- Bill Graham (promoter)
Infobox Person
name = Bill Graham
caption = Bill Graham, circa 1990.
birth_date = birth date|1931|01|8Berlin ,Germany
death_date = death date and age|1991|10|25|1931|10|25 Vallejo,California , USA
birth_name = Wolfgang Grajonca
occupation = rock promoter
years_active = 1965 - 1991Bill Graham (
January 8 ,1931 –October 25 ,1991 ) was an Americanimpresario and rockconcert promoter from the 1960s until his death.Biography
Early life
Graham was born Wolfgang Grajonca in
Berlin , the youngest son of a lower-middle-classJew ish family that had emigrated fromRussia prior to the rise ofNazism . [ [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1028677.html On the Beat; Bill Graham, Lead Act at Last | Article from The Washington Post | HighBeam Research ] ] [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SB&p_theme=sb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB0D9644100A6BC&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM] Graham's father died two days after Graham's birth. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE5D61131F934A15753C1A967958260 Bill Graham, Rock Impresario, Dies at 60 in Crash - New York Times ] ] Graham's mother placed Graham and his younger sister in an orphanage inBerlin , as it became increasingly difficult for Jews to survive in NaziGermany . This turned out to be fortunate, as the orphanage sent them toFrance in a pre–Holocaust exchange of Jewish children forChristian orphans.Graham's older sisters stayed behind with his mother. After the fall of
France , Graham was among a group of Jewish orphans spirited out of France. A majority of the children – including Graham's younger sister Tolla —did not survive the journey.Graham's mother was killed in
Auschwitz . Graham had five sisters, Rita, Evelyn, Sonja, Ester and Tolla (Tanya). His sister Ester survived Auschwitz. She later moved to theUnited States and was very close to Graham in his later life. His sister Rita escaped by working as a dancer, first toShanghai and then, after the war, to theUnited States .Once in the
United States , Graham stayed in a foster home in The Bronx inNew York City . After being taunted as an immigrant and being called a Nazi because of his German accented English, Graham changed his name ("Graham" was found in the phonebook, it was closest to his real surname "Grajonca." According to Graham, both "Bill" and "Graham" were meaningless to him) and worked to perfect a New York accent. Graham graduated fromDeWitt Clinton High School and then went to business school. He was later quoted as describing his training as that of an "efficiency expert ."Graham was drafted into the
United States Army in 1951, although he officially still wasn't a U.S. CitizenFact|date=July 2008, and served in theKorean War , where he was awarded both the Bronze Star andPurple Heart . Upon his return to the States he worked as a waiter/maître d' in the Catskill Mountain resorts in upstateNew York during their heyday. He was later quoted as saying his experience as a maître d' and with thepoker games he hosted behind the scenes was good training for his eventual career as a promoter.Tito Puente , who played some of these resorts, went on record once saying that Graham was avid to learn Spanish from him, but only cared about the curse words.Career
Graham moved from
New York toSan Francisco in the early 1960s to be closer to his sister, Rita. He was invited to attend a free concert inGolden Gate Park , where he made contact with theSan Francisco Mime Troupe , a radical theater group. He gave up a promising business career to manage the troupe in 1965. After Mime Troupe leader Ronny Davis was arrested on obscenity charges during an outdoor performance, Graham organized a benefit concert to cover the troupe's legal fees. The concert was a success, and Graham saw a business opportunity. He began promoting more concerts to raise funds for the Mime Troupe, and eventually left the troupe to promote concerts full time.One of the first concerts Graham promoted was in partnership with
Chet Helms of the Family Dog organization and featured the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. The concert was an overwhelming success and Graham saw an opportunity with the band. Early the next morning, Graham called the band's manager, Albert Grossman, and obtained exclusive rights to promote them. Shortly thereafter,Chet Helms arrived at Graham's office, asking how Graham could have cut him out of the deal. Graham pointed out that Helms would not have known about it unless he had tried to do the same thing to Graham and advised him to "get up early" in the future.A charismatic but often difficult personality, Graham's shows attracted elements of America's now legendary
