Gary James' Interview With Mark "Flo" Volman of
The Turtles
from
http://www.classicbands.com/TurtlesInterview.htmlQ - Didn't The Turtles play a party for Tricia Nixon at The White House?
A - Yes. We were invited to play The White House along with The Temptations in the latter part of our career, probably 1970.
Q - And wasn't there some criticism directed your way for doing that?
A - We never heard any. I'm sure that there was a certain aspect of the Pop culture...probably a group of individuals who felt there was a certain political gain we were getting out of it. I never really heard any backlash. I suppose that there was a predominantly liberal audience who probably felt that made us Republicans by playing in the Nixon White House. We never really saw it like that. It was just an invitation that happened to be from the daughter of the President. We never made any choices on it. We were not political as a band compared to many of the other artists that were out there.from
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Price: £19.95 (Including VAT at 17.5%) Here's what the Turtles have to say about the event in their Web site's History of the Turtles:
A bizarre benefit of the Turtles pop success was their brief embracement by the debutant crowd, the sons and daughters of the Fortune 500, and the accompanying scene. It all started with Tricia Nixon. She invited the Turtles — her favorite band — to perform at a White House party.
Tricia Nixon, the older daughter of President Richard Nixon, dances with her date, U.S. Rep. Barry Goldwater Jr., at her masked ball at the White House on May 10, 1969.
The party was big enough of an event to merit coverage in the New York Times and Time magazine. The Times gave it a half-page treatment the day after the party. "Tricia Nixon covered her face with a white lace mask, shimmering with crystals and held like a lorgnette, to greet some 450 of Washington's prettiest, handsomest, slimmest 20-30-year-olds at a masked ball tonight, her first White House party, the Times said. (In case you're uncultured like me, you might be interested to know that a lorgnette is a pair of eyeglasses or opera glasses with a short handle.)
It was a weird party, according to the History of the Turtles.
Kids with obvious SDS connections were passing out literature, while Tricia was dashing around with all the genuine charm of a Cinderella. Despite the fact that the tipsy Volman kept falling off the stage and was challenged by Pat Nugent because Mark was trying to pick up on Lucy Baines Johnson, the Turtles were enough of a hit to be asked to play at a party for the daughter of the president of U.S. Steel.
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