Bill Graham (promoter)

For other people named Bill Graham, see Bill Graham (disambiguation).

File:Billgraham.jpg

Cover of "Bill Graham Presents"

Bill Graham (January 8, 1931–October 25, 1991) was a well-known concert promoter, who flourished from the 1960s until his death.

Life

Bill Graham was born Wolfgang Grajonca in Berlin, the youngest son of a Jewish family that had emigrated to Germany prior to the rise of Nazism. Graham's father died when he was a baby. As it became increasingly difficult for Jews to survive in Nazi Germany, Graham's mother placed Graham and his younger sister in an orphanage in Berlin. This turned out to be fortunate, as the orphanage sent them to France as a pre–Holocaust exchange of Jewish children for Christian 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—did not survive the journey.

Graham's mother died in Auschwitz. His sister Esther survived Auschwitz and later moved to the United States and was very close to Graham in his later life. His sister Rita escaped by working as a dancer, first to Shanghai and then, after the war, to the United States.

Once in the United States, Graham was placed in a foster home in The Bronx in New York City. After being taunted as an immigrant and being called a Nazi because of his German accented English, Graham changed his name and worked to perfect a New York accent. Graham graduated from DeWitt 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 and served in the Korean War, where he won the Bronze Star and Purple Heart in combat. Upon his return to the States he worked as a waiter/maître d' in the Catskill Mountain resorts in upstate New York during their heyday. He was later quoted as saying his experience as a maître d' and with the poker 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 to San Francisco in the early 1960s to be closer to his sister, Rita. He was invited to attend a free concert in Golden Gate Park, where he made contact with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. He gave up a promising business career to manage the troupe in 1965 and produce concerts. One of the first concerts he promoted was in partnership with Chet Helms of the Family Dog organization and featured the Steve Miller Band. The concert was an overwhelming success and Graham saw an opportunity with the band. The next morning, he called the Steve Miller Band's management in Chicago and obtained exclusive rights to promote them. Shortly after that, Chet Helms showed up 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 earlier in the morning" in the future.

A magnetic but often difficult personality, Graham's shows attracted elements of America's now legendary counterculture of the time such as Jefferson 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 in rock music. He operated the famous venues the Fillmore West and Winterland (both in San Francisco) and the Fillmore East (in New York City), where the best up-and-coming acts would come to play.

In the 1970's, he closed the Fillmores on both coasts, citing a need to "find himself." He retreated to a Greek island, but found the peace disconcerting and later admitted he had trouble with the fact that no one knew who he was there.

He returned to promoting, first putting on concerts at smaller venues, like the Berkeley Community Theatre on the campus of Berkeley High School. He then leased the Winterland Arena in San Francisco and promoted shows at the Cow Palace Auditorium in Daly City. His first large-scale outdoor arena concert was a benefit for the San Francisco after-school programs, called the SNACK concert and starred Bob Dylan, with Neil Young and members of The 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, he masterminded the creation of the Shoreline Ampitheatre, which became the San Francisco Peninsula's major venue for outdoor rock concerts.

He would go on to set the standard for well-produced large scale rock concerts, such as the American portion of Live Aid in JFK Stadium, Philadelphia on July 13, 1985, as well as the 1986 A Conspiracy of Hope and 1988 Human Rights Now! tours for Amnesty 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."

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.

Graham'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 the Bitburg Cemetery in Germany, where SS Officers were buried, he organized protests against the act. During the same month that Reagan visited the cemetery, Graham's office was firebombed by Neo-Nazis. Graham, in France at the time, meeting with Bob Geldof to organize the first Live 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?"

A complicated man, he was greatly loved by those who worked for him and among his close circle of friends. He recruited staff out of local schools and promoted them up through his close-knit and tightly run organization. Many of these staffers have since gone on to senior positions within the current, more corporate oriented, promotion industry.

Graham also was instrumental in commissioning and marketing psychedelic concert posters by designers including Wes Wilson and Rick Griffin. These posters are now considered collector's items.

Graham had a lifelong dream to become a character actor, professing a great admiration for Edward G. Robinson. He appeared in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, as a promoter. In 1990, director Barry Levinson and actor Warren 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 in later life. He also appears as a promoter in the 1991 Oliver Stone film "The Doors".

Death

Graham was killed in a helicopter crash near Vallejo, California in 1991, while returning home after just seeing Huey Lewis and The News at the Concord Pavilion. Graham had attended the event to discuss promoting a benefit concert for the victims of the 1991 Oakland firestorm, after a great portion of the Oakland/Berkeley Hills burned down.

Once he had obtained the commitment from the band to perform, he returned to his helicopter, but was stopped by the bass player from the News, Mario Cippolina, who, in a moment of foresight, pressed Graham to take his limousine. The helicopter 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 and Marin County.

Also killed in the crash was Graham's girlfriend at the time, Melissa Gold, ex-wife of author Herbert Gold.

Graham was married one time (wife: Bonnie) and had several long-term relationships throughout his life. He was survived by his sisters and two sons: David Graham and Alex Graham.

Following his death, his company, Bill Graham Presents, was taken over by a group of employees. Graham's sons were not part of the new management team. The new owners then went on to sell the company to SFX promotions. SFX then sold the company to Clear Channel Entertainment. The BGP staff never embraced the Clear Channel name, and eventually Clear Channel divested it's investment in concert production altogether. Bill Graham Presents, along with other independent promoters previously held under SFX, formed Live Nation and are now the largest concert production/promotion company in the world.

The San Francisco Civic Auditorium was renamed for Graham as a tribute and a memorial service held for him in Golden Gate Park attracted one of the biggest crowds the park had ever seen and included many of the bands Graham had been instrumental in supporting.

Trivia

Bill Sagan (Former CEO of EBP) of Minnetonka, MN bought many of the Bill Graham Presents art 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, named for Bill's given name at birth.

See also

• List of Korean War veterans who are recipients of the Bronze Star

References

• Bill Graham Presents, My Life Inside Rock And Out, 2004. ISBN 0-306-81349-1

External links

• Bill Graham Foundation
• Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
• Article on the man who bought Bill Graham's warehouse.
• Bill Graham's Gravesite
• Wolfgang's Music Vault
• Notable California Aviation Disasters Website listing significant aviation accidents in California