Harvard Stadium's Concert Series Spawns a Tangle of Slander Suits

Just about everyone involved in the Harvard Stadium concert series is now being sued for slander.

George Papadoupolos, a Boston rock producer, has filed suits for slander against the Harvard Corporation, which lent the stadium for the concerts; Edward S. Gruson, assistant to the President for Community Relations, who arranged the loan of the facility; and the Riverside Neighborhood Association and the National Center for Afro-American Artists, the two groups now co-sponsoring the concerts.

Notice of the suits was served yesterday on the parties concerned. The notice merely specified that it was a suit for slander, without listing details of the charges or the amount of damages asked. Neither Papadoupolos nor Gruson was available for comment, but it is believed that the promoter felt his name was injured when discussions about the possibility of his producing the concerts did not bear fruit.

A spokesman for Harvard--Charles P. Whitlock, assistant to the President for Governmental Relations--would only say that "In the early discussions [of the stadium concerts], someone in the Riverside group suggested and brought into the discussions a man named George Papadoupolos. In the process of negotiation the discussions turned toward Boston 'Summerthing' as producer for all five stadium concerts."

[The Corporation had agreed to let the Riverside Association have the stadium for four concerts, and The City of Boston for one. Boston would use the proceeds from its concert to help pay the bills of its summer festival--Summerthing.]

After the proposal of having Summerthing produce all five concerts fell through. Whitlock said, the Afro-American Center headed by Elma Lewis, a leading producer of black artists' performances, was chosen as the producer of Riverside's four concerts.

The first of the four concerts will start at 8:30 p.m.; next Tuesday. It features Folksinger Joan Baez. Tickets for the concert are available for $2 at the Stadium, major Boston ticket agencies, and at the Afro-American artists center in Roxbury.