David Ruffin at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival

[citystars]

For those who may not have known, David and other entertainers performed at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. The event ran from June - August, 1969.  It morphed into Harlem Week.  For those who are history buffs, below is a copy of the actual concert poster showing the names of David and the other performers. (If this was posted before, sorry for the redundancy.)


 The festival became known as the 'Black Woodstock', however it actually began before Woodstock.  This concert was supposedly videotaped. For those who are interested, there is some concert footage on you.tube of some of the performances. But, I don't think there is any of David currently posted.  

I have never seen any of David's footage,  but I have seen a photo of David performing at this concert. The audience was huge and everyone looked like they were having fun.

David stayed making musical history!


Citystars

[rufferino]

Wow, this is great. To have seen all those performers, for free!
Interesting to see Fifth Dimension on the bill...I sort of had this thought that it might have been
an interesting pairing for Marilyn and David to sing together. They both have very distinctive sounding voices,
and strong delivery. Thanks for this, Citystars.

[citystars]

Rufferino,

You're welcome. If you get a chance, check out the YouTube video of Nina Simone and Sly Stone that was taped at this event. The footage is awesome.

Hopefully, the video of David's show and the rest of the event was preserved.  If so, I wonder where it is, who has it and will it ever be released?

Citystars

[Brandy]

this is pretty cool!!! I wish they had footage of him performing at the festival I for one would love to have seen it

[dc]

I dunno if anyone has read this article. There is an article about the concert.Evidently David killed according to the article.


news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2205&dat=19690729&id=JIYlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_fQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3044,585699

[rufferino]

I finally got some time to scroll through this article and find the part about DR.
It is on Page 6. You have to scroll or arrow over and down, to find it. But the whole page is full of interesting stuff about the stars of the day. Here's a teaser: "When handsome David Ruffin sang his hit song, 'My Whole World Ended', two dozen policemen...............

Click on the article to read the rest!!

[citystars]

DC,

Thanks for posting the info.


Rufferino,

I smiled when I read that sentence about David.


Citystars