... in 1969 ere liars and lovers, prophets and profiteers. They made love, they made money and they made a little history. Arnold Skolnick, the artist ho designed oodstocks dove-and-guitar symbol, described it this ay Something as tapped, a nerve, in this country. And everybody just came.The countercultures biggest bash - it ultimately cost more than 2.4 million - as sponsored by four very different, and very young, men John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld and Michael Lang. The oldest of the four as 26. John Roberts supplied the money. He as heir to a drugstore and toothpaste manufacturing fortune. He had a multimillion-dollar trust fund, a University of Pennsylvania degree and a lieutenants commission in the Army. He had seen exactly one rock concert, by the Beach Boys.Roberts slightly hipper friend, Joel Rosenman, the son of a prominent Long Island orthodontist, had just graduated from Yale La School. In 1967, the mustachioed Rosenman, 24, as playing guitar for a lounge band in motels from Long Island to Las Vegas.Roberts and Rosenman met on a golf course in the fall of 1966. By inter 1967, they shared an apartment and ere trying to figure out hat they ought to do ith the rest of their lives. They had one idea to create a screball situation comedy for television, kind of like a male version of I Love Lucy.It as an office comedy about to pals ith more money than brains and a thirst for adventure. Rosenman said. Every eek they ould get into a different business venture in some nutty scheme. And every eek they ould be rescued in the nick of time from their fate.To get plot ideas for their sitcom, Roberts and Rosenman put a classified ad in the all Street Journal and The Ne York Times in March 1968 Young Men ith Unlimited Capital looking for interesting, legitimate investment opportunities and business propositions. They got thousands of replies, including one for biodegradable golf balls. Another seemed strange enough to ork as a real business venture Ski-bobs, bicycles on skis that ere a fad in Europe. Roberts and Rosenman researched the idea before abandoning it. In the process, the to ent from ould-be television riters to anna-be venture capitalists. Someho, e became the characters in our on sho, Rosenman said.Artie Kornfield, 25, ore a suit, but the lapels ere a little ide and his hair brushed the top of his ears. He as a vice president at Capitol Records. He smoked hash in the office and as the companys connection ith the rockers ho ere starting to sell millions of records. Kornfeld had ritten maybe 30 hit singles, among them Dead Mans Curve, recorded by Jan and Dean. He also rote songs and produced the music for the Cosills.Michael Lang didnt ear shoes very often. Friends described him as a cosmic pixie, ith a head full of curly black hair that bounced to his shoulders. At 23, he oned hat may have been the first head shop in the state of Florida. In 1968, Lang had produced one of the biggest rock shos ever, the to-day Miami PopFestival, hich dre 40,000 people. At 24, Lang as the manager of a rock group called Train, hich he anted to sign to a record deal. He bought his proposal to Kornfeld at Capitol Records in late December 1968.Lang kne Kornfeld had gron up in Bensonhurst, Queens, like he had. Lang got an appointment by telling the record companys receptionist that he as from the neighborhood. The to hit it off immediately. Not long after they met, Lang moved in ith Kornfeld and his ife, Linda. The three had rambling, all-night conversations, fueled by a fe joints, in their Ne York City apartment.One of their ideas as for a cultural expositionrock concertextravaganza. Another as for a recording studio, to be tucked off in the oods more than 100 miles from Manhattan in a ton called oodstock. The location ould reflect the back-to-the-land spirit of the counterculture. Besides, the Ulster County ton had been an artists mecca for a century. By the late 1960s, musicians like Bob Dylan, The Band, Tim Hardin, Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin ere moving to the area and anted a state-of-the-art studio.Lang and Kornfeld ere searching for seed money for the festival and money to build the recording studio. They never sa the young men ith unlimited capital ad, but their layer recommended they talk to Roberts and Rosenman. The four met in February 1969. e met ith them in their apartment on 83rd Street in a high-rise, Lang recalls. They ere kind of preppy. Today, I guess theyd be yuppies. They ere earing suits. Artie did most of the talking, because I think they seemed puzzled by me. They ere curious about the counterculture, and they ere somehat interested in the project. They anted a ritten proposal, hich e had but e didnt bring ith us. e told them that e ould meet again ith a budget for the festival.To this day, the founders of oodstock disagree on ho came up ith the original idea for the concert. And, dulled by time, competition and countess retelling, no one recollection is consistent. Lang and Kornfeld say oodstock as alays planned as the largest music festival ever held. At the second meeting, Lang recalls discussing a budget of 500,000 and attendance of 100,000. Lang said he had started looking at festival sites in the fall of 1968, hich ould have been ell before hed hooked up ith Kornfeld or Roberts and Rosenman. But Rosenman and Roberts maintain that they ere the driving force behind the festival. As Rosenman and Roberts recall it, Kornfeld and Lang primarily anted a studio, hyped by a party for rocknroll critics and record company executives. e ould have cocktails and canapes in a tent or something, Rosenman said. ed send limos don to Ne York to pick everyone up. Tim Hardin or someone could sing. Maybe, if e ere lucky, Joan Baez ould get up and do a couple of songs.At some point, Rosenman and Roberts focused on the party idea and decided that it really ought to be a rock concert. e made a deal, Rosenman said. ed have the party, and the profits from the party ould be used to pay for the recording studio. Ultimately, e had the money, so hat e said ent.By the end of their third meeting, the little party up in oodstock had snoballed into a bucolic concert for 50,000 people, the orlds biggest rocknroll sho. The four partners formed a corporation in March. Each held 25 percent. The company as called oodstock Ventures, Inc., after the hip little Ulster County ton here Dylan lived.The oodstock Ventures team scurried to find a site. Real estate agents across the mid-Hudson ere scouring the countryside for land to rent for just a fe months. Feelers ent out in Rockland County, then in Orange. For 10,000, oodstock Ventures had leased a tract of land in the Ton of allkill oned by Hoard Mills, Jr. It as a Sunday in late March, Rosenman said. e drove up to allkill and sa the industrial park. e talked to Hoard Mills and e made a deal. The vibes erent right there. It as an industrial park,Roberts interjected. I just said, e gotta have a site no.The 300-acre Mills In...
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