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Rolling Stone
July 05, 1973
Tolling the Take
New York - "All I have for you now is approximations. The office is overrun by bald little guys in blue suits who are going over the books. They say they'll have the exact figure in about a week."
Speaking was Shep Gordon, manager of Alice Cooper, two days after the Madison Square Gardens concert which was supposed to be the last stop on the 56-city tour which, it was predicted, would gross $4.5 million.
The approximate tally lists a gross of $4,220,000 based on a paid attendence of 820,000. Expenses from the tour, including production costs, travel, press functions, salaries for all but the band members and managerial partners and cost of nine cases of beer a day for 96 days is estimated at $3.5 million. The figures will change somewhat after two added concerts (Vancouver, British Columbia, and Providence, Rhode Island), where another 30,000 loyalists will watch Alice go to the guillotine.
Following the MSG date which left thousands clapping for more long beyond the "God Bless America" encore, Alice, wearing an "I'm Alice - Blow Me" T-shirt and a "Welcome Home POWs" pin, adjourned to Max's Kansas City, where he complained about not being able to get drunk. The night before, when he efforts at obliteration had been successful, it took his girlfriend Cindy and four pallbearers to transport Cooper from under a table to his limousine as he mumbled something about a three-month vacation.