[birds chirping]
[tree cracking]
[crashing, rustling]
[bright, plucky string instrumentals playing]
[engine popping gently]
[Bell] My father was a landscaping contractor...
for Winthrop Rockefeller...
[car horns honking]
...of the Rockefeller family.
-[car horns honking] -[bright instrumentals continue]
-[music fades] -[traffic humming]
As a teenager, I delivered invoices from my father.
[cheery string instrumentals playing]
And one time, Rockefeller talked to me about wealth.
He taught me the major financial world's way of thinking.
One, you don't own any of the turf.
So if you wanna become an entrepreneur,
you have to appreciate that there's someone else
that owns the turf
that you're setting out to build something on.
Two, after you've gotten to a certain magnitude,
you begin to infringe on somebody else's market share.
And that's the major corporations in this country.
Once you do that, they realize you're achieving something,
they come in and they wanna buy it.
"If we can't buy it from you, we'll try to copy it.
And if we can't copy it, then we'll destroy you."
The big fish has to eat the little fish.
[car horn honking]
I understood the rules of the game in America,
but after all of our success,
I began to wonder,
why couldn't Stax become the big fish?
[string instrumentals mellow, turn solemn]
-[lights click] -[electricity buzzing]
[buzzing intensifies]
[echoing click]
[cheering]
[up-tempo drum beat playing]
[funky, mellow bass line joins]
[Bowman] By the '70s, Stax was on everybody's radar
in the music industry.
Very successful, recognized,
but Stax's presence on the West Coast
still eluded them.
[solemn string instrumentals layer over drum beat]
[Bell] We decided to open an office in Los Angeles.
But to have more impact on the West Coast,
we needed more involvement in the Black community.
Black folks in Watts needed help.
We had just gone through the Rebellion,
you know, six, seven years before.
[indistinct shouting]
[clamoring]
There were whole blocks that had been burned down...
and seven years later they had not been rebuilt.
There's no difference in Watts now, Watts '65.
[up-tempo drum line picks up once more]
[Bell] Those people were in pain.
We had an obligation and needed to do something about it.
[Stewart] Al's commitment to the Black community,
he felt like he should give something back
and still conduct business and-and make money.
I understood that he felt he needed to do that.
-[typewriter keys clacking] -[chatter]
[Bell] We decided to put on a concert
at the Los Angeles stadium where the Rams play.
The management at the stadium kinda laughed at us,
"You're some little record company
from out of Memphis, Tennessee.
You wanna rent this stadium to put on a concert?
Who do you say these artists are?"
[laughs]
[funk bass melody playing]
It became, "Let's bring the whole entire roster out there."
And we were promoting the daylights out of it.
[Teddy] Everybody knew Wattstax, Wattstax.
We worked on it for months,
and every time you run into anybody,
they'd say, "I'll be there. I'll be there."
[Bell] Now it looks like we may pack this stadium.
So you know how it is when there's a gathering
of more than one of us someplace,
the largest segment of society
begins to kind of wonder,
"Are we gonna have a problem here?"
[mellow, yet driving jazz instrumentals join]
[Teddy] The LAPD wanted to patrol the Coliseum.
Nobody liked the Los Angeles Police Department.
[solemn string music playing]
The Rebellion started because of the LAPD.
[clamoring]
Their hiring practices were to go to the South
and get police from there.
So they hated us in the South,
and then they brought 'em here to the West.
[man 1] You got police that are antagonistic,
who want to do some cock waving kind of thing
and provoke somebody.
[Teddy] Larry Shaw and Al Bell said,
"No, we were hiring our own security."
[Clark] You just eliminated a huge problem.
No police, no conflict.
["We The People" by The Staple Singers playing]
♪ We the people ♪
♪ Hey, now ♪
♪ Got to make the world go 'round ♪
♪ Got to make the world now ♪
♪ We the people ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Got to make the world go 'round ♪
♪ Got to make the world now ♪
[Porter] Let's bring together our people.
Let's show ourselves that we can do something for each other
and not be dependent upon anybody, and we can do it.
♪ But we all are living on blood, so ♪
♪ Don't let nobody slip into the mud ♪
♪ 'Cause we the people ♪
♪ You tell 'em ♪
♪ Got to make the world go 'round ♪
♪ Got to make the world now ♪
[Bell] We decided that we were going to
charge the people just one dollar.
And we committed to give a portion of the proceeds
to all of our civil rights organizations
and our civic organizations.
♪ Everybody sweatin' ♪
♪ What you give is what you get ♪
-[song fades] -[chatter]
[indistinct crew chatter]
[Bell] Our music was a reflection
of what goes on in our lives,
and we wanted to show that.
