David Bieber - Founder Of David Bieber Archives On Pop Culture & Radio

David Bieber, a leading authority on pop culture and the founder of the David Bieber Archives, discusses the world’s largest collection of pop culture media and memorabilia and his long career in radio and music.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Welcome back to What's at Risk.I'm Mike Christian. Save the Stuff you
love is the de facto mantra ofthe David Bieber Archives, and that's what
David has been doing his whole life. Now, after many years in storage,
the always growing collection, a vaststockpile of media, music, film,

(00:28):
and pop culture artifacts, is finallyseeing the light of day. The
Archives has the goods preserving more thantwo million pieces of memorabilia, including vinyl
albums, forty five CDs, cassettes, eight tracks, DVDs, comics,
posters, books, magazines, newspapers, artwork, toys and games and miscellaneous

(00:53):
stuff from early twentieth century to presentday vintage to modern common to ultra rare.
There's nothing quite like it. AsDavid puts it, the collection is
meant to represent a cultural moment thatactually existed in time, and for the
most part, was discarded. Ittells the story of what has happened.

(01:15):
Just very privileged to have David Bieberhere. And I had the opportunity a
couple of weeks ago to visit theDavid Baber Archives and I was blown away.
Would be the phrase that I woulduse. So, David, thank
you so much for joining us.I'm looking forward to this conversation today.
Maybe just to get started, youcan tell our listeners a little bit about

(01:37):
your background and how you became sofocused on pop culture and music. Well,
I've been in Boston since the latenineteen sixties. I came here to
go to graduate school Boston University.I was a journalism major. I got
my degree writing a thesis based onthe underground culture, whether it was underground
press, underground radio, underground film, and the influence that it had on

(02:00):
traditional media. I grew up inCleveland. I went to an undergraduate school
at Miami University of Ohio and thentransferred to Kent where they had a journalism
department, and current to going toschool, I was writing for the student
newspaper. I was also a billboardmagazine and campus correspondent, and that allowed
me to conduct interviews and get upclose and personal with everyone from Lewis Armstrong,

(02:27):
Johnny Mathis, the Temptations, JohnnyCarson, Ray Charles, you name
it, anyone who came to northernOhio. I was talking to and probably
one of my favorite connections that Imade in a backstage of a Masonic temple
in Cleveland on a cold November night, was interviewing the Velvet Underground. So
I've always been immersed in this.I've always been a collector, you know,

(02:51):
much akin to many children who growup surrounded by stamp collections, coin
collections, comic books, baseball cards. For me, the first opportunity to
collect was when I was four yearsold. The family trip was going from
Cleveland to Montgomery, Alabama, wheremy parents had friends, and as we

(03:12):
stopped at gas stations along the way, I would dip my hand into the
soda machine bottle openers self contained inthe machine. I would reach in grab
the soda bottle caps because they hadregional brands in those days, and I
would look at the designs and thecolors of these bottle caps and was infatuated
because I had never seen them inCleveland. So that became probably my first

(03:36):
collection, followed by marbles and baseballcards and comics and everything else. You
were in the Boston music scene fora long time. Before we start talking
about the archives, I just wantto talk to you a little bit about
music because you were so connected inthe music scene and you worked at various
stations, WFNX and WBUR but you'dworked at the iconic station here in Boston.

(03:58):
WBCN N was so well known aroundthe country, and I didn't grow
up in Boston, but I certainlyknew of BCN. What was that like?
What did you do there? Forone thing? And then what was
that like being part of that amazingiconic station. I was the Creative Services
director of WBCN from nineteen seventy eightuntil nineteen ninety four, and that entailed

(04:21):
being, in some respects doing independentprojects such as producing TV commercials, doing
all the print advertising, working withall the record companies and the movie companies
and the book publishers to create promotions, giveaways, exotic trips, and significant

(04:41):
contests. So I worked there,had a wonderful time for the duration.
It was really the second halcyon periodof WBCN, the first being starting March
fifteenth in nineteen sixty eight, Sothrough the math and fifty plus years ago,
I guess at this point WBCN launched, but it was always the celebration

(05:03):
of the IDEs of March. Andyou know, BCN had a great run
as an underground FM erindio station,one of the first group of stations around
the country that embraced that format.That period of great success and popularity in
Boston lasted probably from nineteen sixty eightuntil about nineteen seventy two or seventy three,

