June 8, 2025 • 14 mins
Original Air Date: June 8, 2025
Jake Sumner is the director of the doc “Ron Delsener Presents”, the story of a self-made concert industry legend and his start in NYC.
Jake Sumner is the director of the doc “Ron Delsener Presents”, the story of a self-made concert industry legend and his start in NYC.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And I want to introduce you to Jake Sumner. He
is the director of Ron Delsner Presents Now People of
a Certain Age. We heard that phrase for more than
four decades in New York. Ron Delsner the live event,
(00:20):
the concert promoter, as far as we were concerned. So, Jake,
you know, first of all, I love this movie, not
only because Ron Delsner is such a character and he's
about to turn ninety, but the old footage. I just
love watching the old footage back in the day New York.
(00:44):
But frankly, you know, it seemed to me that you
didn't have to say a word or ask a single question.
You just could have let Ron speak for an hour
and a half and that your biggest task would be
how am I going to edit this down to to,
you know, an hour and a half long movie? How
did this all come about?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
I guess to answer the first that the sort of
last thing you asked, it came about. I grew up
around live music and going on a lot of legs
of US tours as a young as a young kid,
and Ron was kind of one of these characters that
was kind of around, you know, backstage, and there was
(01:32):
always an awareness of him, and he he would, you know,
he would help me and my sister with tickets sometimes
and he got to tickets to the circus and it
was always, you know, we'd always write thank you letters
to mister Deelsner. So we knew him as that as
the kind of the ticket guy in New York and
(01:54):
the guy behind all the shows. And then kind of
a the years, just got talking to him and he
just had great stories and hit a lot of wise cracks,
but then kind of crazy stories about you know, everyone
from the Beatles to Hendrix, to Rita Franklin, everybody. And
(02:18):
I thought, wow, what an interesting character. And you know
he's there throughout all the eras.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
He's kind of.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Like a like a like a Zeleig, you know type figure.
So I thought, wow, what it could be an interesting
way to kind of explore the history of live music
through Ron's story.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, it's sort of like it's sort of like a
history lesson of live music in New York City, the
rock era. So to give you a perspective if you
haven't been around as long as I have, Ron Delsner
helped organize the Beatles nineteen sixty four concert at Forest
(02:58):
Hills and to this day we have concerts of course
at far As Hills. So tell us how he got
started in the business. I mean everything in his life
is a movie.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, it kind of is.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Well, it kind of goes back starts really with him
as a kid. I mean he Ron grew up in Queen's.
His dad was a salesman and would take Ron on
the road. But then also they were very into kind
of showbiz and going to shows as kids and going
to a lot of Broadway and then going to the
(03:37):
circus Madison Square Garden and I think Ron would then
Ron and his sister Harriet, who's also uh you know
been Ron's kind of worked with Ron over the years
from the early seventies on.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
In ticketing. They would they.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Would kind of see what they saw at the circus
and then they would go and recreate it in their
basement and they would charge the kids in their neighborhood
five cents to see the show.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Was in his blood, it was like this is yeah,
it was just in his blood which worked for this.
It's called beshert. It was meant to be.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Yeah, Ron is a real who's a showman, you know,
and he's someone I think that loves at the core.
I think it's someone that really loves to bring to
bring joy and bring music to people. So I think, yeah,
and then I think, you know, specifically with how he
got to Forest Hills, he worked under a guy called
Don Friedman who was doing shows there, doing a lot
(04:39):
of other shows too, doing a.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Lot of jazz in the city.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
And then the first outdoor venue was Forest Hills and
there was the Forest Hills Music Festival, and I think
everyone you know played there. I think they had Dylan,
John Biez, but then they had sort of strikesand and
(05:04):
then the Beatles of course two nights in sixty four, and.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
That was that was before Jay Stadium.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Right right, And that was before the big concerts in
Central Park one dollar concerts, concert tickets. I mean, can
you imagine, so tell about who would be in some
of these lineups in Central Park.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Oh, I mean, it really so amazing. It really runs
the gamut of everyone through. I mean they started in
I think they started in sixty six.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I think was his.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
First I don't I don't want to get that wrong.
