Up With People

Musical entertainment touring group Up With People was founded in Tucson, AZ, in 1965 by 1 J. Blanton Belk in response towards the growing amount of protests and presentations spearheaded by the country’s youngsters. In its unique incarnation, the non-profit included a management curriculum and abroad study program and a song-and-dance troupe that spotlighted the skills of performers aged 18-25. Using its squeaky-clean picture and wholesome, humanistic entertainment, Up With People demonstrated popular at sports and other huge gatherings — they headlined no less than four Super Dish halftime shows, especially 1976’s Super Dish X, using their creation “200 Years and Only a Baby: America’s Bicentennial Tribute.” At its top, the group was gaining 30 million dollars each year, with five different 150-member casts of performers concurrently touring the world; for the Speed label, Up With People also documented a small number of LPs, included in this Encore!, The Sing-Out Music, and In Hollywood. The banality of their music and showmanship also constructed With People ripe for parody: one bout of the cartoon television traditional The Simpsons provided a thinly veiled takeoff troupe known as “Hooray for Everything!” Despite changing likes and attitudes, travels continued effectively well in to the 1990s, however when Up With People finished the fiscal calendar year 2000 3.2 million dollars with debt — the merchandise of some ill-conceived business decisions — the business announced it had been shutting down. In past due 2002, chairman and CEO Jeff Hoag stated the group was rather on expanded hiatus, with programs to relaunch in 2004 — although this time around, Up With People was to become more about command and education, and much less about music.