92 million Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum was unveiled to the world yesterday afternoon in Cleveland, the facility’s director of education, Bob Santelli, was worried about a box.

That box — containing gobs of the press and promotional material distributed to the 1,500 journalists here — itself might someday prove a worthy addition to the Hall of Fame museum.

Directing his son, Jake, to gather up more fliers and news releases while mobilizing staffers to search for the lost box, Santelli kept his cool — no small feat, considering he’d already been conducting Hall of Fame business since 6 a.m. and the noontime ribbon-cutting ceremony, featuring notables such as Little Richard, Yoko Ono and Ben E. King, was still three hours away.

“I know now what it’s like to be on the other side of the microphone,” said a beleaguered but smiling Santelli, who spent years writing about rock for the Asbury Park Press and teaching the music’s history at Monmouth College before accepting a position with the Hall of Fame.

Museum officials yesterday were focused on the VIP opening ceremony — the public gets its first look inside the museum today — and pulling off tonight’s gargantuan concert, featuring a reunion of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and Jerry Lee Lewis, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. The five-hour concert is scheduled to air live on HBO at 7:30 tonight.

According to drummer Max Weinberg, Springsteen’s reunited E Street Band drew the honor of backing two rock legends: Lewis and Chuck Berry.

“Doing the sound check felt like the old days again,” said Weinberg, who noted the group likely would play “Great Balls of Fire” and a “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On” with Lewis.

“Playing with Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry … I can’t believe it,” Weinberg said.

As for Santelli, the bustle with the museum opening and concert has left his department in momentary limbo, leaving the ex-Westfield resident free to field questions from the media.

“My job right now is to be a spokesperson for the museum … and if I didn’t do 50 interviews yesterday, I didn’t do any,” he said, stopping for a few moments to speak with a writer from The Washington Post.

“My colleagues ask, `How can you be so nice to these journalists?’ But I know what they’re going through, so it’s no problem.”

Yesterday’s events — the opening salvo of a two-day party celebrating the landmark rock and roll museum’s opening — gave Santelli plenty to talk about.

Thousands of onlookers crowded into the sprawling concrete plaza in front of the 150,000-square-foot museum for a noontime celebration that included a 90-minute parade and speeches from Yoko Ono and Atlantic Records CEO (and Hall of Fame trustees co-chairman) Ahmet Ertegun.

“I think John would have loved this,” said an enthusiastic Ono of her husband, deceased Beatle John Lennon.

Ironically chosen to speak for all the musicians honored in the museum, Ono — who herself never earned much of a reputation as a performer — spoke of encouraging her hipster European friends to frequent Cleveland now that the museum is in town.

“I feel very proud and happy that we have this museum to call home,” she added. “I think John would have loved the fact that (his artifacts) are in here and not in my closet.”

The opening ceremonies proved a surreal mix of buttoned-down corporate back-slapping and rebellious rock ‘n’ roll spirit, from the public officials who placed hands over their hearts during the playback of Jimi Hendrix’s raucous “Star-Spangled Banner” to streaking Harrier jets from the U.S. Marine Corps that occasionally disrupted the self-congratulatory speeches.

Several dozen VIPs looked on from a spacious dais erected in the plaza, providing seats for Ono, Ertegun, Little Richard, “Late Show With David Letterman” bandleader Paul Shaffer, former Supremes member Mary Wilson and Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner.

“Tell the world … we did it,” exclaimed a jubilant Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White, sounding a little like he couldn’t believe it himself.

“Today, we’re showing the world we’ve got what it takes and we’re doing it.”

The public got a free sneak preview of the spacious lobbies inside the futuristic museum space, in preparation for the first full day of museum operation — scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. today.

Billy Smith, former owner of the Asbury Park Rock and Roll Museum, watched the ribbon-cutting with his wife, Ruth, from a special seating section reserved for museum contributors and supporters.

Though Smith had donated items such as old concert posters and a rare autographed record to the museum’s Springsteen exhibit, he still had to pay for tickets to the exclusive gala dinner and tonight’s concert.

But one look at the Hall of Fame’s Springsteen display — with the tag line “from the Billy Smith Collection” inscribed nearby — convinced him it was all worth it.

“I’m thrilled to share my items with rock fans from around the world,” said Smith, who hoped New Jersey fans wouldn’t focus just on Springsteen-related exhibits. “We’re also here to honor people like Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, the true innovators.”

“It’s my goal in life, to get one thing in this museum,” added Cranford Township resident Marty Ventura, a friend of Smith’s who is holding onto a bit of memorabilia of his own: the marquee from Passaic’s Capitol Theater.

“It’s where Bruce did a great series of club shows before getting big enough to play larger places,” said Ventura, a diehard Jersey rock fan who also organizes fan club efforts for Southside Johnny guitarist Bobby Bandiera. “I’m hoping once Bruce gets inducted, they’ll want to take it.”

For Santelli, the museum’s kickoff weekend marks the real start of his work as education director.

Announcing a $150,000 educational grant from the Ford Motor Co. yesterday, he contemplated the facility’s upcoming focus on projects for his department, including a $500-per-plate fundraising dinner Sept. 30, a Hall of Fame version of the Back Porch Blues series he helped start in New Jersey, and a research library and media center, to open in September 1996.

“This will make us the hub of rock’n’roll education throughout the world,” an enthusiastic Santelli said. “So many times in education, you find yourself wondering where the money will come from. Now I have the funds to do all the stuff I’ve been talking about.”

The big concert

It’s been called the concert to end all rock concerts. Here’s the latest line on tonight’s Concert for the Hall of Fame at Cleveland Municipal Stadium:

WHO’S PLAYING: It’s a fluid lineup, but at press time performers included the Allman Brothers Band, Chuck Berry, Bon Jovi, Booker T. and the M.G.’s with G.E. Smith, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Johnny Cash, George Clinton, Melissa Etheridge, John Fogerty, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, The Kinks, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, John Mellencamp, Natalie Merchant, Iggy Pop, The Pretenders, Lou Reed, Robbie Robertson, Soul Asylum and Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart.

WHO’S NOT PLAYING: Soul legend James Brown, rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg and his producer/mentor Dr. Dre have dropped off the bill with no explanation. Annie Lennox, Alice In Chains and the Artist Formerly Known as Prince also will be no-shows.

HOT RUMORS: Bob Dylan and Neil Young are being touted by some museum executives as possible surprise guests. HBO executives say Bon Jovi would likely perform a Beatles song, modern rockers the Gin Blossoms were planning acoustic versions of Byrds and Beatles songs, someone would perform an Animals medley, and Jackson Browne would probably tackle a Bob Marley tune.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rock Hall opens in Cleveland, 1995