(05:24):
and then BCN started to kind oflose its way, and ultimately in
the mid seventies had challengers such asw COZ that kind of eclipsed and surpassed
WBCN. I joined in nineteen seventyeight as the Creative Services director, and
then in nineteen ninety four I kindof moved Crosstown. Had been a lifelong

(05:47):
adult friend of Stephen Mindich, whowas the owner and the publisher of about
a dozen companies under the umbrella ofthe Phoenix Media Communications Group, which included
the Boston Phoenix and other related alternativeweeklies. I was the director of special
Projects and watched with some degree ofInitially, you know, for the first

(06:09):
ten years is so great excitement.But then saw the Internet come along and
grab up so many advertising dollars,and you know, traditional media ran out
of steam. And in twenty twelveStephen Mindittz sold WFNX, and in twenty
thirteen he very abruptly shut down theMauston Phoenix, and I actually continue to
work with him as a friend forabout eight months in twenty thirteen to transfer

(06:34):
the archives of twelve related companies underthe Phoenix umbrella to Northeastern University, where
that now is a pivotal archival presencein the Urban Studies Department at Northeastern Snell
Library. So I've always been activelyinvolved in one form or another with the
media, but the building of thearchives has been largely at my own initiative.

(06:59):
And I was certainly the beneficiary ofso many great items from friends and
peers who worked for record companies andmovie companies and book publishers and you know,
everyone that I was encountering on theday job. You know, I
was happy to cash the check,but to me, almost of equal importance
and consequence were all the artifacts thatI could accumulate. I kept maybe my

(07:24):
favorite one percent of things in abig Victorian house in West Roxbury, but
everything else, you know, wasboxed up and trucked over to a warehouse
in Avon, mass And you know, it was kind of it was a
positive experience in the sense that mentallyI knew I had preserved and saved all
the things that came my way.Of course, the frustration was that I

(07:46):
couldn't put my hands on it.I kept feeding the beast, and of
course people all along the way weresaying, what are you doing? What's
the purpose? You know, whyare you doing this? And I didn't
really have significant answer, because youknow, I would certainly be available if
somebody was doing an article, forexample, on the Boston the Old Club,
the Boston Tea Party. I hadposters and I'd be glad to give

(08:09):
it to Like if Jim Sullivan atthe Globe was writing a piece, then
I'd say, hey, just takethe posters, use them for the graphic
accompaniment to the article. Just giveme a little credit on the side.
David Bieber Archives. Very fortuitously,a friend of mine, Peter Gold,
stumbled upon this place at the NorwoodSpace Center, which we actually named and
we did marketing for as a greatguy David Dupree, who is one of

(08:31):
the owners, and you know he'sused us to do decorative installations. We've
done media and marketing for the NorwoodSpace Center, and in fact we named
it because it was originally going tobe called eighty three More Street, which
is the address. So because itwas such volumeous space, we gave it
the Norwood Space Center name, andwe've decorated it with the various ephemera and

(08:56):
blow ups and items that relate toboth outer space and innerspace. So it's
been a great ride. I camehere as kind of an anchor tenant.
So during a week about six yearsago, twelve and a half tractor trailers
from Mark Silverman's moving company pulled upto building too and unloaded everything. And

(09:16):
then six months later, when thisspace became available, we handcarried about eighty
five hundred boxes up the stairs tothe second floor. Now there is a
lift in this building, but it'snever been activated. So you know,
everything we do is that old familiarguy manual labor. That must have been

(09:37):
quite a workout. We grow withsuch good shape, we grow muscles in
the old fashioned way. There yougo. When you started, when you
started collecting, and this is backin the seventies, did you have any
idea that what you collected would havevalue in the future. I've never been
in it for the money, althoughI do monitor the marketplace. I like

(10:00):
to know what prices are being achievedat auction. I think with the passage
of time, just about anything youknow achieves some value, if only because
people sometimes just yearn for things thatthey own and they want to buy back
their childhood, They want to buyback a significant moment in their lives.
And you can find just about anything. And in that respect, I say

(10:24):
just about anything, because I liketo connect the dots of not only the
culture, but the real world andthings that happened. I like to think
that the things that I have hereat the archives and the similar type of
examination of a moment in time.And you know, those moments in time
probably span about the one hundred andtwenty five years or more. But I

