Shakira? J. Lo? This Halftime Show Had Snakes and Indiana Jones

“They scared the absolute bejeebers out of Patti,” said Ron Magill, the longtime communications director of the Miami-Dade Zoological Park and Gardens who is a South Florida celebrity. Magill was one of the snake charmers. “It was Patti LaBelle and Tony Bennett, and Patti just screeched, ‘Oh no, child. Oh no, child.’”

“I am petrified of snakes,” LaBelle said, remembering her response: “You all gotta do something different right now. You gotta move those snakes.”

In many ways, the halftime show has become simpler. “It was like a Broadway play back in the day,” LaBelle said. “Today you go out there, you have your three- or four-song set, you do it and you go home.”

But the current versions are far more lavish than the shows at the first 20 or so Super Bowls. Michael Eisner, Disney’s chief executive from 1984 to 2005, pegged the evolution to the spectacular opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

“John Williams created what is now the music that introduces everything in the Olympics,” he said. “That was really a monumental moment.”

As the 1995 show and several subsequent Super Bowl halftimes have proven, those moments are not easily manufactured, no matter how many snakes are involved.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/30/sports/football/super-bowl-halftime-1995.html?emc=rss&partner=rss