Larry Shaw said, "Let us do a documentary
so that Black people can see themselves."
We brought on David Wolper and Mel Stuart.
The finest documentary people in Hollywood.
But all of the behind-the-camera staff
were all white guys.
No. No. No, we didn't want that.
Larry Shaw had a vision.
He wanted the people that lived and worked in Watts
to speak for theirselves.
[bright, funky instrumentals playing]
And at that time, UCLA had just graduated
a crop of Black filmmakers.
[Clark] African Americans had been pretty much
kept out of the industry.
They needed to find some people who really knew the community.
And that was us, "The Wild Bunch."
[laughs] You know, the-the-the young guys
that lived in South Central LA.
[man 2] I was 20-something.
Was just a young guy with a camera
and happy to have a chance to use a camera.
And I wanted to show how beautiful Black folks were.
[man 3] I was working at a camera shop.
I have quite a meager portfolio, to be honest.
They looked at the portfolio and they said to me, uh,
"We're going with somebody else, but here's some tickets,
and a backstage pass."
[crew member] Camera six, roll nine!
[“Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get” by The Dramatics playing]
[woman] Wild sound. Wattstax.
♪ Some people ♪
♪ Are made of plastic ♪
[Richard Pryor] Over seven years ago,
the people of Watts stood together
and demanded to be heard.
On a Sunday this past August in the Los Angeles Coliseum,
over 100,000 Black people came together
to commemorate that moment in American history.
[Talamon] The atmosphere, it was like a combination
of church, a sporting event, a revival,
and it was nothing but Black people
as far as the eye could see.
-[song fades] -[cheering]
[Jesse Jackson] Today, we are together,
we are unified and on one accord.
But when we are together, we got power,
and we can make decisions.
That is why we gather today,
to celebrate our homecoming
and our own sense of somebodiness.
That is why I challenge you now to stand together,
raise your fists together,
and engage in our national Black litany.
-I am... -[crowd] I am...
-...somebody. -[crowd] ...somebody.
-I am... -I am...
-...somebody. -...somebody.
-I may be poor... -I may be poor...
-...but I am... -...but I am...
-...somebody! -...somebody!
-I am... -I am...
-...Black... -...Black...
-...beautiful... -...beautiful...
-...proud! -...proud!
-I must be respected! -I must be respected!
-I must be protected! -I must be protected!
What time is it?
When we stand together, what time is it?
Nation Time!
When we say no more, "Yessir, boss," what time is it?
What time is it?
[applause]
[man 4] "...Freedom Sweet and wonderful to say.
On my heartstrings freedom sings All day, every day."
"And there are words like Liberty
that almost make me cry.
If you had known what I know, you would know why."
[crowd chatter]
[Carla] I had been at a stadium before,
but I had no idea how many people were up there.
It was just... when they told me
it was over a hundred thousand people, I was like... "Wow."
[announcer] Carla Thomas!
[Carla] By the time I sang, I was hyped up on adrenaline.
♪ Hey, boy ♪
♪ We're drifting apart ♪
♪ We keep breaking each other's hearts ♪
♪ Tell me, how long can this go on ♪
♪ Before all our love is gone ♪
♪ Tell me now ♪
♪ Can we pick up the pieces ♪
♪ And start all over ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ I know we can make it ♪
♪ This time, we can go all of the way ♪
♪ 'Cause I realize the cost of losing you ♪
♪ Is too high a price... ♪
[Carla] When we first got there, it was kinda unreal.
I just thought it was just so wonderful
because I was there
when Stax actually started.
♪ Let's start all over ♪
♪ Yeah, start all over ♪
[Carla] It was our realization,
the importance of Stax to the Black community.
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
All right!
["Lying on the Truth" playing]
♪ Tell the truth on our equal rights ♪
♪ Yeah! You been lyin' on the truth ♪
Al, this is a very important precedent that's being set today
with Black enterprise being involved
in a tremendous community project.
Uh, do you think there's enough of this?
Would you like to see more of it?
Oh, I think there should be more of that.
Uh, I hope that today is just an example
to all Black businessmen, and other businessmen,
of how we should begin to participate
and-and-and put money back into the community
rather than through token presentations
that we've been doing in the past.
I hope today is just a-a-an example
and merely beginning of what it's really all about.
["Son of Shaft" performed by The Bar-Kays]
Right now, we'd like to give everybody a chance
to get down.
[funky instrumentals playing]
♪ Whoa-oh-whoa-oh-whoa ♪
♪ Whoa-ho-ho-ho ♪
[falsetto] ♪ Woo-hoo ♪
♪ I was born and raised on 45th Street ♪
♪ Had the problems of a man at the age of three ♪
♪ Now, my daddy's bad, I've been told ♪
♪ So my family name I must uphold ♪
♪ I love by the clock and I live by the gun ♪
♪ You ever met the father, you met his son ♪
♪ Woo! ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
[reporter] As a sister living in this community,
what does this day mean to you?