counterculture of the time such asJefferson Airplane ,Janis Joplin ,Country Joe and The Fish ,Lawrence Ferlinghetti ,The Committee ,The Fugs ,Allen Ginsberg , and, a particular favorite of Graham's,The Grateful Dead . His successes and popularity allowed him to become the top concert promoter inrock music . He operated the famous venues theFillmore West andWinterland (both inSan Francisco ) and theFillmore East (inNew York City ), where the best up-and-coming acts would come to play. Also in New York City, he formed a booking agency called "The Millard Agency" which organized the booking of bands into various venues across the US. Because his music venue was the Fillmore, it seemed obvious to call the booking agency Millard.Millard Fillmore was the thirteenth president of theUnited States . In his music venues, he also opened certain weekday nights for unknown bands, like Santana, to get exposure. Graham promoted the West-Coast leg of the legendaryThe Rolling Stones American Tour 1972 , also known asS.T.P. Tour (for Stones Touring Party), as well as parts of theRolling Stones 1975 and 1978 tours. He would then promote the entireRolling Stones American Tour 1981 andRolling Stones European Tour 1982 . When the Stones returned to touring in 1989 with theSteel Wheels tour,Mick Jagger took the offer ofMichael Cohl 'sThe BCL Group (Ballard Cohl Labatt). Cohl made his reputation (and his fortune) in 1989 by buying the concert, sponsorship, merchandising, radio, television, and film rights to The Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels Tour. The tour became the most financially successful in history. Graham later discovered that Cohl had only offered slightly more money, and Graham took Jagger's repudiation as a personal defeat, writing "Losing the Stones was like watching my favourite lover become a whore."In the 1970s, he closed the
Fillmore s on both coasts, citing a need to "find himself." He retreated to a Greek island, but found the quietude disconcerting and later admitted being disappointed that no one there knew who he was.He returned to promoting, first organizing concerts at smaller venues, like the
Berkeley Community Theatre on the campus ofBerkeley High School . He then leased out theWinterland Arena inSan Francisco and promoted shows at theCow Palace Auditorium inDaly City . His first large-scale outdoor arena concert was a benefit for the San Francisco after-school programs, called theSNACK concert and starredBob Dylan , withNeil Young and members ofThe Band . He was careful to make sure everything ran smoothly at his events, fearing the unpredictable nature of large crowds, and became known for his explosive response to anyone deviating from procedure.In the mid-1980s, in conjunction with the city of
Mountain View, California , andApple Inc. cofounderStephen Wozniak , he masterminded the creation of theShoreline Amphitheatre , which became theSan Francisco Peninsula 's major venue for outdoor rock concerts.Fact|date=February 2007Throughout his career, Graham promoted benefit concerts to raise money for causes he supported. During the 1980s, as his organization grew, Graham left more of the everyday details of his business to employees and focused his personal energies on promoting benefit concerts.
He would go on to set the standard for well-produced large-scale
rock concert s, such as the American portion ofLive Aid inJFK Stadium ,Philadelphia on July 13, 1985, as well as the 1986 A Conspiracy of Hope and 1988 Human Rights Now! tours forAmnesty International . In addition, he presented regular concerts in Bay Area stadiums, referred to as "Days on the Green ," and was known to aggressively challenge potential competition, referring to other promoters by the name "Joe Schlitz." He was often seen pounding his fist into his open hand and announcing that "Joe Schlitz will not come into this town."Graham's monopoly business practices went as far as strong-arm contracts with the University of California Regents to control on-campus entertainment venuesFact|date=July 2008, thus preventing ASUC and other student organizations from promoting their own rock concerts in the 1980s. In the '80s he teamed up with BASS Tickets to drive small ticket-distribution companies out of business in the Bay Area, creating a de facto monopoly.Fact|date=July 2008 After the smaller operations failed, the remaining one, Ticketmaster (formerly BASS), raised prices to unprecedented levels. Its only opposition came from a few bands, notably
Pearl Jam , who protested that the company's high ticketing fees were unfair to music fans. Such practices were targeted by the California Senate in S.B 815. [http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/93-94/bill/sen/sb_0801-0850/sb_815_cfa_930429_142654_sen_comm]For all his competitive nature and fiery disposition, Graham was recognized as an expert promoter who genuinely cared about both the artists and the attendees at his concerts. He was the first to ensure that medical personnel were on site for large shows and was both a contributor and supporter of the
Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic, which he often used as medical support at events. He also loved putting together groups onstage from different ethnic backgrounds—many of whom were ignored by other promoters—and he had an eye for pleasing his audience, while making an effort to educate them in styles of music they would otherwise not have been exposed to.In management, Graham is credited with the early careers of groups like Santana,
Eddie Money and Paul Collins' Beat. He was also responsible for promoting the careers of virtually every other group that played the concert circuit between 1965 and 1991.Fact|date=July 2008Graham's status as a Holocaust survivor came into play in the mid-1980s, during the presidency of
