Other weddings at MSG
Sylvester "Sly" Stewart and his bride, Kathy Silva, are congratulated by well-wishers during their wedding ceremony at a rock concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City on June 6, 1974. Credit: AP Photo/Richard Drew
More than 50 years ago, Madison Square Garden was the site of another celebrity wedding, albeit one with a lot less hype and speculation.
On June 5, 1974, Sly Stone, the charismatic leader of Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Sly and the Family Stone wed actress Kathy Silva in front of 23,000 fans who had come to hear the band's concert. The ceremony took place before the start of the show.
In his memoir, "Thank you (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)." Stone wrote: "I could do a gig, get paid, and get married at the same time ... We set the date for June 5, a Wednesday. We’d have a ceremony just before the concert, right there on the stage. Then a concert, then a party afterward at the rooftop lounge of the Waldorf Astoria."
According to The New Yorker, fashion designer Halston dressed the bride, groom and members of the wedding part in gold ensembles that cost $10,000 (about $68,000 in today's money).
Alas, the couple legally separated in 1976 and ultimately divorced.
Couples march in a mass wedding procession in Madison Square Garden on July 2, 1982, as the Unification Church leader, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, presides over the ceremony, with more than 2,000 couples. Credit: AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler
Another MSG wedding involved a celebrity of another sort: the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the controversial head of the Unification Church. On July 1, 1982, Moon officiated at the ceremony in which 2,075 couples from over 70 countries were wed simultaneously. Moon had personally matched each couple.
Brides wore identical white lace and satin gowns, while grooms wore matching blue suits with red ties.
It is not known how many of the couples remained married.
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