Oh, wow.
It's a day in which I'm given a chance
to represent people that I love, people that I'm proud of.
Dad felt it important to get the man on the street,
the woman on the... in the beauty shop,
the man at the restaurant, the man on the stoop,
all of these different aspects of Black people in their lives.
Black is beautiful because it feels so good.
People have to have something that they can relate to
for right now.
I don't mean tomorrow,
for right now, dig what I'm saying?
[falsetto] ♪ Woo! ♪
♪ Good God Almighty ♪
[falsetto] ♪ Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo! ♪
♪ Don't mess with me ♪
I wanted Black people to be able to look into that mirror
and see themselves positively,
and I wanted white people to be able
to look through a little peephole
and be able to look inside and see just a little bit
of what we were all about.
♪ Lord knows I'm the son ♪
♪ Hee-hee! ♪
♪ Woo, oh! ♪
[funky instrumentals continue]
[Bell] There's a lot more than putting out music.
-[song ends] -[cheering, applause]
Hey!
-Hey! -Hey!
-Can I ask you something? -[crowd shouts]
Ain't I'm clean?
[screaming, cheering]
[comical kick drum hit]
[whimsical guitar riff]
Oh!
["Funky Chicken" playing]
Y'all come on in now!
Come right on down front!
I got somethin' I wanna show you.
I'm talking about the Funky Chicken.
[Clark] The deal was, is that
no one's supposed to get on the field.
[Rufus] Y'all ready?
♪ Do the funky chicken now ♪
And he invites everybody in on the field
and they're dancing and having a good time, you know.
♪ Do the funky chicken now ♪
♪ Oh, oh ♪
♪ Do the funky chicken now ♪
["Funky Chicken" continues]
[Bell] Los Angeles Rams are gonna play...
[Rufus] ♪ Woo! ♪
[Bell] ...so a problem was brewing.
[Clark] And then, Larry Shaw whispers something in his ear,
and what he's saying is, "Get 'em off the field."
[Rufus] Come on, y'all, please go to the stand.
Please with a capital P-P.
[Bell] God bless the talents of Rufus Thomas.
He was able to control that crowd.
[Rufus] That's right.
Might be a little slow,
but you just got to go.
Don't jump the fence because it don't make sense.
[clamoring]
[Clark] And there's one guy... [laughs]
...that's on the field and he's acting a fool.
You know, he's doing all kinds of crazy stuff.
[Rufus] He don't mean to be mean,
he just want be seen.
Yeah, that's a brother, all right.
[laughter]
Somebody told him he's cute
and he want to try to show it off out there.
[Clark] It could've been a conflict,
but there were no police inside.
[Rufus] Now, y'all get him off.
Y'all go out there and get him off.
Get him off, y'all. Get him on off.
And finally, the kids rush out,
and he doesn't want to go,
but they don't beat him up or they're not violent.
It's just like the power of this... this loving mob
just swept him off the field in a very nice way. [laughs]
It also kinda showed the unity that was there that day.
[Carla] Dad was amazing.
And then I asked him, I said,
"Can we go sit out in the audience?"
He said, "Are you crazy? No!"
They wouldn't let us go out.
Because I wanted to see, as the sun was going down,
I wanted to see Isaac.
[engine revving]
[Jesse Jackson] Brothers and sisters,
we are now about to bring forth
a bad...
bad...
bad brother,
Isaac Hayes.
Yeah!
Yes!
["Theme From Shaft" playing]
Yes!
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
["Theme From Shaft" continues]
Yes!
[Talamon] So here I am as a young photographer,
just trying to make his way in the world.
So I decided I needed to get up on that platform.
[cacophonous screaming]
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Yeah, yeah!
[Talamon] They had hired, you know,
the slabs of beef brothers, the big, the big brothers,
but they weren't really security.
So I was able to waltz right up the stairway.
I had zero credentials to be on that stage.
I was just there by sheer luck and a little audacity.
And I'm a foot away from Isaac Hayes
in front of everybody.
♪ Soulsville ♪
["Soulsville" by Isaac Hayes playing]
♪ Black man ♪
♪ Born free ♪
♪ At least that's the way it's supposed to be ♪
♪ The chains that bind him are hard to see ♪
♪ Unless you take this walk with me ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
♪ The place where he lives ♪
♪ Has got plenty of names ♪
♪ Slum, ghetto, and Black belt ♪
♪ They are one and the same ♪
-♪ And I call it ♪ -♪ Soulsville ♪
[soulful R&B saxophone solo]
Okay, so, this is one of the photographs
I took of Isaac Hayes that night.
