Abstract
George Shuba describes his career as a professional photographer, including one of his earliest assignments photographing The Beatles concert at Cleveland Public Auditorium in 1964, as well as a number of other popular music and political events.
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Interviewee
Shuba, George (interviewee)
Interviewer
Hons, Justin (interviewer)
Project
Cuyahoga County Fair
Date
8-9-2006
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
47 minutes
Recommended Citation
"George Shuba interview, 09 August 2006" (2006). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 907005.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/897
Transcript
Justin Hons [00:00:01] George, this is our release form.
George Shuba [00:00:04] Okay.
Justin Hons [00:00:09] What’s the date? Ninth?
George Shuba [00:00:10] Ninth.
Justin Hons [00:00:11] You want to take a look at that? It just basically says that, you know, it could be used for any of those public uses that I was talking about earlier, and that it will become part of the CSU archives.
George Shuba [00:00:26] And I don’t have my- Oh, yes, I do.
Justin Hons [00:00:46] Okay, if you could just start by telling us your name. And.
George Shuba [00:00:52] Today’s August 9th. This is 19- Wait a minute. This is 2006. Yeah. Right. My name is George Shuba. S-H-U-B-A.
Justin Hons [00:01:03] All right, George, now you have a booth here, and a lot of your photography is on display. Tell us a little bit about your career as a photographer.
George Shuba [00:01:13] Okay, let me start at the beginning, because that’s really important. I went to work, I joined the Air Force. I was in the National Guard, and I got my training in the Air Force. When I came out of the Air Force, one of my partners in the Air Force was a guy named Don Brill. And Don Brill was working for the first two women photographers in the city of Cleveland in the old Arcade, Mary and Grace Driscoll. And so Don asked me, he said, do I want to join him because they’re gonna be selling the business to him. So I joined Don Brill, and we worked out of the old Arcade for Mary and Grace Driscoll. Like I said, they were the first two women photographers in the city of Cleveland. So that started our career. My career started with a man coming from WHK named Jim Lowell. He had heard of my reputation. I was a cocky, brash, humble individual, as you can tell. And basically he said to me, are you good? And I said, I’m damn good. I’m the best thing that ever happened to Cleveland, Ohio. You know, I just got out of the Air Force. You know, I’m flying high. And he says, well, would you like to take pictures of the Beatles? And I said, sure. So we signed a contract and everything else like that. And I turned to my partner, Don, and I said, Don, I said, what are the beetles? I mean, why are we photographing bugs? And he said to me, he said, I don’t know. So I looked it up in a dictionary, and there’s like 20 billion species of bugs, and they’re beetles. So that particular week, I happened to see the Ed Sullivan show, and lo and behold, I saw The Beatles. That was my red badge of courage, if you remember the book, and my bath of fire. Well, my first assignment was with The Beatles. Twenty thousand screaming kids. But I met them over at the- Not the airport, but the Cadillac tank plant. And they came off the airplane and we only had, there was five journalists, including myself. And I only had like about three minutes to shoot pictures. So I shot about six pictures because I was using a bigger format camera. The last picture I shot of them, Paul was on the jump seat. And I said, Paul, could you wave to me? This is for me. And he waved to me. And that picture has been circulated worldwide. Well, that started my career because that night I went back to the Sheraton Cleveland, which was downtown, and we slept beneath the Beatles. Underneath we had the presidential suite and they had the top suite. And of course we were up, back and forth in between our rooms because we could go up and down. There was very, very little security except for the police on duty. As I came around the corner, I went home about probably maybe three, four o’ clock in the morning, the door opens and there’s Ringo and I’ve got a Nikon camera hanging around my, you know, neck. So he started talking to me about the Nikon camera. He’s a camera buff. So for about five or seven minutes we talked about Nikon cameras. So. And he was as gracious and, you know, there was- Didn’t ask for no autographs. Damn it, you could put that in there too - hyphenated. Anyhow, so that started a thing. And then, of course, we went to the press conference and then we went to the actual concert. The concert was an experience I’ll never, never, never, never forget. Twenty thousand kids, screaming, girls mostly. It was just total mayhem. They had never seen a concert. There was an Inspector Blackwell that got in and he actually stopped the concert. And George Harrison, he tried to pull the amps out of George Harrison’s equipment and they sort of tussled a little bit. And then finally he told him, he said, if you don’t quiet the crowd down, we’re going to cancel the show. Now, you’ve never heard that ever happen for any rock concert, to my knowledge. So the kids calmed down and then pretty soon we went through the whole ritual. But the funny part was the kids in the front row were sitting, but maybe the first ten rows, then the kids behind that start standing up on the chairs because they couldn’t see. Then they started to rush the stage a little bit and the kids in the back stood on their chairs and then we had some people falling. There was one person that fell out of the