I believe the sixty six and then they ran all
the way through to the to the eighties as Dr
Pepper Festival, and he had different sponsors along the way.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
What's interesting is really he you know, to my knowledge.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
And from my research and from what a lot of
people told me, these were the first sort of sponsored
events of right right, it was you know, you know,
there was no kind of sponsorship in contemporary music. And
then Ron, who had worked in advertising for a year
between doing the shows at Forest Hills and Central Park,
(06:36):
kind of worked in advertising and made friends with some
people with some accounts and thought, hang on, maybe I
can get them to pay for these shows. And then yeah,
to answer your question, I mean everyone played, and so
it kind of started off as a jazz festival and
you you know, you had everyone from hold on, we're
(06:57):
not live right now, right he just takes live to tape.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
But for example, let's say there's one show and it
would have an extraordinary lineup, just just something you wouldn't
hear of today.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you had Mongo, Santa Maria,
you had Louis Armstrong, but then you would have you know, Hendrix,
and you would have This.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Is the early These are the early ones. This is
the season.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
This is under Reinhold, Ramsey, Lewis Ray, Charles, who else?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I mean, I know, I.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Just crazy lineups for one dollar, you know. Back in
the day. I am speaking with director Jake Sumner. He
is the director of Ron Delsner Presents which sounds like
a weird thing to say, but that's the name of
the documentary and it's right.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
You couldn't think of a better name.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
But that's what we always heard, Ron Delsner Presents Us.
Ron Delsner Presents that. But he was really really ahead
of his time. But I loved watching that early footage
from the Central Park concerts and everybody would come and
hang out in the park. I mean, you would hear
the music. And actually, I'm kind of thinking that before
(08:20):
the first being, do you know the story behind the
first being? Peter Max he put up he put up
a a poster be in Central Park on this day
and then it became a be in But it.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Goes around the same time as the first year was that.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
I can't remember what year, but it was definitely unintentional,
but it became, you know, a being. But but preceding
the actual beings. Ron Delsner had these beings because of
the music he brought to Central Park. But how did
(09:03):
you get all of this footage.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Well, that's interesting and interesting question. I mean, really a
lot of it. Most of the archives you see in
the film was stuff we found in Ron's basement.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, Wow, he has a basement that's kind of full
of junk. But underneath the junk there is a lot
of kind of amazing rock and roll memorabilia, incredible photography,
epemera tickets, original contracts, everything. I mean, it's it's unbelievable,
(09:40):
and it was never really archived. So it was you know,
we started making this I think twenty nineteen, and then
we ran into the pandemic and it kind of gave
us an opportunity to sort of rethink how we were
making this film.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
So I spent you know, a.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Summer with the colleague Kate Greenberg, kind of down in
Ron's basement, just kind of going through his stuff and archiving.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Crazy. It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
So all of those you know, a lot of those
tapes we didn't really know existed. I mean, we did
have an archival producer that would then go and source,
you know, clean the material, but.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
We would sort of just come across like old reels
and old tapes and and be amazed at what we
were finding.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Since you know you were dealing with that, you know,
one of the biggest concert producers. Ever, how nervous were
you showing the final cut to Ron Delsner.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I don't know if I was nervous.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I think I was more I was curious, I think
as to how he would sort of respond, and I
think he enjoys it. You know, it was interesting with
Ron because it wasn't like a straightforward line to just
get him to sort of commit to doing the film.