(10:46):
never know what I'm going to need. But back then in the seventies,
time had not passed significantly enough tocreate this kind of collectible mentality. Now
when you look at what has happened, you know, the explosion of cards
and just watching the fiscal acceleration thathas occurred in that category alone. So

(11:09):
in the late eighties, one ofthe well, it's turned out to be
the most coveted card, you know, even surpassing the famous Honus Wagner tobacco
card, is Mickey Mantle's Rookie card. The last time it had previously been
sold was in the late nineteen eightiesand it went for fifty thousand dollars.
Fast forward to last year and thatmental card, which granted is the finest

(11:31):
known example in the most mint condition, the most perfectly centered, that went
for twelve point six million dollars.Oh my gosh, that's a static.
And now you have concert posts thatare going for tens of thousands of dollars
and they are treated like works ofart because in their own way, they
did serve a functional purpose, butthey also had a design and a color

(11:54):
that was appropriate to the time.And the time has passed and before you
blink and it's fifty plus years later. Yeah, Now what you are passionate
about collecting and you have a fineappreciation for it, and you see that
it is reflective of the past culturesand so that and that's really value also

(12:15):
outside of monetary value. When didyou think about or start to pivot with
the archives and look at it moreas a business, because you do you
do use the archives now to generateto generate income, and you do use
it and you share what's there.When did you start to think about that
instead of just collecting, Well,you know it, it was really the

(12:39):
hand of God from the side ofthe stage, pushing me into the spotlight.
Well, when I mentioned Stephen Minditchbeing a lifelong friend and you know,
working with him to transfer all thePhoenix archives to Northeastern University, I
very unexpectedly got a phone call fromhim. I guess it was in January
of twenty fourteen, and he wasstill kind of acting like a boss,

(13:01):
and he said, Okay, ameeting has been set up with Steve Samuels.
He's a major developer in the Fenwayand elsewhere, and next Tuesday at
two o'clock, you'll be meeting withhim and me and a couple other people
about a project that Steve is lookingto develop. So be there. And
of course I went, because whenSteven says jump, you say how high?

(13:24):
And I met Steve Samuels for thefirst time I had heard of him,
and I heard not only he wasa significant developer, but he kind
of had a rock and roll heart, and that proved to be definitely true.
And what he had acquired was actuallybringing it all back home because WBCN
when I worked there was at twelvesixty five Boston, right around the corner

(13:45):
at one twenty six Brookline Ave wasthe Boston Phoenix, and what Steve Samuels
had acquired was twelve seventy one BostonStreet, the old Howard Johnson's Hotel.
And we've ascertained that everyone who stayedthere, from the Ramones to Tony Bennett
to Joe Strummer, but sadly there'sno check in a log guestbook that they

(14:09):
signed, but we know from photographicevidence that all those people and anymore were
there. The hotel had been kindof run down. Steve Samuels bought it.
He wanted to create what turned outto be the Verb Hotel, and
it was going to be a celebrationof music and media and pop culture that
came out of the Fenway and byextension, spilled over to Kenmore Square and

(14:33):
then the greater Basteria itself, andyou know, we were just kind of
making it up as we went along. We didn't have an actual floor plan
or you know, it was veryarbitrary, but we wanted to celebrate all
that had, you know, comeout of that neighborhood. And since I
don't sell anything, I worked outan arrangement with Steve for the lease of

(14:54):
my artifacts, and then I startedto bring box after box after box content.
So I basically took up the challengeof decorating and dressing the Verb Hotel
with only things from my house,which I had always kind of said,
that's the sacred stuff. I'm notgoing to put it out there. But
I did, and I'm really happythat I did, and the lightning speed

(15:16):
at which we put this together,like I think, the first meeting was
in February of twenty fourteen, andthe hotel opened in July of twenty fourteen,
and as I told Christia Millia,the general manager of the Verb Hotel,
a couple of days ago in theworld of hard to believe, in
July it will be the tenth anniversaryof the hotel. That was really the
first time that I utilized my collection, my artifacts for commercial purposes in a

(15:41):
major way, on a sustaining way, because after WFNX was sold and the
Phoenix shut down, I kind ofstarted questioning what am I going to do?
What's my next act going to be? And this happened very propitiously.
It was terrific, and of coursewhat it creates, you know, with
the lobby and the sixty linear footglass cabinet and the individual rooms dedicated to

