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It was supposed to be the Christmas season – you know, that time of year when we enjoy the camaraderie of humankind and relish the meaning of the holiday. 

It was the opening year for the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena, and the facility was trying to have a wide variety of shows and sporting events to draw in the crowds to the new venue.

I am sure that few could have predicted that one of the final shows of the year would bring divisiveness and conflict over what was supposed to be a simple “rock concert.” 

Yet, it was anything but that. 

Arena manager Charles Theokas, in his capacity to draw people into the facility, had booked the group Alice Cooper to perform on Dec. 29, 1973. Just after Christmas and approaching New Year, the concert was certain to pull in a large crowd.

Before the arrival of the band, however, there was uncertainty that this group’s performance would be “suitable” for Broome County. After all, Alice Cooper was known to perform “Shock Rock” with use of mutilated dolls, snakes and a pseudo-guillotine. It was not your average Perry Como Christmas show. 

Cooper, whose real name was Vincent Furnier (he legally changed his name to Alice Cooper in 1975), had adopted a unique style that was becoming increasingly popular. In 1973, his band was known as Alice Cooper before it disbanded two years later, and he began a solo career under that name.

But was the Billion Dollar Babies tour really too unsavory for the residents of Broome County? Remember, only a few months before, a jury in Binghamton had determined that the movie “Deep Throat” was not pornographic, while major cities such as New York and Philadelphia saw it as a pornographic film. While an X-rated film was not “dirty,” Alice Cooper performing was — and therein was the problem.

The board of the arena, concerned over this performance, went to view his show while Cooper was performing in Syracuse. While split over the act’s concert and its appropriateness, the majority ruled that Alice Cooper was not suitable for Broome County, and the concert was canceled. 

The band’s manager was not concerned over the loss of the money that would have been made at the arena. No, he booked the concert for Utica for the same date, and the concert went on without incident.

No one can ever say that Cooper does not have a sense of humor — or, at least, a sense of irony. During his shows, footage was shot that was incorporated into a film called “Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper.” Despite some rather interesting comedic turns in the “rockumentary,” the film was a well-turned venue for the Alice Cooper concert and its music. 

The film was completed in 1974, and, in his own unique style, the premiere for the film was held at the Towne Theater (now the Endicott Performing Arts Center) on Washington Avenue in the Village of Endicott. 

Attendance was good, and a DVD of the film is still available — over 40 years later.

A year after that, in 1975, the board of the Broome arena once again looked at Cooper. He had gone solo, and his concert series was a theme-base event built around his album “Welcome to My Nightmare.”  It would be one of many theme-based albums, and brought Cooper to the forefront of the music scene at the time. 

Many of the board had to admit that his film (which was rated PG) really was not as bad as they imagined, even if it was not something they actually liked. Cooper had been amenable during this whole time, and the board relinquished to allow him to perform.

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Shortly after this, the Alice Cooper concert was held at the arena to a sold-out audience of 7,000 attendees. There was no incidents of violence during the concert, and no one was hurt. 

After all was said and done, the arena facility had made a profit of over $5,000 in addition to money for concession sales.

Perhaps that spirit of Christmas that seem to be lacking in 1973 had reappeared in 1975. 

Perhaps, the people of Broome County had become more aware of the changing rock scene and learned, as Alice Cooper would say, that “schools out for summer.”

Gerald Smith is the former Broome County historian. Email him at historysmiths@stny.rr.com. 

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