You know, it sort of took a while and took
(11:11):
meetings and took took time, and then you know, he
would be in one minute and then out the next,
and you know, he's kind of mercurial, so it's sort
of like you don't know which run you're going to
get depending.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
On the day.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
So how did you convince him finally to agree to
you doing this movie about him.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Sort of just patience and just hanging around and sticking
through it.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
And but why would he trust you rather than someone else?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
That's a good question. I don't really know the answer
to that one.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
I mean, I think I showed a willingness to sort
of tell the story, and you know, if you put
the time in and you you know, spend days in
a whole summer really in someone's basement kind of going
through this stuff.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
I think you show a level of commitment.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
And then you know, we would just sort of trail
him at shows too, so you know, and he had
good access that we would film sort of him at
Madison Square Garden or Jones Beach or the Beacon Theater or.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Any of the sort of major New York venues.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
And you know, I don't know at the beginning, I
think you didn't really know. He kind of just thought, well,
you know, this kid just wants to follow me around, okay,
and then he's sort of sort of developing and turning
into something. And kind of the thing that the film
centers around as an interview that we did with Ron
at the Beacon Theater over the course of a few days,
(12:43):
where Ron sort of tells his story, and that kind
of became the backbone of the film.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
We only have a couple of minutes left. What have
we not touched on that? There's so much in this
film that you want the audience to know about the
movie Ron Delsner presents.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
What else do I want them to know about? Well,
it's very hard to tell a.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Movie about a career that is as long as Ron's,
and there's so many shows and there's so many stories,
and I'm sure, you know, people that see the film
might be like, oh, why does what does the film
talk about this show or that. You know, it's hard
to condense something into a ninety minute kind of format.
So that was the challenge, and I think you do
(13:31):
what you can. And yeah, I mean there's a wealth
of stuff there, and there's some great stories, but I
think we wanted stories that were complimented with good archival
and that Ron had a real connection to and to
sort of.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Talk to. You know.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
It's interesting too a lot of artists that Ron worked with.
Eye contacted a few of them, and of course the
answer was resounding, yes, I'll be part of that, but
others actually reached out to me when they heard that
there was a project going on.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
I mean, there were interviews with everyone, including Gene Simmons,
Paul Stanley, Billy Joel, Patti Smith. I was really surprised
to see Patti Smith in there, but I mean she
was just thoroughly enjoying herself, totally enthusiastic, and it was
just phenomenal Bruce Springsteen. So the movie is Ron Delsner Presents.
(14:29):
And like I said, the archival footage, I just you
know you were there, You just felt like you were there,
And so thank you so much. Jake Sumner. You've been
listening to Sunstein sessions on iHeartRadio, a production of New
York's classic rock Q one O four point three
And I want to introduce you to Jake Sumner. He
is the director of Ron Delsner Presents Now People of
a Certain Age. We heard that phrase for more than
four decades in New York. Ron Delsner the live event,
(00:20):
the concert promoter, as far as we were concerned. So, Jake,
you know, first of all, I love this movie, not
only because Ron Delsner is such a character and he's
about to turn ninety, but the old footage. I just
love watching the old footage back in the day New York.
(00:44):
But frankly, you know, it seemed to me that you
didn't have to say a word or ask a single question.
You just could have let Ron speak for an hour
and a half and that your biggest task would be
how am I going to edit this down to to,
you know, an hour and a half long movie? How
did this all come about?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
I guess to answer the first that the sort of
last thing you asked, it came about. I grew up
around live music and going on a lot of legs
of US tours as a young as a young kid,
and Ron was kind of one of these characters that
was kind of around, you know, backstage, and there was
(01:32):
always an awareness of him, and he he would, you know,
he would help me and my sister with tickets sometimes
and he got to tickets to the circus and it
was always, you know, we'd always write thank you letters
to mister Deelsner. So we knew him as that as
the kind of the ticket guy in New York and
(01:54):
the guy behind all the shows. And then kind of
a the years, just got talking to him and he
just had great stories and hit a lot of wise cracks,
but then kind of crazy stories about you know, everyone
from the Beatles to Hendrix, to Rita Franklin, everybody. And
(02:18):
I thought, wow, what an interesting character. And you know
he's there throughout all the eras.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
He's kind of.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Like a like a like a Zeleig, you know type figure.