balcony. There was kids that fainted. I mean, it was just unbelievable. And pretty soon they had this big, huge cordon in front of the Beatles of police officers who never had a chance to go through a riotous condition. And here I am, I’m on the inside lane, I’m trying to photograph. And I’m getting pounded by the Cleveland Police Department because their boss is being shown in a bad light. Well, while I was falling down, I shot two or three shots and two of them were probably out of focus. But I managed to get the one shot of Inspector Blackwell, you know, stopping the concert. So when he died - I am also a journalist right now for the Sun Newspapers - and he came over and I saw my name in the- One of the guys, one of the reporters came up and said, your name’s in the obituary column. And I said, really? That’s neat. You know, I’m still alive and I’m pinching myself, you know. And so I turned around and here, Inspector Blackwell, they called him the fifth Beatle. And they quoted me that the Cleveland Police Department didn’t know how to handle a riotous condition, which was absolutely true. Well, that’s launched my career from that point. I had picked up radio station WHK, WH, KYC, Wixie Radio. And then the Upbeat show, which was 1964, it was called the Big Five Show. That was Channel 5, ABC. And so we started bringing in these unknown groups like Sonny and Cher, Simon and Garfunkel, you know, oh God, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, you know, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, people like this. So we did all these different shows. And so we did that for 14 years. And we were in 100, and I think it was 102 or 112 markets throughout the United States. You could find the Upbeat show in Poughkeepsie, New York, at 3 o’ clock, 4 o’ clock in the morning. So this is where I got to meet a lot of the people that I had photographed. I have now at this stage of the game- Well, let me back that up a little bit, so I continue to do that. So I started doing various radio stations and I kept on getting pounded, you know, Jimi Hendrix concert. I got beat up. Some guy jumped on stage and just blasted me with a sucker punch. And I said, why don’t you try that again when I can see your face? Excuse me. So if you know anything about the stages, they’re like elevated, you know, six, seven, eight foot. Well, this kid was wearing a Jimi Hendrix hat. And they lifted him up and he was stoned. And as he came up, he lifted his chin and I took my power pack, which was my battery pack, and I used it as a golf club. And there was one, I think I read in the paper, one guy got hurt, something about his face. I don’t remember what happened, but I figured, if you throw a punch at me, I’m gonna throw a punch right back at you. So they were riotous. Jimmy Morrison concert was the same situation. He OD’d on stage. And when I came over to Ray Manzarek, who was the keyboard player, and I showed him a picture, and I said, here’s Jimmy on stage. He’s OD’d. And he said, no, no, no, no. That’s not- He’s not OD’d. He said, what right do you have to tell me he’s OD’d? And I pulled out my wallets and I showed him a gold badge. Because I had then become a cop. I was a reserve captain in the sheriff’s department. I worked in Narcotics Intelligence, and I took care of ports and harbors for Cuyahoga County. So that launched my career into a different field. So I went from journalism to police business. I did that for approximately 14 years. And then I lost my position because of politics. And I was a Democrat in a Republican camp. And then when a Democratic sheriff came in, he got rid of us. And so I went back to my original thing, journalism. So right at this stage of the game in my career, I’ve photographed 1,200,000 people. And people say, well, how do you know this? Well, every time I used to print black and white pictures, I used to make a test strip. And the test strip, whether it good, bad, dark, light, whatever the case may be, I would keep it and I’d throw it in a box. So I’ve got this big, huge board. Someday I’m going to assemble, and I’m going to say, if you can find your photograph on here, I’ll give you five bucks. But if you can’t find it, then you got to pay me five bucks. See, I’m thinking the opposite way. They’re going to make some money off of this deal. So basically, that launched my career. So I worked with all the famous people while I was a police officer. I had the privilege- I happened to be of Polish extraction, which I’m very proud of. I had a chance to become Ron Reagan’s- I’m sorry, Richard Nixon’s bodyguard for one day. I was the last guy in formation. And they said, do you know the route from Cleveland to Youngstown? And I said, yeah. So I was in the lead car going from the airport to Youngstown, Ohio. With me was the top Secret Service agent, the top presidential aide, the top Republican aide, myself and another individual. Well, when we got to Macedonia, Ohio, there was a man who had accidentally come through there in his pickup truck because it was hunting season and he forgot the President was coming. And so the Secret Service and everybody nailed him. I mean, this guy might be still in jail today, you know, and that’s many years ago. But every manhole cover was sealed from here to Youngstown. When we got in Hiram, we, it was a command decision car. They made the decision which way the President went, what he did, how fast he went, and everything else, everything is timed down to the precise second we got in Hiram. There was a group of students that were going to riot. They were going to throw eggs and paint balloons and you know, they had signs. The Secret Service sent in what they called the REACT team. The