Three Dog Night drove San Bernardino audience wild in 1969

Three Dog Night co-founder Chuck Negron died Feb. 2 at age 83, as you may have heard. In its classic era, the band performed at San Bernardino’s Swing Auditorium — where a photo was captured for posterity.

The band “had their picture taken while they were performing for the cover of their next album,” The Sun reported afterward. “They had everybody hold up a lighted match to form the background.”

(This was a few years before disposable lighters became the norm.)

This fish-eye lens photo from Swing on Sept. 27 appeared on the front cover of an album released that Oct. 16. Incongruously enough, the album was “Captured Live at the Forum,” which documented the band’s Inglewood concert of Sept. 12. The album quickly climbed to No. 6 on the Billboard chart.

San Bernardino: always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

On the LP’s back cover is another photo from San Bernardino. Negron, shirtless, is seen from the back. A few fans are at the lip of the stage. One, a young woman, smiling and reaching both arms out, can be seen clearly.

It’s Bina Rosales, then a Colton High sophomore. She identified herself in recent years to Armando Castro, who documents San Bernardino’s rock history. Rosales told him she and her classmate Sandy Becerra were both in attendance.

Fun sidenote: In 2011, Three Dog Night performed in the Beaumont summer concert series at Stewart Park. Rosales’ sister Olivia met original member Danny Hutton and got an autograph on a copy of “Captured Live at the Forum” on behalf of the family.

Back to the Swing. That was the 8,000-capacity auditorium on the National Orange Show grounds that drew such acts as the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin in the classic rock era before the venue’s 1981 demise.

One week before Three Dog Night, Creedence Clearwater Revival was at the Swing, performing “Tombstone Shadow,” a song that mentions visiting a psychic in San Bernardino.

The Sun’s Tom Green reviewed the Three Dog Night show. Opening act: The Fields. Second act: Pacific Gas & Electric. The Sun’s very of-its-era headline: “Rock Music: A Mystical Sort of Madness.”

Green used the concert to paint a verbal portrait of the “cavernous, tinseled, dingy, kind of honkytonk place” that he said had drawn 4,000 people, mostly in their teens and 20s.

Many left their seats to stand or approach the stage. Girls tossed or held out necklaces, scarves and sashes. Negron draped a string of beads around his head to shrieks of approval.

Then, Green wrote, “The lanky Negron rips off his tight-fitting yellow knit shirt and flings it into the crowd. Girls scream as they try to snatch it.

“The Swing is pounding with the sound of thousands of hands clapping to the vibrating rhythm. Negron’s long black hair shakes violently and his naked torso glistens with sweat.

“Somewhere in the crowd, a girl is overcome by the frenzy of it all and stands there with her halter top hiked up, her breasts bare.”

A typical night in San Bernardino, circa 1969. Was the scene that intense in Inglewood? One doubts it.

Cheap date

Meanwhile, another incident that night spawned a separate Sun story. A fan had gone to the Swing ticket window with his date. Tickets were $4 each. He didn’t have the money.

“What to do?” wrote the newspaper. “Rob a service station, what else?”

The unidentified man stole a car from the Orange Show parking lot, drove across the street to the Mobil station — why walk when you can steal a car? — and entered.

Producing a Luger, he demanded precisely $15 — “the price of two tickets with Coke money to spare,” in The Sun’s words — from attendant Gary L. Clover, who opened the full cash box and counted out the requested amount.

Police found the car but, with an audience of 4,000, evidently didn’t find the budget-minded bandit. Give him this: He knew how to show his date a fun evening.

The Stones at Swing

While we’re on the subject, you may recall that the Rolling Stones performed at Swing four times from 1964-1966, including their first-ever U.S. concert on June 5, 1964. I wrote — why not? — 55th anniversary columns on all four.

Well, in January, I spoke to the Kiwanis Club of Riverside. My latest column had noted the Grateful Dead’s appearances at the Swing. Nancy Melendez, a reader and Kiwanian at the luncheon, raised her hand.

She volunteered that she and her girlfriends had been at that June 5, 1964 Stones concert.

“My friend Fran could faint on demand,” Melendez shared. “She fainted and was taken backstage. She came back with everyone’s autograph!”

brIEfly

February is an unusual month: Each day of the week is represented precisely four times. With the month bookended by a Sunday and a Saturday, the calendar is a four-row grid, simple and oddly soothing. There’s even a Friday the 13th, for which I will caution you not to take any unnecessary risks. For instance, if you’re reading this in print, beware of paper cuts.

David Allen writes Friday, Sunday and Wednesday, cautiously. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, and follow davidallencolumnist on Facebook or Instagram, @davidallen909 on X or @davidallen909.bsky.social on Bluesky.