So I thought, wow, what it could be an interesting
way to kind of explore the history of live music
through Ron's story.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, it's sort of like it's sort of like a
history lesson of live music in New York City, the
rock era. So to give you a perspective if you
haven't been around as long as I have, Ron Delsner
helped organize the Beatles nineteen sixty four concert at Forest
(02:58):
Hills and to this day we have concerts of course
at far As Hills. So tell us how he got
started in the business. I mean everything in his life
is a movie.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, it kind of is.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Well, it kind of goes back starts really with him
as a kid. I mean he Ron grew up in Queen's.
His dad was a salesman and would take Ron on
the road. But then also they were very into kind
of showbiz and going to shows as kids and going
to a lot of Broadway and then going to the
(03:37):
circus Madison Square Garden and I think Ron would then
Ron and his sister Harriet, who's also uh you know
been Ron's kind of worked with Ron over the years
from the early seventies on.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
In ticketing. They would they.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Would kind of see what they saw at the circus
and then they would go and recreate it in their
basement and they would charge the kids in their neighborhood
five cents to see the show.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Was in his blood, it was like this is yeah,
it was just in his blood which worked for this.
It's called beshert. It was meant to be.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Yeah, Ron is a real who's a showman, you know,
and he's someone I think that loves at the core.
I think it's someone that really loves to bring to
bring joy and bring music to people. So I think, yeah,
and then I think, you know, specifically with how he
got to Forest Hills, he worked under a guy called
Don Friedman who was doing shows there, doing a lot
(04:39):
of other shows too, doing a.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Lot of jazz in the city.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
And then the first outdoor venue was Forest Hills and
there was the Forest Hills Music Festival, and I think
everyone you know played there. I think they had Dylan,
John Biez, but then they had sort of strikesand and
(05:04):
then the Beatles of course two nights in sixty four, and.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
That was that was before Jay Stadium.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Right right, And that was before the big concerts in
Central Park one dollar concerts, concert tickets. I mean, can
you imagine, so tell about who would be in some
of these lineups in Central Park.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Oh, I mean, it really so amazing. It really runs
the gamut of everyone through. I mean they started in
I think they started in sixty six.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I think was his.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
First I don't I don't want to get that wrong.
I believe the sixty six and then they ran all
the way through to the to the eighties as Dr
Pepper Festival, and he had different sponsors along the way.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
What's interesting is really he you know, to my knowledge.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
And from my research and from what a lot of
people told me, these were the first sort of sponsored
events of right right, it was you know, you know,
there was no kind of sponsorship in contemporary music. And
then Ron, who had worked in advertising for a year
between doing the shows at Forest Hills and Central Park,
(06:36):
kind of worked in advertising and made friends with some
people with some accounts and thought, hang on, maybe I
can get them to pay for these shows. And then yeah,
to answer your question, I mean everyone played, and so
it kind of started off as a jazz festival and
you you know, you had everyone from hold on, we're
(06:57):
not live right now, right he just takes live to tape.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
But for example, let's say there's one show and it
would have an extraordinary lineup, just just something you wouldn't
hear of today.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you had Mongo, Santa Maria,
you had Louis Armstrong, but then you would have you know, Hendrix,
and you would have This.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Is the early These are the early ones. This is
the season.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
This is under Reinhold, Ramsey, Lewis Ray, Charles, who else?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I mean, I know, I.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Just crazy lineups for one dollar, you know. Back in
the day. I am speaking with director Jake Sumner. He
is the director of Ron Delsner Presents which sounds like
a weird thing to say, but that's the name of
the documentary and it's right.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
You couldn't think of a better name.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
But that's what we always heard, Ron Delsner Presents Us.