REACT team were people, young students, but they were actually federal agents. And they started a confrontation between the students because they knew when the President was coming around the corner. And by the time they got, they start pushing and shoving these students, the President had made his swing and he was down the street. So they never had a chance to hit the President. I carried an attache case. I’m a right-handed shooter. I had this right, this attache case in my hand with handcuffs. I don’t know what it was. I can only assume at this point it was the hotline. But the classic thing was when I took the assignment, they said, have you ever watched the Johnny Carson Show? And I said, well, who hasn’t? The Secret Service agent looked exactly like Johnny Carson. So when my kids went to Washington, we had a field trip. I had a chance to take them through the White House into the special rooms, the Green Room and all the rest of the rooms that normally you guys don’t see or even hear about. So we had a special tour. So that was really interesting for the class and everything else. But I’ve met everybody from Jack Benny to Dorothy Fuldheim to- I’ve worked with all the great jocks in the city of Cleveland. John Lanigan, Joe Mayer. Oh geez, there’s so many. Jack Armstrong, Dick Kemp, I mean, I could go on and on. There’s probably a list of maybe about 50, 60 guys. And I had a blast all during that time. So I mean, it was an experience that I will never forget. I mean, and again I say, you know, I’m just a little Polish boy from old Brooklyn and to have these opportunities and to represent the President. Then the funny part, while we were on the tarmac at Youngstown, I was sworn in as a Secret Service agent. And they said to me, of course I had a pair of bars on my shoulders. I was a captain. Gotta put that in. While we were waiting, I got a chance to sit in the vehicle that Jack Kennedy was shot in because they always carry two vehicles. I had a chance to sit in Air Force One and see it. Not the whole components, but just the certain areas. And so, I mean, it was exciting. But this Secret Service agent told me, he said, if anybody rushes the President, you. You will put your body between him and the President. And need be, you will give up your life if need. And I said, cool. That was a big thing, you know, hey, that was fun. I was 38. Was it 38 or 39 years old? And, you know, someone tells you that for the President. Wow. I don’t care what. Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, you’re still the President of the United states. You know, Mrs. Nixon, when we were in Macedonia, she served me tea. I’m still strapped to this handcuff, to this attache case. Maybe it was his lunch. I don’t know. I mean, he could have been a. Maybe it was a White Castle hamburger. I don’t know, he was taking back. But it was a blast and I’ve been very fortunate. I met a lot of great people. The rock and roll people that I met, from the Beatles to the Stones to the Judsons to the Hendrix and things like that. Neil Diamond, I’ve only had one real bad experience, and it’s not really a bad experience. The Rolling Stones, they came in and they didn’t have a real big turnout when they first came into the United States. So we went up to do an interview and they were too busy with young ladies, so they didn’t have an opportunity to talk to us. But when we were shooting our pictures, they would do what they call a three shot sequence. You had three songs and you could take your pictures during those three songs. Well, if you remember Mick Jagger, he runs around like a chicken in heat, you know, and he’s bouncing. You got a no man zone in front that probably goes 15 feet. The stadium or the stage was probably 15 or 18ft. So if he goes back three feet, all you saw was the top of his head. Well, he’s bouncing around. And finally I got the one shot that I really needed. But there’s a reason I bring up this story. My, I’m going to cough. My cousin worked for Tommy Hilfiger and she was his chief buyer. Well, my cousin lost not only her little son, her husband, but another son who died of this rare cancer disease, which we don’t know and only find out after his deaths that Tommy Hilfiger’s little boy had died of cancer. So I asked Bonnie, I said, Bonnie, I said, what can I give to Tommy that we can say thank you from our families? Because he gave her the jet to come back home with two pilots and a stewardess to bring back the bodies. When you lose an eight year old and a five year old, you know, that’s- It’s pretty traumatic. So she said, well, he lives in the Bahamas and his next door neighbor happens to be Mick Jagger. So I’ve got this photo that I’ve got it produced and I’ve already got it made, framing it, and I just have to figure the caption line on it to thank him for all he’s done for my cousin. And I mean, it was just a crazy experience. But I met everybody who was anybody in the city of Cleveland. I met dignitaries, I’ve worked with corporate executives, I worked with everybody. I treat everybody the same way. I’m me. If you don’t like me, hey, that’s the breaks of the game, bud. You know, I don’t change for nobody, you know, I mean, my job is to capture the moment and preserve it in history, on film. And it’s quite a power, when you got that amount of power to do that at that one fraction of a second. The difference between an amateur and a professional is a millisecond. If you think about what you’re going to shoot, you lost a shot. But if you go click, you got that shot. And that’s the difference between a professional and amateur. So how’s the family? Oh, I’m sorry. I thought I’d bring up his. So that’s sort of a synopsis of what I’ve