Wattstax was, for me, a pivotal moment.
Later, I had the audacity to think
I need to be one of the keepers
of Black folks' history, visual history.
'Cause I wasn't gonna leave it to somebody else.
♪ Little Black boy ♪
♪ Needs a pair of shoes ♪
♪ And this is only a part of ♪
♪ Soulsville ♪
[Young] The images, they chose me.
That was my dream, to become a cameraman.
And, uh, it came true.
In ‘74, I went to Zaire,
and I filmed When We Were Kings,
Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.
I got the job because I... they saw Wattstax.
This is what I wanted to do when I was 12 years old
in sixth grade.
I did something.
I did something. You know?
♪ This misery that we have in ♪
♪ Soulsville ♪
♪ Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
[Bell] That day that I stood on that stage
in Los Angeles, California,
and saw that place,
which was probably an impossible dream
filled with 112,000 of my people...
["Soulsville" continues]
The highest day in my life, that day.
I can't even explain how much that meant to me.
♪ Soulsville ♪
[song fades]
-[cheering] -[funky drum beat playing]
[upbeat, jazzy instrumentals playing]
[announcer] Two thousand soulful people came together
for the opening of Wattstax.
Wattstax, how about that?
[funky music continues]
[Bowman] The growth at Stax from the beginning of the label
till the Wattstax documentary film
is mind-boggling to comprehend.
Stax, and many people in the music industry,
begin to think in bigger terms for Black artists.
And opens up the door for artists we all know and love.
By '73, Memphis was in the top five
record producing centers in the world.
New York, L.A., London, then Nashville and Memphis,
driven by the success of Stax Records.
[Parker] We were all learning
and developing and growing and changing.
[Robertson] Oh my goodness. Stax, it was excellence.
It was Black excellence.
You got writers, producers, publishers, costume people.
There was a company that was created
as a result of selling
Isaac all of his instruments and sound systems
and stuff for the road.
So Stax was important to the economy of the city.
[Bell] One time, Jim Stewart called the president
of Union Planters National Bank
to borrow a million dollars.
We paid him back in less than a year.
And in Memphis, Tennessee, at that time,
to borrow a million dollars,
especially being a little old record company
in the music business and pay that back,
"What the hell are you all doing?"
[laughs] "We want to do business with y'all."
[commercial announcer] Union Planters National Bank.
To help you get more out of life.
[woman 1] Up until that time, Stax had been under the radar
because it was in an all-Black area.
But word started getting out
that people were making a lot of money over there.
You know, all the artists started buying
all the fancy cars right and left.
King Furs made a lot of money.
I bought my first one there when I was 21. [chuckles]
Local merchants were making money because we spent money.
Whites took the money, but they still resented it.
I remember going to the bank a couple of times,
and, you know, the tellers would have an attitude
seeing a Black person coming in with a nice-sized check.
[Hayes] I had a jeweler
who I brought a lot of business to.
He told my wife, "Isaac is getting too big
for his britches."
[Bowman] For most of white Memphis,
it's like, "How did this happen?
How did... how did these Black people in South Memphis
become this big and have this power?"
[Parker] We were energized, successful,
and there was nothing in Memphis to stop it or to change it.
[indistinct chatter]
[Stewart] The early '70s were very good...
but I'd been doing this for 15 years or more,
night and day, seven days a week.
I was getting tired.
[solemn note resonates]
[Bell] One day, Jim said, "Al,
I think we need to sell the company."
[solemn melody plucked softly on strings]
And I said, "No, Jim, we don't need to sell."
I loved this company,
and my personal mission
is to continue to build and grow Stax Records.
I couldn't just give it up.
[Stewart] I understood where Al was coming from,
so I agreed to sell my interest to Al.
[Bell] I needed millions of dollars to buy Jim out.
So I knew I had to get to one of these major companies out here
and get me some help.
[traffic humming]
I went to several companies,
but there was no place in the entire industry
that would offer the kind of money that we needed,
except CBS.
[announcer] The leader in the rock revolution.
CBS Records took in
two billion, seventeen million dollars.
And that's just for records and tapes.
[Bell] Columbia, CBS Records
was the number one recorded music company
in existence in our industry.
They were all power.
The whole of the industry bowed to their knees.
But there was a problem.
The Black segment of the industry
considered CBS racist.
They believed CBS didn't care about them at all.
It was as though they were nonexistent.
[indistinct announcing]
Where I found some peace within me to make this decision
was Clive Davis...
["Mr. Big Stuff" by Jean Knight playing]
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
...the president of CBS Records.
