Cesar Chavez Plants the Seeds of Comedic Success

Cesar-fast-with-Robert-Robert-Kennedy-and-Helen-Chavez-with-Cesar-Chavez-getting-ready-to-end-his-fast---Photo-Sanchez

“It was the coolest thing I had ever experienced at the time—going from sweating it out with less than 300 tickets sold to showing up to open the box office on the day of the show with a line that went around two city blocks. We turned away over 300 people,” he recalls.

 

 

 

 

Scott in the directors chair

That event was the start of what he calls his “producing bug.” “I suspect it’s the same feeling a gambler gets when he wins a big hand,” he explains. “I wanted to do more, bigger and better. I ended up promoting Linda Ronstadt at the Paul Masson Mountain Winery where we sold out four nights, five shows and then went on to produce about 10 more live comedy events.” With a grant from the city of San Jose and added sponsorship money from Reno Airlines, he created the Montgomery Theatre Summer Series.

When Chavez died April 23, 1993, Scott handled the funeral, which was held on the 40 acres of land in Delano, Calif., where the UFW was active in its early years.

“From the time Anthony Chavez, Emilio Huerta and I reconnected at the site the planning began. Paul Chavez was transporting his father from Arizona where he had passed. I leaned on my colleagues in northern California to discount or donate everything, from the massive sound system to the stage to the lights to the massive tent to the 5,000 chairs to the two truckloads of bottled water to the local construction company that cleared the land and dug trenches for the 150 phone lines and uplink connections to the Aztec dancers who spiritually readied the land for the onslaught of 10,000-plus people who would arrive to pay their last respects. It was the production of my lifetime,” Scott says.

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