done. And it’s been a great accomplishment and it’s been fun. You know, every day I make it just as fun. You know, when you reach over 65, you know, all of a sudden you start counting. You don’t count days. I mean, like, I’m trying to put myself in a box. But you make every day a fun day instead of, you know– and I think of all the people that would be love to be in my position to take and see and do the stuff that I’ve done and, you know, well, you saw my display. I mean, you saw there’s 6,600 images of rock and roll. I’m the first rock and roller. And I mean, if I started printing my pictures today, I could work 12 hours a day and not finish off for a year and a half working straight through. So it’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of privilege. It’s a lot of pleasure. And I get the greatest kick out of when someone will come in and they’ll see something and they’ll do this memory bit and say, geez, this brings back, you know, we met at this concert, or we did this at this concert and we got married. Or, you know, this is where I met my girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever the case. And, you know, you instill memories and it brings back that. And it’s nice to do that, you know, I’m watching the people that are coming through the fair right here, and they’re bringing up memories. They’re telling me where they were at that moment. And, you know, do you remember this? And you remember that? Well, not really. You know, I saw the whole world through a square. You know, when I die, I’ve got it all planned out. I’m going to be standing upright. There’s going to be Polish polkas playing in the background because I’m Polish, and I’m going to have my camera and there’s going to be an electric eye. And as you come to visit me, there’ll be a flash. Because they think this long thing in front of my nose- Well, they think it was my nose; it’s really my telephoto lens, and that’s the way I’m going to be standing up. So, you know, I add humor to my death. Questions?
Justin Hons [00:20:08] Yeah. Well, one. What year was that Beatles concert?
George Shuba [00:20:12] ’64. 1964. September 14th and 15th.
Justin Hons [00:20:18] What was the period before you went into law enforcement? What was the period that you were working as a photographer in Cleveland at that point?
George Shuba [00:20:25] Let’s see, from ’64 through probably ’68, I was doing rock and roll. And then I started out. Well, first of all, I have to put this little footnote. I lied to my wife. She thought I was bowling two nights a week. And then all of a sudden, one night, she gets this engraved invitation and says, congratulations, your husband’s being sworn in as a deputy sheriff. And she said, what is this? And I said, did I fail to communicate somewhere along the line? I don’t remember that. She said, how could you be bowling two nights a week and go through the academy? And I says, I’m really good. I’m really good. But that’s really what did happen. I sort of lied to her a little bit. I did want to be a law enforcement officer, mainly because of the fact we had no law enforcement out on Lake Erie and our boats were being damaged. And so we went to the sheriff and we asked him. In my career in law enforcement for 14 years, I saved over 14. I think it’s 17 lives. Our maiden voyage. There was a boat on 4th of July that sank next to us, and we saved seven people. So. But there’s been good and bad. You know, we’ve had stuff that I won’t go into details on because it’s, it’s not important. But mostly what I did is I did education. I talked to kids about child molestation and drugs. I got laughed off the stage at a public school in Cleveland. I came in my nice shiny uniform, my shiny badge and everything else, and I’m carrying this paraphernalia and it says simulated drugs. And this one little Puerto Rican boy came up to me and he says, what you got in the bag? And I said, these are. I’m doing a drug talk tonight. And he said, can I see it? And I said, sure, come on in. So I opened up the case and he looks and he said, what’s this word? Simulated? And I said, that means it’s not real. He said, no, no, that’s wrong. These are real. They were real. There was Mexican heroin. There was peyote, cactus. There was mescaline. There was everything. Uppers, downers, black beauties, yellows, reds. He knew everything. Well, I came back to that school to talk to the kids about drugs. I got laughed off the stage. I said to him, I’m coming back. I came back a year later with a beard, my tennis shoes, and I said, let’s talk. I sat at the edge of the stage and I had one conference for one hour. Not anybody left. But they couldn’t pass anything over me. I mean, I didn’t even know the language, you know, because everybody has their own language on what the drugs are. And I gained a lot of respect. In fact, I think one of those kids became a deputy sheriff. So if I’ve changed one life, it’s really important to me because that’s, you know, I believe in kids today. And when I used to do the drug talks, I used to swear to kids in as deputy sheriffs. It was a little political star that we used to pin on them. And it was, it said, Sheriff Krieger cares. It was a little political endorsement, but I swore them in as little junior deputies. And they would go home and they’d write down every phone number or not, every license plate of every car that was going by, you know, the sheriff’s department said, get Shuba out of there, you know, causing a havoc. But, you know, if I got through to him, that was really the most important thing. So I stayed on the sheriff’s department for 14 years. So until I was released when a new sheriff came in. So it was just a change of politics.
