First Time Caller

I just called in to the Big Steve Hour and I think it was the first time I ever called in to a radio show.

(Boy does my voice sound weird on air -- somewhat self embarrassing.)

I was calling into see if he could verify my crazy Emerge-And-See story.  He's about the only witness left alive I know who might remember. I was a little nervous and rushed and didn't tell the story exactly right and he didn't initially recall, but by the end he somewhat corroborated. 

Long story short, it's plausible.

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I've told this story to the Zone before, so to briefly recap:

Robert Hunter show. 1978 maybe 79. Washington DC. A club called "The Cellar Door." The club held less than 200 people.

I don't remember Comfort being on the bill so I think it was a Robert Hunter solo show or a Larry Klein duo show. Hunter played at the Cellar Door numerous times around that time, so it gets a little confusing and one time in 1980 various members of the Dead were in the audience at a Hunter show at the same venue (verified). 

(If it was May of 78, the 14th  we saw the Dead play in Providence, RI. We were just finishing a post  spring semester  Vermont > Springfield > Providence run, so my memory of this event is extremely fuzzy, but it happened.) 

Anyway – towards the end of the Hunter show whenever it was, Steve Parrish..what was he doing there?... helped roll a doorway sort-of-thing out on stage. It was like a big stage prop with a man-size keyhole shape cut-out. What…A giant keyhole? 

Then, I remember smoke machine and a siren howling like an ambulance. Lights flashed. The Cellar Door was a pretty small and dark venue, so this was kind of jarring. 

And then the PA screamed “Emergency…Emergency…Emergency” and gradually slowed to say “Emergggge an Seeeeee,” “Emergggge and See,” “Emerge and See,” Emerge and See!!!” 

And a fellow in a bozo mask walked through the keyhole. The fellow was Garcia. 

This is where it gets fuzzy....I forget what he played, maybe Boys in the Ballroom [sic]? Promontory Rider? Goodnight Irene? It wasn’t a standard Dead tune. 

(Note: I was a Deadhead for 3 or 4 years by this time and had seen the Garcia Band and the Dead enough to recognize Garcia.)

PS - one Zoner said he had a friend who was at the show and heard about this -- no tapes exist that I know of.