A documentary filmmaker who served as the lead producer for the CBS News Productions show The Best of Us, Lianne McNally also produced and directed the Academy Award-nominated film Artists and Orphans: A True Drama. An avid watcher of documentaries, Lianne McNally is a fan of The Last Waltz, by Martin Scorsese.
The Last Waltz is a film of the farewell concert of The Band. The show took place November 25, 1976, which was the same day as Thanksgiving that year. In addition to seeing The Band perform one last time, concertgoers shared a Thanksgiving feast at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom.
No special guests were advertised for the show. Listing the star-studded group of guest acts on the bill would have made the $25 ticket price seem reasonable (concert tickets typically were $4 to $7 at the time), but promoter Bill Graham was interested in seeing how much fans would trust the group to pull off a memorable farewell show. The show’s guest performers included Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Ringo Starr, and Bob Dylan.