Justin Hons [00:24:07] Speaking of drugs, though, you talked about the story of Jim Morrison ODing on stage. What was it like being a photographer in the ’60s for rock and roll? I mean, there had to be a lot of, you know, the stereotypical drugs, sex, and rock and roll kind of comes from that.
George Shuba [00:24:23] It’s true. It’s absolutely true.
Justin Hons [00:24:25] What did you see through that lens that you had?
George Shuba [00:24:28] This is going for public broadcast?
Justin Hons [00:24:33] So feel free to.
George Shuba [00:24:35] When we did the Rolling Stones, they were too busy, in point blank terminology, they were too busy getting laid. And that was the problem that we had. A lot of the stuff, we used to go backstage and sometimes I was carrying a badge because I was still a rookie and I would see it and I’d have to leave all my identification at home. I could not make an arrest without permission from the sheriff. So I saw a lot of the drugs. You know, I saw everything that you can think of. I saw a lot of parties. I went to a Jimi Hendrix parties. I saw uppers and downers. They used to call a thing called fruit salad. You grab a bunch, you put them in your mouth and your body goes 17 different directions. The one young lady at that party went through a plate glass window downtown. There was a department store called Higbee’s. She walked right through it. I’m surprised she wasn’t decapitated. Another young lady walked down the middle of that would have been, let’s see, Superior Avenue. No, it would have been Detroit Avenue. Superior-Detroit Bridge. She dared cars to hit ’em. She actually was trying to go because she felt she was invincible. So I saw that stuff. I went to corporate parties where I saw corporate people doing heroin. I saw ’em doing, you know, grass. It was laced with strychnine, some of the stuff. And this was, you know, son and father. So it was very prevalent. I saw a lot of that stuff. You know, I’d come in and all of a sudden I’d see the telltale signs of the nose, the reddishness of the nose and the powder. I mean, it was obvious. I watched the dilation of the eyes. I just seen that down here tonight. We have one guy that we’re watching in particular. Once a cop, always a cop. Like once a priest, always a priest. You know, once a minister, always a minister. The people that most of that I did work with, like the Neil Diamonds and, you know, people like that, there were a few. I mean, it was really, you know, what do I call it? They were the off-center groups at that time. Because you had the good guys like the Beatles and the Stones. Not saying that they weren’t any different because in one of my pictures, that’s the picture Paul waving. I see Ringo with his hand to his face. And as I explained, you do a doobie this way and you do a cigarette this way, left-handed. And I tell people, you make up your own mind. But most of the people were pretty good. They were great. You know, Cleveland was a trial and error city. If anything could be made out of Cleveland. If a record broke here, it broke all over the United States. And that’s a fact. The jocks were always plugging. I mean, we would go to a record hop and the jocks would be out there. They’d bring in like say for instance, the Righteous Brothers over at Lumen Cordium Catholic High School out in Bedford. And you know, to get the Righteous Brothers to come out there, Sonny Geraci would come out there with the outsiders, people like that. I mean, and they mingled. I mean, you know, they had just a good time and there were no restrictions. I made friends with the Belkin Brothers, which were the primary promoters of rock and roll and Cleveland. And they were super. They were just super. I still have sort of an outstanding or outstanding invitation anytime, any place I can go to any of their concerts. And I don’t have the three song limitation. I was doing Alice Cooper and while we were down at the. This was at the old Coliseum and this girl was next to me and her camera jammed. And she said, do you have anything you could unjam my camera? And I said, yeah. And I had a little flashlight and I took the film out. And of course I ruined the film when you take it out. So she said, you got another roll of film? And I said, yeah. She said, I’ll pay you for it. And I said, no, here, just take it. I said, you’re a professional. Only to find out it was Candice Bergen. So I mean, you never knew who was in the front seat or you know, who’s being where. But most of the people, like guys like Steve Popovich who owns Cleveland International Records, I mean, here he’s a record promoter, he brought in the Buckinghams. I do his wedding and the next thing I know, he’s the president of an international record company and he went on to wreak great fame. And of course, then he went to do polkas again because he’s Slovenian. So I go with my heritage sometimes have to throw it in, you know.
Justin Hons [00:29:08] What’s a record hop, though?