Ron Delsner Presents that. But he was really really ahead
of his time. But I loved watching that early footage
from the Central Park concerts and everybody would come and
hang out in the park. I mean, you would hear
the music. And actually, I'm kind of thinking that before
(08:20):
the first being, do you know the story behind the
first being? Peter Max he put up he put up
a a poster be in Central Park on this day
and then it became a be in But it.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Goes around the same time as the first year was that.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
I can't remember what year, but it was definitely unintentional,
but it became, you know, a being. But but preceding
the actual beings. Ron Delsner had these beings because of
the music he brought to Central Park. But how did
(09:03):
you get all of this footage.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Well, that's interesting and interesting question. I mean, really a
lot of it. Most of the archives you see in
the film was stuff we found in Ron's basement.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, Wow, he has a basement that's kind of full
of junk. But underneath the junk there is a lot
of kind of amazing rock and roll memorabilia, incredible photography,
epemera tickets, original contracts, everything. I mean, it's it's unbelievable,
(09:40):
and it was never really archived. So it was you know,
we started making this I think twenty nineteen, and then
we ran into the pandemic and it kind of gave
us an opportunity to sort of rethink how we were
making this film.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
So I spent you know, a.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Summer with the colleague Kate Greenberg, kind of down in
Ron's basement, just kind of going through his stuff and archiving.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Crazy. It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
So all of those you know, a lot of those
tapes we didn't really know existed. I mean, we did
have an archival producer that would then go and source,
you know, clean the material, but.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
We would sort of just come across like old reels
and old tapes and and be amazed at what we
were finding.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Since you know you were dealing with that, you know,
one of the biggest concert producers. Ever, how nervous were
you showing the final cut to Ron Delsner.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I don't know if I was nervous.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I think I was more I was curious, I think
as to how he would sort of respond, and I
think he enjoys it. You know, it was interesting with
Ron because it wasn't like a straightforward line to just
get him to sort of commit to doing the film.
You know, it sort of took a while and took
(11:11):
meetings and took took time, and then you know, he
would be in one minute and then out the next,
and you know, he's kind of mercurial, so it's sort
of like you don't know which run you're going to
get depending.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
On the day.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
So how did you convince him finally to agree to
you doing this movie about him.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Sort of just patience and just hanging around and sticking
through it.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
And but why would he trust you rather than someone else?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
That's a good question. I don't really know the answer
to that one.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
I mean, I think I showed a willingness to sort
of tell the story, and you know, if you put
the time in and you you know, spend days in
a whole summer really in someone's basement kind of going
through this stuff.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
I think you show a level of commitment.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
And then you know, we would just sort of trail
him at shows too, so you know, and he had
good access that we would film sort of him at
Madison Square Garden or Jones Beach or the Beacon Theater or.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Any of the sort of major New York venues.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
And you know, I don't know at the beginning, I
think you didn't really know. He kind of just thought, well,
you know, this kid just wants to follow me around, okay,
and then he's sort of sort of developing and turning
into something. And kind of the thing that the film
centers around as an interview that we did with Ron
at the Beacon Theater over the course of a few days,
(12:43):
where Ron sort of tells his story, and that kind
of became the backbone of the film.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
We only have a couple of minutes left. What have
we not touched on that? There's so much in this
film that you want the audience to know about the
movie Ron Delsner presents.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
What else do I want them to know about? Well,
it's very hard to tell a.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Movie about a career that is as long as Ron's,
and there's so many shows and there's so many stories,
and I'm sure, you know, people that see the film
might be like, oh, why does what does the film
talk about this show or that. You know, it's hard
to condense something into a ninety minute kind of format.
So that was the challenge, and I think you do
(13:31):
what you can. And yeah, I mean there's a wealth
of stuff there, and there's some great stories, but I
think we wanted stories that were complimented with good archival
and that Ron had a real connection to and to
sort of.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Talk to. You know.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
It's interesting too a lot of artists that Ron worked with.
Eye contacted a few of them, and of course the
answer was resounding, yes, I'll be part of that, but
others actually reached out to me when they heard that
there was a project going on.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
I mean, there were interviews with everyone, including Gene Simmons,
Paul Stanley, Billy Joel, Patti Smith. I was really surprised
to see Patti Smith in there, but I mean she
was just thoroughly enjoying herself, totally enthusiastic, and it was
just phenomenal Bruce Springsteen. So the movie is Ron Delsner Presents.
(14:29):
And like I said, the archival footage, I just you
know you were there, You just felt like you were there,
And so thank you so much. Jake Sumner. You've been
listening to Sunstein sessions on iHeartRadio, a production of New
York's classic rock Q one O four point three
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