Bill Graham (January 8, 1931 – October 25, 1991) was an impresario and rock concert promoter from the 1960s until his death. Graham was born Wolfgang Wolodia Grajonca in Berlin, the son of Frieda (Sass) and Yankel Grajonca, an engineer. He was given the nickname Wolfgang by his family early in his life. Graham was the youngest son of a lower-middle-class Jewish family that had emigrated from Russia prior to the rise of Nazism. Graham's father died two days after his son's birth. Graham's mother placed her son and his younger sister in an orphanage in Berlin due to the increasing peril to Jews in Germany. The orphanage sent them to France in 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 older 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 the United States and was very close to Graham in his later life. His sister Rita escaped, first to Shanghai and then after the war to the United States.

Once in the United States, Graham stayed 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 first worked on his accent, eventually being able to speak in a perfect New York accent, and 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). Graham graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School and then obtained a business degree from City College. 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 was awarded both the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Upon his return to the States he worked as a waiter/maître d' in 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. It was during the 1950s that Graham became a champion mambo dancer in the mambo clubs of New York City.

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, 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.

Graham began promoting more concerts to raise funds for the Mime Troupe and eventually left the troupe to promote concerts full time. Charles Sullivan was a mid-20th century black entrepreneur and businessman in San Francisco who owned the master lease on the Fillmore Auditorium. Bill approached Charles to put on the Second Mime Troupe appeals concert at the Fillmore Auditorium on December 10, 1965 using Sullivan's dance hall permit for the show. Graham later secured a contract from Sullivan for the open dates at the Fillmore Auditorium in 1966. Graham credits Sullivan with giving him his break in the music promotion business. Charles Sullivan was found murdered on August 2, 1966, south of Market Street in San Francisco. To this day the murder remains unsolved.

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 produced shows attracting elements of America's now legendary counterculture of the time such as Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Country Joe and The Fish, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, The Committee, The Fugs, Allen Ginsberg, and, a particular favorite of Graham's, the Grateful Dead. He was the manager of Jefferson Airplane during 1967 and 1968. His successes and popularity allowed him to become the top concert promoter in rock music.

Link:

Bill Graham biography, at the Bill Graham Memorial Foundation website

References:

^ Glatt, John. Rage & Roll: Bill Graham and the Selling of Rock. Birch Lane Press, 1993. p. 3
^ http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0008_0_07786.html
^ Graham, Bill; Greenfield, Robert. Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out, Delta, 1992, p. 37
^ "Bill Graham, Lead Act at Last". Highbeam.com. October 7, 1992. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
^ "Newsbank website". Nl.newsbank.com. May 6, 1991. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
^ "Bill Graham, Rock Impresario, Dies at 60 in Crash", New York Times obituary
^ a b c d Lambert, Bruce (October 27, 1991). "Bill Graham, Rock Impresario, Dies at 60 in Crash". The New York Times. Retrieved April 17, 2008.
^ Kipen, David. "Flawed look at career of blacklisted director", San Francisco Chronicle, August 29, 2001. Accessed September 14, 2009. "The American 20th century went to high school at DeWitt Clinton High in the Bronx. Multicultural before there was a name for it – at least a polite one – Clinton nurtured such figures as Bill Graham, James Baldwin, George Cukor, Neil Simon and Abraham Lincoln Polonsky."
^ http://www.billgrahamfoundation.org/interviews/titopuente.html
^ "Latin Music USA", PBS TV, broadcast 2010
^ a b c Randie Paige Lewis; Luckydog Arts and Design; www.luckydogarts.com; randie@luckydogarts.com, 831-423-4239. "Bill Graham Bio". Billgrahamfoundation.org. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
^ "History San Francisco Mime Troupe". Sfmt.org. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
^ "The Fillmore: Timeline". Pbs.org. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
^ "The Paul Butterfield Blues Band Concert". Wolfgangsvault.com. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
^ "Fillmore Records". Rock and Roll Map. Retrieved October 2, 2011.

2012-06-24 14:19:48
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