(16:06):
Aerosmith and the Cars and various otherperformers. It's a ninety three room hotel
and the intent is to have everyroom dressed with a performer or a theme.
You know, it's very clean andit's very attractive. And what I
have found in working with not onlythe Verb, but Joe Spaulding at the
Wang with the Folk American and RootsHall of Fame, and Casey Swore at

(16:30):
the Cabin Theater in Beverly more recentlythe Cut in Gloucester and City Winery in
Boston, that when you have,you know, this kind of great content
and you're able to display it,you're giving the guests an added value experience.
You know, it's not just you'rethere for a concert or you're there

(16:52):
to stay in a hotel room.You're there for, you know, whatever
the entertainment is. You actually cansee some visual history that is sometimes related
to the specific act that's playing thevenue at the time, or just part
of our pop cultural history. Buthere at the Archives, it's a little
bit of this, a little bitof that, and it all ends up

(17:12):
to a kind of examination of ourworld as it is today or as it
was yesterday and I continue the pursuit. I haven't stopped. Yeah, that's
tremendous. Let's talk just briefly becauseI'm familiar with it. The Bach Folk
American Roots Music Hall of Fame thatit was a brainchild of Joe's Faulding,

(17:34):
as you mentioned, and really usesthe Wang Theater as a hall of fame
and there's exhibits around. It hassty to use the word museum, but
it's museum like in terms of theexhibits. What did you bring specifically to
the Wang that became part of thatHall of Fame exhibit? Well, the
first thing that happened was bringing Joe'sFalding, and then Joe and Mark Weld,

(17:57):
who's the chair of the board atthe Box Center, which embraces the
Wang Theater and the Schubert Theater,and they came up here and they just
saw the whole spectrum of content andwe started to examine what would be a
location to fulfill Joe's vision for aFolk Americana and Roots Hall of Fame.

(18:23):
And everyone was you know, wewent to Nashville, we looked at the
Country Music Hall of Fame. Wewere trying to get a handle on what
other people were doing and how thatmight be done in Boston, with the
focus being on what's now affectionately knownas Farhoff Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame.
And the light bulb went off overJones head. Hey, we don't

(18:47):
need to go acquire a building.We have a building, the Wang,
which is this beautiful architectural historical Nextyear, twenty twenty five, it's gonna
be one hundred anniversary of the Wang. It started nineteen twenty five is the
Metropolitan Center, and then it becamethe Music Hall, and then for a
brief time were running back to theMetropolitan Center, and then it became the

(19:07):
Wang. Basically, Joe said,we have all of the space, and
we started initially at the lower leveland created the Hall of Cultural Heroes,
created a space dedicated to display casesand wall decorations related to folk, American
and roots artists, both local,Boston based, New England and also national

(19:33):
and international. Everything from Pete Seversbanjo to photographs of New Edition is up
there on the third floor, andon the fourth floor is a history of
the building itself, starting with theMetropolitan Center and bringing it up to date
ninety nine years later. Now thereare several daytime tours that you can take

(19:55):
as a standalone, and it's alsoa factor in I mean, Joe's one
of his favorite phrases is the artsheel, and you know that's something that
was certainly impactful and important during COVID. But overall, I think that the
Wang in particular has become a greatshowplace for all arts and giving kids in

(20:18):
school an opportunity to take the tour, to go backstage, to see what
the green room is like, whatit's like to stand on the stage and
look out at the thirty five hundredor thirty six hundred seats, what would
feel like if you were a performer. It's very inspirational to be in this
majestic, beautiful building. And so'sthat's what I'm delighted to be involved with

(20:42):
because you know, in the springthere will be the first induction of the
Folk Americana and Roots Hall of Famemembers. What was in these boxes was
a lot of magical content. Youknow, a lot of people would come
up here in the first year orso and they say, well, this

(21:03):
is not what we expected. It'sjust a bunch of boxes. But as
Chuck White and Miriam Mock and Mockand you know, Joe Packard and lancelmo
began working with me to open upthese boxes, to send up systems of
retrieval to you know, get allthe items organized. You know, my
two basic methodologies are either chronological oralphabetical, and you can refine that and

(21:30):
you know, create some categories,and you know, everything is now getting
refined and you know, categorized.And when we're working on a project,
you don't have to go through thetwo million plus artifacts here to find what
you're looking for. You can goright right to a shelf. You can
go right to a box that hasthe appropriate content, extricate what you need,