♪ Mr. Big Stuff ♪
♪ Who do you think you are, Mr. Big Stuff? ♪
Clive Davis...
A genius.
I explained to him my mission to expand into the mainstream.
He said, "Well, Al, I think I can get that done.
I think we can do that."
[Bowman] Clive Davis
saw this as making money in the R&B business,
that, at that point, CBS had yet to be making.
The soul music market was substantial, it was growing,
and for CBS, the opportunity with Stax was gold.
[Bell] When we finished talking,
Clive Davis got up, took my arm, said "Al,
we're gonna march through this industry together
and show them what can be done out here."
[upbeat drum beat playing]
[Bowman] The deal that Al Bell and Clive Davis worked out
was the inverse of the typical distribution deal of the time.
CBS could get a 15% royalty of the sales
and Stax would get the rest.
Plus, Stax maintained creative control.
This is a total flip.
The little guy is going to make a lot more than the big guy,
the corporate behemoth.
No large American record corporation
had ever agreed to a deal like this before.
With CBS, things were really, really happening.
Stax got into spoken word, country, rock, show tunes.
Would you welcome Lena Zavaroni?
[applause]
[Robertson] We had signed this little girl.
She had a voice like Ethel Merman.
♪ Every minute, he gets bolder ♪
♪ Now he's leaning on my shoulder ♪
♪ Mama... ♪
We were on top of the world.
♪ Whoa, Mama ♪
♪ He's kissing me ♪
[Bowman] Al Bell really wanted to make Stax Records
a major label equal to RCA or Columbia.
♪ Yeah ♪
[song ends with bright musical flourish]
The Stax-Columbia deal was made October 24, '72...
and by May 1973,
Columbia, which was owned by CBS,
had a problem.
[tense string music playing]
[reporter] The story begins with Pat Falcone,
convicted heroin smuggler
with ties to a large New York mafia family.
Patsy Falcone was arrested on a drug charge
and a quantity of heroin was also seized.
In Falcone's address book,
investigators found the name of a high-level executive
at Columbia Records,
a major record company in rock music.
A while later, that executive
and Clive Davis, president of Columbia Records,
were fired on short notice.
[reporter] CBS is saying nothing
about the dismissal of Clive Davis
other than an official statement saying that he's being sued
for misappropriation of company funds.
[Bell] They fired Clive Davis.
I said, "Oh my God."
The only reason I made the deal with CBS
was because of the relationship with Clive Davis.
And now he's gone.
[music fades]
[Bowman] Clive Davis's successors get into office.
They start looking at the various deals
they have with various companies.
They see the Stax deal and think this is nuts.
This little company in this backwater town,
as these New York executives saw it,
had control of everything.
And so they want to renegotiate the deal.
[Bell] I said, "Wait a minute."
I had already signed a deal.
[crackling]
[bee buzzing]
-[rustling] -[horn blaring]
Well, my mind went back to
what Winthrop Rockefeller taught me
about big fish eats the little fish.
They try to copy what you're doing.
[recording technician] Rolling.
[Bell] They come and try to acquire
or purchase what you're doing.
And if they can't do that, then they set out
to put you out of business.
There are rules in this game, in that world.
But I couldn't accept that offer.
-What time is it? -Nation Time!
I don't think Al realized
what he might be up against when you got powerful executives
at a corporation the size and scale of Columbia
who decide, "No, this doesn't work for us.
It's time to renegotiate."
It's like talking to the mafia.
You're not gonna have your kneecaps broken,
but you're gonna say no?
See what happens.
[grim, ominous instrumentals playing]
[man 5] I was in Washington, D.C.,
doing promotions, and I went into Waxie Maxie,
ran by a gentleman by the name of Herbie Cohen,
who has 19 stores in the Washington, D.C. area.
And I knew Herbie personally.
So I went through and see the salespeople
getting their aisles together, tidied up and everything.
I said, "How am I doing on that new Johnnie Taylor?"
"We don't have it." "Uh?"
"We don't have Johnnie Taylor." "Hold on, hold on."
So I ran back up and I said, "Well, by the way,
I didn't see the Staple Singers. You got them?"
"We don't have it." "Uh-huh?"
And I said, "Herbie, why you not having no product?
What's going on? You lost your mind?"
And he said, "No, I ain't lost my mind.
You lost yours.
CBS got you on hold."
"On hold?"
[dramatic music playing]
[Robertson] I went to Dallas with the Staple Singers.
They were opening at the Fairmont Hotel.
Actually the first Black act to ever headline
at a Fairmont Hotel.
You got radio spots running and-and-and all of that,
and they're appearing right there in town.
You know, it's a tremendous opportunity to sell product.