George Shuba [00:29:09] Record hop was mostly where the kids came in. They just danced in music. They had maybe a band, they had maybe three bands that played and they sort of battle of bands and then they gave a trophy out for the best band that performed that night. But they were always doing this and I mean, you know, the sock hops were, you know, you dance in your socks. But it was clean fun all the way through. There was no fistfights. I mean, today you can’t go to any place like this. I mean, you go to a bar today and, hell, you know, you better have a straightjacket or not a straightjacket, but a flak jacket on because you never know what’s going to happen. I mean, things have changed, you know, radically. And a lot of it, you know, you can put it on the social pressures, you can call it peer pressure, and I won’t try to editorialize because I could go on a dissertation and you wouldn’t have enough film, you know, to carry through. But a lot of it is, you know, coming back from, you know, broken families and things like this. One of the things, when I was a cop, I used to take my prisoners to jail, and this is one thing the sheriff used to always bug, get bugged about. I would whisper, I don’t care how high you were, I would whisper in that person’s ear. If you want to come in as a man, I’ll treat you as a man. If you want to come in as an animal, I will treat you as an animal. And I’m an excellent shot and you can draw any picture you want in between. But when you start messing around with the male family jewels, I don’t care how high you are, you get the message real quick. I never had a problem. Today I watch Cops and I see all the stuff that goes on. We didn’t have that problem. I didn’t have a jacket on, never had a bulletproof vest, you know? They respected the law and I’m glad they’re respecting the law today. I mean, it’s come back full circle, but it was, it was a good time.
Justin Hons [00:31:08] Did you ever go to any concerts for enjoyment at all in Cleveland or was it all work-related?
George Shuba [00:31:15] All work. I took my wife to the first concert. It was a Rock and Roll hall of Fame induction. First of all, we had two tickets and I was supposed to be up on the dais because I had given the Rock and Roll Hall of fame 10 years of my pictures, which Norman Knight had used to promote the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And plus, the fact is that I did a lot of work for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I photographed all their memorabilia. And I said, I want to be the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame photographer for one year because I’ve done my internship. They said, yeah, no problem. Well, I bought an old funeral home for a studio. My studio was literally all the way to the ceiling, littered, not littered, but boxes of memorabilia. And of course, I was photographing all the stuff. And we were shipping it in and shipping it out. But I remember the story about a cab driver that came to Cleveland and this man put like, I forgot it was 250 or $300,000 worth of jewelry in the back of the trunk. And if you know cab drivers, they’re self employed and they don’t keep a record of, you know, time in, time out. Well, he dropped off his passenger, passenger went in and forgot his case, called the cab company. The guy had already gone on vacation. Guy didn’t show up for two weeks afterwards, goes to his trunk and he finds all these jewels and returned them. And I was thinking, boy, I could see dumb photographer leaves door open, $2 million worth of memorabilia lost, you know. So I slept with a .357 Magnum downstairs every night while I had that stuff there until I got rid of it. And I photographed for seven straight days just rock and roll memorabilia. But it was very, very interesting. And it was quite unique. I mean, to touch the drumsticks or touch the, say, the costume like James Brown. James Brown used to walk down the aisles. He had probably 10 foot of costuming. And he would walk with that canter and he would let his hand drag and he would sort of like keep his eyes closed. And as he felt each one of the suits, then he’d go down the other side of the aisle and feel the other side. In front of the suits were the pair of shoes. Until he felt that suit that he was going to wear. And that’s the suit he put on pure silk. And when he sweat like you couldn’t believe. I got some tremendous pictures of him. People ask me, who were your three favorites? Real simple. James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Neil Diamond.
Justin Hons [00:33:56] Tell me why, for each one.