(21:52):
and then put it out there infront of hopefully an adoring public.
Yeah, that's terrific. Well,listen, this has been terrific. I
have one last question for you.And I'm sure you've been asked many times.
What's your favorite artifact? What's thefavorite thing you have? And maybe
you have to give me the topthree, Maybe you can't just do one,
but what Yeah, yeah, Well, one that I absolutely love,

(22:18):
you know, goes back to whenI was at Miami of Ohio and I
had a girlfriend in Cincinnati and herbrothers were friends of mine as well,
and i'd hit shriked down to Cincinnatiand this was the first. Actually it's
hard to believe, but it wassixty years ago this year when the Beatles
first came to America. And I'veactually got a satin jacket from Capitol Records

(22:41):
where it says it was twenty yearsago today. So that was back in
nineteen eighty four. But so theand so, and this has been a
celebratory year. But in that period, back in February sixty four, I
was in downtown Cincinnati and there wasa record store had a window display celebrating

(23:02):
the release of the first Beatles album, and it had these moving heads that
were battery operated. So you know, the thing with the Beatles was,
you know, they would shake theirheads and the mop tops and their hair
would move up and down. Sothis was meant playing off of that aspect.
But it was the image of theof the Beatles and it was there
in the record store window. AndI walked in and I asked the person,

(23:23):
who I guess was the owner.I said, can I have that
when you're done with it? Thinkingthis is just going to be temporary ephemera,
and he said, actually you cantake it now because they I don't
know the difference, he said,but they said, there's a mistake with
this one, so they're sending meanother. It turned out that what it
had it was with the heads thatmoved. There were two George's and no

(23:48):
John so and it was you know, the Ringo and the Paul. So
I took that, and that justis commemorative of the excitement that I had
for the be because as a billboardcampus correspondent, I was getting the magazine
and I could see the almost palpablegrowth of enthusiasm and hysteria, even from

(24:11):
a business point of view, notjust fan magazine. Another thing that I
really really enjoy, and it's morecontemporary, is Asub Rebner, who had
been a later day member of theModern Lumbers, and he co founded Robin
Lane and the Chartbusters with Robin Lane, and ASA created these folk art guitars
where he used a naked body ofa guitar and then he would put everything

(24:34):
from happy meals, toys and gumbyto religious icons and skeletons and put them
on the body and tell a storyand it's just fascinating, wonderful. Each
one is unique unto itself one ofa kind, and he helped facilitate Joe
Spalding acquiring I think half a dozenof Ace's guitars for the Folk American and

(24:59):
Roots Hall of Fame because they genuinelyreflect that kind of authenticity. Ace had
died about four years ago, butit's a lasting tribute to the quality and
the eye that he had, andI'm really proud to have those. And
of course there's another great poster thatI have that comes from the Boston Tea
Party in nineteen sixty nine. TheTea Party, for the most part,

(25:22):
had dedicated shows and dedicated posters,so each act got its own poster.
But in the spring of sixty ninethey did two calendars. One was for
the April shows and another calendar wasfor the May shows. And the May
poster calendar had such incredible stopping powerbecause in one month you see the spectacular

(25:44):
array of talent, ranging from multiplenights of Jeff Beck with Rod Stewart,
three nights of Led Zeppelin. Youhad The Who doing early version of Tommy
with ratsand Rowland Kirk, great multiinstrumentalist jazz performer. The Allman Brothers were
opening for the Velvet Underground Poko playedthat month, and you look at that

(26:08):
poster and it's just draw dropping tosee the array of talent and played at
this small but historically important and verymemorable concert hall. You know, then
you tell people and don't forget theticket prices were three dollars and fifty cents
and four dollars and fifty cents.Well. Everyone, we've been speaking with
David Bieber about his remarkable collection,the David Bieber Archives, and David,

(26:33):
I can't thank you enough for spendingsome time with us, which you've accomplished
there. I've seen it in person, is really remarkable. Thanks so much.
Well, it's good. It's alwaysgreat to encounter a like minded person
such as you are. Well,that's all for this week. I'm Mike
Christian inviting you to join us againnext week on What's at Risk. Also
check out our podcast at Wbznewsradio dotiHeart dot com. What's on your mind?

(27:00):
Send us your thoughts, comments andquestions to What's at Risk at gmail
dot com. That's one word,What's at Risk at gmail dot com.
Thank you, A big thank youto our producer, Ken Carberry of Chart Productions