So imagine...
imagine my confusion
when I'm talking to the record shops,
and I'm told that, "Well, we love--
I mean, sales would be going well if we had some product."
"You don't have product?
CBS is our distributor,
there's an office in Dallas,
and you don't have Staple Singers product?"
[Bell] I talked to CBS every week,
two times a week, three times a week,
and always gotta start with, "Al, it's just,
there's no demand for it."
"But there's demand for product in the market!"
"But, Al, we're not getting the demand in here."
So, now keep in mind, CBS is laughing
because they control your money now.
[dramatic music continues]
[Parker] Stax Records is continuing to produce product
at the pace and level that it always has,
but we can't get the product into the marketplace
because CBS controls our distribution.
No product out.
If you press it, they're stockpiling it someplace
where you can't find it.
[traffic humming]
[Bell] CBS got in touch with me
and asked me to have a meeting with me.
[indistinct chatter]
Said to me, "Al, what we'd like to do is make a deal with you
where we will make you vice president of CBS Corporate.
-[echoing pop] -[chatter]
You have access to all the perks
that executives of your stature get inside of CBS.
The corporate jets.
We'd like for you to go around America, speaking
and talking to people about the beautiful relationship
with CBS working with Black people.
And when soul music artists start making demands,
we want you to come in and say, 'CBS is gonna take care of you,
and it can help build your career and build your life.'"
He said, "And you'll be the most powerful Black man in America.
What do you think about that, Al?"
I said, "Let me... let me think about that."
And I disappeared. I left.
[wind whistling]
[car horn honking]
There was a desire to take Stax over,
own it and control it, you know?
"Y'all sing and dance and do what you do best,
and we'll take care of the business."
[Bell] If I'd accepted that deal,
I knew what the end results of that was going to be.
A contemporary slave.
I couldn't take that. I can't sell my soul.
At the same time, I wouldn't knowingly sabotage the careers
of all of those artists at Stax.
So I couldn't do it.
[car horns blaring]
[Bowman] Ultimately,
CBS starts withholding money from Stax.
Suddenly, there's no income coming into this company.
[tense string music playing]
[Stewart] I came back to Stax
when the company fell into financial straits.
We, um, had a substantial debt.
So I put what money I'd gotten for the sale
back into the company.
[Bell] We were belt tightening.
We cut back employees.
[Stewart] We cut back until there was almost no overhead.
We had to work from nothing.
[Bell] Yes, it was back scrapping again.
But, you know, you get knocked down,
the challenge is get back up. That's how you stay in the game.
[Manuel] During that time, Al Bell was inspirational.
Al, you know, was gonna find a way.
[Crutcher] We used to call Al Bell the "hype-meister"
because no matter how dark the situation,
Al Bell has an upside to the story.
"It's gonna be okay, Ms. Crutcher.
Don't worry about it. It's all right."
[tense music fades]
[Bell] We needed to get some revenue.
So Jim Stewart came up with the idea of Truth Records,
so we could sell records outside of our deal with CBS
and start making money.
That was Stax refusing to lay down,
refusing to say, "Columbia got my hands tied."
-[recording feedback] - [tech] This is, uh, G.
One, two, three, four.
["Woman To Woman" by Shirley Brown playing]
[Brown] Hello?
May I speak to Barbara?
Barbara, this is Shirley.
Shirley Brown.
She, uh, she was a great artist.
She... she would've been, you know, an Aretha Franklin.
♪ Woman to woman ♪
♪ If you've ever been in love ♪
♪ Then you know ♪
♪ How I feel ♪
♪ And woman to woman ♪
♪ If you were in my shoes... ♪
To this day, I can see Al sitting there
with Jim in Jim's office,
listening to that groove. You know?
♪ Same thing too ♪
[Manuel] Making music like that,
that's what Stax was built on.
♪ Woman to woman ♪
♪ Now can't you see where I'm coming from ♪
That's a thing of communicating and moving you.
Making you feel something.
["Woman to Woman" continues]
♪ Woman to woman ♪
[Casey Kasem] At number 22, moving up 4,
here's Shirley Brown and "Woman to Woman."
♪ Woman to woman ♪
♪ Now, should I just step aside ♪
♪ And let her take what's rightfully mine ♪
♪ Oh, woman to woman ♪
[Stewart] Woman to Woman was the last record I did.
["Woman to Woman" continues faintly]
Ironically enough...
it was a million seller.
Too little, too late.
-[chatter] -[typewriter keys clacking]
[Bowman] Stax was doing everything they could
to save themselves from economic strangulation
by CBS.
Suddenly, they have this much bigger problem
with Union Planters,
who they've had a long relationship with.
[tense, pensive string instrumentals playing]
By the mid-'70s, this bank was in trouble.