George Shuba [00:34:00] James Brown, I just, I liked what he did. He had that soul music. It was soulful. It made you think. And it had a beat, a great beat to it. It made you, when you’re shooting your pictures, you sort of, you play with the trigger because you’re following the beat of the music. And I could almost anticipate what he was going to do before he did it. That’s where I go back to between a professional and amateur is a millisecond. Aretha Franklin went backstage, she had coffee, and she comes up and she offers me coffee. And they had some bakery and things like this, and can I get you anything? And I’m looking and I said, you know, Aretha, I’m only a photographer. She said, no, she says, you’re a human being. And those words, that’s the actual word she used that always just was everlasting. I mean, how can you say you don’t like someone? About that Neil Diamond I spent eight hours with when he was nobody. I got pictures of kids in mud up to their knees. And here’s this deputy sheriff trying to rush- You know, the kids are trying to rush the stage, and there’s a barrier in front. They couldn’t even get out of the quagmire of mud, let alone, you know, move their feet. And we talked about everything, just family, records. We talked about politics. We talked about everything. And I spent eight hours with him at Geauga Lake Park when no one was there. I mean, so. And the funny part is, this is 2006 and 2004, I went through double knee surgery, replacements. And just before I went in for surgery, his last CD box set of eight has got my photo of Wixie’s Geauga Lake Park with the crowd. And as you pull out the CD, you see the faces. And he used that for the insert. And plus one of my other pictures. So, I mean, you know, how can you go wrong? You know? Plus, I love his music, you know, so. So, I mean, everybody’s anything has got a beat to me, you know, I go anything from classical to pop to C and W [country and western] music to polkas to rock, you know, I just love all music, that’s all. You know, it’s got a good beat to it, as long as it has a beat to it. So.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:36:24] I was just wondering about the different venues. I mean, when you talked about The Beatles or when you talked about The Stones and him taking, Jagger taking a step back and, like, losing sight of him, where are the different places that you-
George Shuba [00:36:36] Cleveland Stadium.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:36:38] And can you maybe describe a little bit about them or just tell them where they are?
George Shuba [00:36:42] Well, when the Beatles came in, they played at Public Hall. So they had the full. You know, that’s a 20,000 capacity. When, let’s see, when the Stones came in, it went Beatles, Dave Clark, five, then the Stones. When the Stones played, I think they played. Oh, boy. I’m going to say they played in Public hall, too, but they only had like 3,000, 4,000 people or 5,000 max. So, I mean, they were a little disgruntled when the last time I shot them, they played in front of 80,000 people, which was at the Cleveland Stadium, the old Cleveland Stadium. But it wasn’t really 80,000. It was probably maybe 45,000, something like that. So, yeah, it was a different One was an open. The other one was closed. Stones. My last concert that I did with these Stones was 78, and that was at Cleveland Stadium, Open air, where all the other stadiums were pretty much closed in venues. But, you know, the part about it is that you could go backstage and you can talk to them as people today. That doesn’t happen. Doesn’t happen unless you know somebody and then you got two, three minutes with them. And even as a journalist, you know, with press credentials, you know, I try to be as discreet as I can because, you know, I respect people. You know, I’m not going to look to find– I’m not a paparazzi. And that’s one big thing. If someone calls me a paparazzi, that’s like, you know, calling me the worst thing you can call me. When Princess Di died, I was walking down 9th and Euclid. I turned a corner and this woman said, murderer, murderer, murderer. You killed Diane. And I looked at her and I said, who the hell? I didn’t kill Diane. I said, Diane who? And she said, the Princess. And I said, ma’ am, I said, you see this thing around my neck? It says press. It doesn’t say paparazzi. The difference between paparazzi and press, we have class. Sometimes, you know, I mean, sometimes we’re arrogant as hell because you have to shuffle. But the paparazzi, they go out for strictly the money. And they’re looking for the most outrageous or anything that’ll sell papers or news magazines. And I don’t do that. You know, I look at a person. You can always tell a paper by the front cover. If you find a paper who happens to be sort of Democratic based, you’ll find George Bush picking his nose. If you find a Republican paper, George Bush is going to be smiling. Look at your papers next time you See them. The power of the press with photography. Remember, 10,000 words and it’s the truth. So, yeah, it makes a difference. And editors, you know, photo editors especially, are really noted for this stuff. I hope that answers your question.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:39:47] Did you have a favorite venue? Did you have a favorite place?
George Shuba [00:39:51] No. Any place that I knew I could put my camera and it wouldn’t be stolen. I mean, remember we were carrying equipment, sometimes 25, 35, 45 pounds of camera gear around our shoulders. I think this is why my knees went bad, my back went bad. I went through back surgery and double knee surgery. And I mean, we were carrying stuff like tripods and everything else and long lenses and it’s not like the digital stuff today, you know, can pack it up and put it in my pocket. The stuff I was carrying, man, it was heavy, you know? And I was carrying two and three cameras. And then, you know, you’re trying to rewind and you’re trying to. Then you lose your film or you put it in a pocket or you dropped it. And if it dropped into the crowd, say goodbye because they never gave it back to you, you know, I mean, they kept it. But like I said, most of all, the kids were different, but they were good. I mean, but they were just all excited. I mean, you know, and the police just did not know how to handle the riotous condition. Of course, after the Beatles thing, then it all faked– One of the pictures I have. And if you guys are around at the Beatles, when they started, kids start rushing the stage. Here’s this line of policemen holding back the crowds. And you can see the crowd of kids. And here’s this little short policeman. He was a civil defense policeman. And he’s leaning back like this against these big, huge giants of cops behind him. And if he would have had a sandwich in his hand, it would have been a perfect picture, you know. I mean, it was just. That’s the way it looked, you know. But, yeah, I got along with almost everybody and I’ve had a great career. I mean, if I died tomorrow morning, you know, I wouldn’t regret anything that I did because it was great. And like I said, you know, just to be involved with the people. I can walk down the street today and I see people, corporate generals and everything else like that. And they say hi to you and, hey, George, how you doing? You know, and it’s a nice feeling, you know, to be recognized, I guess. I guess I did my internship, but that’s the best way of saying it.