Ronald Reagan . When Graham learned that Reagan intended to lay a wreath at theBitburg Cemetery inGermany , whereSS Officers were buried, he organized protests against the act. During the same month that Reagan visited the cemetery, Graham's office was firebombed byNeo-Nazi s. Graham, in France at the time, meeting withBob Geldof to organize the firstLive Aid concert, was informed of the fire via telephone. He responded as follows: "Was anybody hurt?" It was only after he was told that everyone was okay, he asked, "Is anything left?"Graham also was instrumental in commissioning and marketing
psychedelic concert posters by designers includingStanley Mouse ,Alton Kelley ,Wes Wilson andRick Griffin . These posters are now considered collector's items.Graham had a lifelong dream to become a
character actor , professing a great admiration forEdward G. Robinson . He appeared inFrancis Ford Coppola 's "Apocalypse Now ," as a promoter. In 1990, directorBarry Levinson and actorWarren Beatty provided an opportunity for Graham to take a more substantive role by casting him as Charles "Lucky" Luciano in the film "Bugsy ." During one scene, Graham is shown in a Latin dance number, a style of dancing Graham had embraced as a teenager in New York. He also appears as a promoter in the 1991 Oliver Stone film "The Doors."Bill Sagan (Former CEO of EBP) of Minnetonka, Minnesota, bought the Bill Graham Presents archives and has organized hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of merchandise and video/audio recordings of concerts collected by Graham. Sagan is now selling some of the collection at
Wolfgang's Vault referring to Graham's birth name. Sagan is now being sued for alleged rights infringement.Death
Graham was killed in a
helicopter crash nearVallejo, California in 1991, while returning home from aHuey Lewis and the News concert at theConcord Pavilion .cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE5D61131F934A15753C1A967958260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink |title= Bill Graham, Rock Impresario, Dies at 60 in Crash |publisher=The New York Times |accessdate=2008-04-17 ] Graham had attended the event to discuss promoting abenefit concert for the victims of the1991 Oakland firestorm, after a large portion of the Oakland/Berkeley Hills burned.Once he had obtained the commitment from the News to perform, he returned to his helicopter, which crashed shortly after take-off, just 20 miles from the concert site.
Flying in weather reported as low overcast, rain and gusty winds, the aircraft flew directly into a 223-foot high-voltage tower along Hwy 37, which runs between
Vallejo andMarin County .Also killed in the crash was Graham's girlfriend, Melissa Gold, ex-wife of author
Herbert Gold ,Fact|date=February 2007 and pilot Steve Kahn.Graham was married at one time to San Francisco artist Bonnie Lipshitz McLean who is the mother of his son David. Bonnie was the first bookkeeper at the Fillmore and designed some of the posters for concerts Bill promoted. He would occasionally introduce Bonnie from the stage as "the world's greatest broad." He also had several long-term relationships. He was survived by his sisters and two sons,
David Graham and Alex Graham, as well as his stepson, Thomas Sult.Following his death, his company,
Bill Graham Presents , was taken over by a group of employees. Graham's sons remained a core part of the new management team. The new owners sold the company to SFX Promotions, which in turn sold the company toClear Channel Entertainment . The BGP staff did not embrace the Clear Channel name, and several members of the Graham staff eventually left the company, including former President/CEO Gregg Perloff and former Senior Vice President Sherry Wasserman, who started their own company, Another Planet Entertainment. Eventually Clear Channel separated itself from concert promotion and formedLive Nation , which is managed by senior Clear Channel management.Live Nation is now the world's largest concert production/promotion company.In tribute, the
San Francisco Civic Auditorium was renamed the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. OnNovember 3 1991 , a free concert calledLaughter, Love and Music was held atGolden Gate Park to honour Graham, Gold and Kahn.cite web |url=http://www.dead.net/archives/1991/photos/benefit-laughter-love-and-music-memorial-bill-graham |title=Laughter, Love and Music|publisher=Dead.net|accessdate=2008-04-17 ] An estimated 300,000 people attended to view many of the entertainment acts Graham had supported including Santana,Grateful Dead ,John Fogerty ,Robin Williams ,Journey , and a reunitedCrosby, Stills, Nash and Young .cite web |url=http://www.silentway.com/tony/articles/1991review.html |title=California Whirls |publisher=The Vid |accessdate=2008-04-17 ]ee also
*
List of Korean War veterans who are recipients of the Bronze Star Further reading
*"Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out", re-published 2004. (By
Robert Greenfield and Bill Graham) ISBN 0-306-81349-1References
External links
* [http://www.billgrahamfoundation.org/ Bill Graham Foundation]
* [http://www.billgrahamcivic.com/ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium]
*findagrave|8331 Retrieved on2008-04-03
* [http://www.famousinterview.ca/interviews/bill_graham.htm Interview with Robert Greenfield]
* [http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/6002/wolfgang.html Concert Archive Draws Digital Suit] - Dec 2006MP3 Newswire article about the fight over Wolfgang's Vault and the digital rights to the Bill Graham concert legacy.
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