They had made an unbelievable number of shaky loans
and is now being threatened by the U.S. government
to get its ship straightened out or go out of business.
[tense music continues]
And then it's discovered that one of their employees
is forging checks.
He's a loan officer named Joe Harwell,
who just happens to have the Stax account.
[Bell] Joe Harwell, he'd been sent to prison.
I was shocked.
I thought he was the best banker in the world.
When the artists came in town, if they needed to get money,
cash a Stax check, I would send them to him.
[Bowman] The bank has insurance
that basically says if there's fraudulent activity
between a bank employee and a client,
they can collect millions of dollars and save the bank.
The board of directors at Union Planters
is comprised of the financial elite within Memphis.
They were not going to allow that bank to go down
if they could do anything about it.
At Union Planters, the solution is to
connect Joe Harwell to Al Bell.
[explosions echoing]
[Parker] In Memphis, Tennessee,
what better target than a record company
that's predominantly African American
that's making Black people wealthy?
Our fate becomes their cover.
[Bell] Union Planters National Bank
filed a 16-count indictment against me and Joe Harwell
for conspiring to defraud the bank of $18.9 million.
Can you imagine that in Memphis, Tennessee?
And a Black man from Arkansas
conspiring to defraud a white bank
of $18.9 million?
Is that believable? [laughs]
Is that believable even?
[solemn music playing faintly]
-[traffic humming] -[car horn honking]
[vehicle brakes squealing]
[car horns blaring]
[birds chirping]
[hushed chatter]
When I went to my trial,
I thought based on the way
these attorneys were presenting their case,
that the jurors,
two black people, ten white people,
knowing the world,
that they would do anything other than find me guilty.
-[grim instrumentals playing] -[insects chirring]
I left the courtroom that first day
and went back over there on South Parkway
to my back guest bedroom,
got on my knees beside the bed, and I opened a drawer.
My mind was I needed something,
and in that drawer was my Bible...
and my .38.
[unsettling string chord joins]
And as I looked at it,
I just grabbed my Bible, took it out,
stayed on my knees,
and I went to my Garden of Gethsemane.
Not my will, but Thy will be done.
And made up my mind that night,
if they are successful prosecuting me,
then I'll run this business going forth
and rebuild it from jail.
[music ends with echoing drum beat]
If the only demon
in this situation that Al Bell had been fighting
had been criminal,
that would've been one thing.
But he was fighting the most insidious of all demons,
and that's racism.
He-- It was bigger than Al Bell.
Al Bell just happened to be the owner and face
of what it was that Memphis was trying to kill.
[Stewart] All the charges against Al
caused us to lose credibility.
Nobody wanted to have anything to do with Stax.
We could not overcome all these things
coming at us from all sides.
[somber string music playing]
[Manuel] I realized the company was in trouble
when I went to cash my check.
I was told, "We've been instructed, uh,
that we can't take your payroll checks."
Then it got so bad that uh, uh,
we were getting paid in cash.
[Porter] I was writing money out of my checking account,
giving to people, because they'd say,
"I can't pay my house note.
I can't pay this, I can't pay."
And me giving people money
to take care of some of their responsibilities.
[Parker] Bills piling up.
No money coming in.
Employees and artists leaving.
[Robertson] One day, I got called
into Deanie's office.
She said, "I've got to cut my department in half
immediately,
and I'm starting with you
because in six months, none of us are gonna be here."
[Douglas] In the final days,
I-I don't think there was more than 20 people
left aboard ship to work.
[Manning] Al was trying to work things out,
get some money from here, some money from there.
He definitely believed he could keep Stax going
if we did one more great record or one more thing.
[traffic humming]
[Bell] I was in my office on McLemore,
and I got a telephone call from the receptionist.
She said, uh, "Mr. Bell,
there are some police officers
and people from Union Planters National Bank
that want to meet with you."
[grim, ominous music playing]
I walked up, and then the officer
from Union Planters National Bank,
he said, "Take us to the master tape vault.
We want the master tapes."
I said, "What the heck are you talking about?"
I looked and saw a Black federal marshal,
and I said to him, "What's going on, man?
I mean, what is this for?"
He said, "Well, Al, Union Planters National Bank
brought an involuntary bankruptcy proceeding
against you,
and I have to serve you with that.
They want the master tapes."
I was really getting upset, really getting upset.
Our most important asset as a recorded music company
is those masters.
At that point, I really was ready to go off.
And then the Black federal marshal,
he said quietly,
"Be cool. They came to off you. Be cool."
I said, "What?" He said, "They came to off you, Al."
I said, "Whoa.
I'm facing death out there?"