Justin Hons [00:41:59] I know that you have some photos in the Cleveland Memory Project right out front here.
George Shuba [00:42:03] Right.
Justin Hons [00:42:04] Talk a little bit about those.
George Shuba [00:42:06] There’s just one. It’s Captain Penny and Ms. Barb. When I worked for Channel 5. And that was one of the pictures. Captain Penny was Ron Penfound, and he was quite a guy. Another one that I did his weddings. I used to do a lot of weddings, and that’s where I sort of honed my skills. And Ms. Barb was, of course, Ms. Barbara. And she used to play to the little kids in the morning. But, yeah, it was mostly a morning program with Captain Penny and Ms. Barb. But, yeah, you got a great collection of stuff out there.
Justin Hons [00:42:43] Well, this has been great. There’s a ton more that I could probably ask, but I guess. How are we doing right now?
George Shuba [00:42:50] Forty-two.
Justin Hons [00:42:51] Okay, so maybe two more minutes.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:42:54] Sure. Do you have the time for-
George Shuba [00:42:57] Yeah, we’ll have to make it quick because I’ve got someone watching my-
Justin Hons [00:43:00] Well, we can cut it short here.
George Shuba [00:43:02] Okay.
Justin Hons [00:43:02] We can stop it here.
George Shuba [00:43:03] What’s one of the last questions?
Justin Hons [00:43:05] Okay. This is a personal curiosity, but other people I think would be interested. Yesterday you were talking about how you spent a day with Jimi Hendrix. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
George Shuba [00:43:17] Yeah. I was hired by WKYC. What I used to do. This is going to– well, one of the papers [inaudible]. I pitted the two papers against each other. I had a friend whose name was Bruno Bornino who worked for the Cleveland Press. And then I had a friend who was Jane Scott, who worked for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. They did the same exact writing. They covered the rock and roll beat. Sometimes the press would not allow to have a photographer. And the Plain Dealer had more money and they sent out a photographer. So I would represent the radio station and I would shoot for the radio station, bill them, but give the pictures to the press. And there were times I gave it to the Plain Dealer and worked the opposite direction. So I played two against one. And both of them knew what I was doing. So I forgot. What was your original question again? Yeah. Oh, Jimmy. So I was working for WKYC, and so he came in and we went on a Chuck Dunaway show. And I remember there was probably 400, 500 kids outside of WKYC sitting there waiting for Jimi Hendrix. Now, I had never met Jimi Hendrix or even heard part of his music. I had heard maybe one song, and I wasn’t too thrilled with it. So I met Jimi Hendrix, and he was real nice to me and everything else like that. And we were on a Chuck Dunaway show. And then as we were coming out, I shot a picture with Jules and Mike Belkin. And then I went to the Jimi Hendrix concert. There were two concerts. There was one at 7 o’ clock and there was one at 9:30. The 7 o’ clock, we all looked under our seats because there was a bomb threat. We were all looking for a bomb. Really brilliant by the police department, you know, if you really want to- The average person looking for a bomb, like, oh good, I found the bomb. What am I going to do with it? You know, pull the fuse? But anyhow, so I shot the 9:30 concert. And at 9:30 concert, Jimmy went wild. He destroyed his amps. I mean, I got a picture of him taking his guitar and just smashing it. And you see the roadie holding the amps, whoops, holding the amps and Jimmy pushing his guitar. And I got some people jumped into the pit and tried to get in to grab Jimi Hendrix’s leg just to get a piece of him. And so, I mean, that was the stuff that I used to go through. And then after the concerts, what would happen is we were supposed to do press interviews and they would whisk them away till the next day or we’d meet them at the, you know, wherever they were traveling from, whether they were traveling by car or by airplane, and meet them at that venue and do our interviews. So yeah, it was exciting. You know, you started out at 4:00, 5:00 in the afternoon, and you maybe came home at 4 or 5:00 in the morning, you know, so you put in a 12 hour day, 14 hour day. So it was interesting. Very interesting. I hope that answers your question. Okay, I’m going to head back.
Justin Hons [00:46:21] Thank you for sharing your story.
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