-[solemn string music playing] -[clock ticking]
I turned around, and I start walking down the halls
and back toward Studio B
and the master tape vault,
and showed them how to open the vault,
and let them in.
[solemn music continues]
[Parker] Everything significant
that we achieved
was in those masters.
[music fades]
I remember calling up top business people.
I thought, look, I'm a white guy,
and I knew a few people that owned certain things,
I thought, maybe they'll listen to me.
And I remember going to several people and saying,
"Look, Stax is an institution.
Why don't we save it?"
And nobody cared.
People with all the money in the world,
who could have done something,
two or three of 'em could have got together,
not even missed the money, and-and saved it.
But no one was interested.
I couldn't get anybody interested.
[mournful string music playing]
-[rustling] -[banging]
[Carla] I went there one day.
It was rubble.
I parked right in front,
climbed up on them bricks which was, like, 'bout here,
all along, and laid down on them like this.
Just laid down on the bricks.
[mournful music continues]
[Hayes] That was like...
demolishing a pyramid.
So much... so much blood, sweat, and tears
went into that company
from so many of us.
[Manuel] When it ended,
my thought was all the unfinished music,
you know, all what could have been.
Think of the great music that we could have produced
to share with the world.
I mean, you destroy art like that...
that's... that's a sin.
[mournful music continues]
[music fades]
[car engine rumbling]
[Bell] After the close of Stax,
I would drive and park across the street
and look at that vacant lot
and see the weeds there,
building gone...
and I would cry.
[wind whistling]
[director] Do you think people understand
how much a sacrifice
this kind of latter part of the story was for you?
They have no earthly idea.
And people that I love
and that are a part of Stax, and I know they don't.
That I was gonna be going to jail if they'd convicted,
had been successful in that, for two life times, 140 years?
[sighs] That's what I've been through.
[mournful string music begins again]
[Stewart] Al was acquitted.
By the time that was over, you know,
he had to move out of Memphis.
He just couldn't take the city anymore
'cause he... how he felt on what they had done to him.
[director] What about you?
Well, we lost... lost our home
and then... [clears throat]
...and the bank finally, you know, took it.
And, um...
So it was... it was kind of rough for a while.
But, you know, I consider myself quite lucky, in all.
I loved to get up every morning and go to work.
[bright piano opening of "Gee Whiz" playing]
♪ Gee whiz ♪
[applause]
♪ Look at his eyes ♪
♪ Gee whiz ♪
♪ How they hypnotize ♪
♪ He's got everything... ♪
[Stewart] The people who gave their hearts
and minds and soul to that company,
they made Stax Records.
♪ Oh, oh ♪
♪ Gee whiz ♪
♪ He's all the joy ♪
♪ Gee whiz ♪
[Stewart] Bettye Crutcher,
David and Isaac,
Rufus and Carla,
Booker T.,
Otis.
♪ I hope I'm not his decoy ♪
[Stewart] I merely gave them the tool
for them to express themselves.
♪ Oh ♪
♪ Our love ♪
[music ends abruptly, echoes as it fades]
[Stewart] There was real soul there.
["Gee Whiz" begins again]
♪ I hope our love will ♪
♪ Grow and grow ♪
♪ 'Cause... ♪
We were trying to be that example of the American ideal.
Those with the power,
they wanted Stax Records to be erased.
But for years, people would come to Memphis
from all over the world
and they would pick up anything they could find
on that corner.
A pebble, a piece of broken glass,
whatever they could get
that they thought might have been a part
of that old Stax building,
because they were that excited and that much in love
with the music that was created at Stax Records
in Soulsville, USA.
♪ Gee whiz ♪
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
[music ends with triumphant musical flourish]
[flourish fades]
["Nothing Takes the Place of You" by Isaac Hayes playing]
-♪ Each new day ♪ -♪ Each new day ♪
♪ Finds me so blue, yeah ♪
♪ Because nothing, oh, nothing ♪
♪ Takes the place of you ♪
♪ I read your letters ♪
♪ Oh, one by one ♪
♪ And I still love you ♪
♪ When it's all said and done ♪
♪ Oh, my darling ♪
♪ Oh, my darling, my darling ♪
♪ I'm so blue, yeah ♪
♪ Blue ♪
-♪ Because nothing ♪ -♪ Because nothing ♪
♪ Oh, nothing ♪
♪ Takes the place of you ♪
♪ As I ♪
♪ As I write this letter ♪
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
♪ It's raining, raining, raining ♪
♪ It's raining on my windowpane ♪
♪ Ah, and ♪
♪ And I feel the need ♪
♪ Oh, the need of you ♪
♪ Because, see, without you, oh, without you ♪
♪ Where are you? ♪
♪ Oh, nothing, nothing, nothing seems the same ♪