Stan Cornyn

Carl Stanley Cornyn (July 8, 1933 – May 11, 2015) was an American record label executive and the author of "Exploding: The Highs, Hits, Hype, Heroes, and Hustlers of the Warner Music Group" (). He also wrote three privately published family genealogy books (all in the Library of Congress).
Career.
Cornyn began working for Warner Bros. Records in 1958. He left the Warner Music Group in 1990 to live an office-free life. During his Warner years, he'd advanced to Executive VP of Warner Bros. Records; then to Senior VP of the Warner Music Group; and finally Founder and CEO of Warner New Media within Time-Warner. He is widely remembered for his years heading up Warner-Reprise's Creative Services department, writing innovative ads, and other marketing approaches, including the storied Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders series.
He was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes in 1966 for Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" and again in 1967 for "Sinatra at the Sands". He was nominated again in 1968 and 1969 for his work on Sinatra and Duke Ellington's "Francis A. & Edward K." and Sinatra and Antônio Carlos Jobim's "Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim" recordings, beaten both times by Johnny Cash. His work gained one additional nomination in 1974 for Sinatra's "Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back".
The literary qualities of his liner notes are discussed in "A Storied Singer: Frank Sinatra as Literary Conceit" in a chapter entitled "The Composition of Celebrity: Sinatra as Text in the Liner Notes of Stan Cornyn."
He also co-authored the screenplay for Warner Bros.' 1970 film "The Phynx".
In 1989, while heading Warner New Media, Cornyn introduced a new multimedia format called CD+Graphics, or CD+G. Stan also envisioned “The Whole Megillah.” As a result, Stan's people at Warner New Media (WNM) built a Megillah Project demonstration system, which was widely viewed within Warner Communications, and resulted in patent 5161034. This patent was later linked to Time Warner’s DVD work. WNM also published several interactive multimedia Compact Discs, such as “How Computers Work” and “Desert Storm.”
In 1991 he was asked to lead the short-lived computer games division of Media Vision, Inc., and was named executive vice-president and co-head of Media Vision Multimedia Publishing, heading its Westlake Village offices.
Education.
Cornyn was a graduate of Monrovia High School, Pomona College, attended Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and received a Masters in Theatre from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1962.
Family.
Cornyn was twice married. First, in 1965, to Gail MacCrystall, by whom he fathered son Christopher Cornyn; then again, in 1971, to Theadora Davitt, by whom he has son Tom Cornyn.
Cornyn is nephew to William Cornyn, previously the chair of both the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature and the Russian Area Program at Yale University; and John Cornyn II, father to U.S. Senator John Cornyn III (R. TX).
Cornyn lived in Carpinteria, California, with longtime companion Meg Barbour. He died on May 11, 2015 at his home in Carpinteria at the age of 81.


Howard Barish

Howard Barish is president and CEO of Kandoo Films, an Oscar nominated, Emmy award winning entertainment company known for its producing partnership with Ava DuVernay. Barish and Kandoo's most recognized project to date, "13th", is a 2016 American documentary from Netflix directed by DuVernay. Centered on race in the United States criminal justice system, the critically lauded film is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlawed slavery (unless as punishment for a crime). It argues that slavery is being effectively perpetuated through mass incarceration.
Produced by DuVernay, Spencer Averick and Barish, 13th was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 89th Oscars. Winner of four Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmy) awards, a BAFTA award, a NAACP Image Award and an African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) award for best documentary, it also won best documentary and best director in the TV/Streaming categories, as well as best political documentary at the first annual Critics' Choice Documentary Awards.
Originally from Toronto, Canada, Barish gained extensive production experience in the thriving Canadian film and television industry as a First Assistant Director on feature films, television mini-series, made-for-television movies, pilots and nearly 100 episodes of various network television series. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1991, he launched Kandoo Films, Inc., a production and film distribution company that specializes in creating entertainment content for theatrical, television, digital, and multi-media platforms. As founder of Kandoo, Barish has been responsible for producing image and branding campaigns for NBC, CBS, FOX, and The CW Television Networks, as well as promos, sizzle reels, and thousands of hours of short-form content and long-form programming for numerous companies.
Barish first began collaborating with DuVernay on the films "Middle of Nowhere" and "I Will Follow", with "Middle" winning the Best Director Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, a Gotham Award and the 2013 Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award.
Barish has also served as a producer for an ESPN "30 for 30" film showcasing tennis great Venus Williams, "Hello Beautiful: Interludes with John Legend", and Fox's history-making webisode series, "24INSIDE". Barish's executive producer credits include "E! Entertainment"’s reality series "The Entertainer"; the documentary film "Glitter Girls", and feature films "Fizzy Business" and "Still Punching the Clown".


Tony Outeda

Tony Outeda (March 29, 1945) is an American music manager and record executive, best known for managing Foghat and creating and running PBS Records.
Career.
Tony's music business career began in 1967 when he was hired by Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles, to be his Assistant in the United States. Epstein had just formed partnership with Robert Stigwood, and also worked with Cream (band), Bee Gees and The Cyrkle.
After Epstein's death, Tony joined the Willard Alexander Agency, known for booking big band and jazz acts including Benny Goodman and Count Basie, as an agent and to develop a rock and roll department there and brought to the agency, artists including, Kenny Rankin and Carly Simon's band, The Elephants’ Memory.
When Roger Earl, drummer, and "Lonesome" Dave Peverett, lead singer, left Savoy Brown, Tony travelled to England and became the founding manager of their new band, Foghat which included Rod Price, guitar. Tony invited Albert Grossman, co-owner of Bearsville Records, to England to hear Foghat audition. Bearsville Records was a joint venture/partnership label with Warner Bros. Records, headed by Mo Ostin. Albert also managed Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary, The Band, Janis Joplin and Richie Havens and he signed Foghat as the first English band on his new label. Their first record, Foghat (1973 album), was recorded in Rockfield Studios in South Wales and produced by Dave Edmunds. Foghat went on to headline arenas and record gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, including their most successful, Fool for the City and Foghat Live. Two of their most successful chart singles were Slow Ride, produced by Nick Jameson, and Third Time Lucky, produced by Tony and Foghat.
Tony also managed Felix Cavaliere, former lead singer of The Rascals.
In 1998, Tony created PBS Records, a partnership label and joint venture between Warner Bros. Records, lead by Russ Thyret, and PBS Television. While President of PBS Records, the label produced TV specials with companion records with artists including Monica Mancini, as well as soundtracks to documentaries with Ken Burns, Louis Gates Jr., and Jennifer Fox (documentary filmmaker).
Personal life.
Lives with his wife, Heather Creran, in Milton, GA and has a daughter, Amy Outeda.


Robert Borden (TV producer)

Robert Borden is an American TV writer, and Television producer. He is known as executive producer and writer of "George Lopez" and as a writer for the "Late Show with David Letterman".
Borden started his television career as Assistant Director of "Bridge" in 1988. He wrote for "Roseanne" from 1992 to 1993. During 2006 to 2009 he has written for "The Late Show with David Letterman" and this work was nominated for 3 Primetime Emmys.
From 2002 to 2007 Borden co-produced "George Lopez".


Jeremiah James

Jeremiah James is an American singer, producer, and stage actor who is best known for his membership in the music group Teatro.
Early life.
James was born in Rochester, New York on April 1, 1980. He grew up in Los Angeles where he attended the Academy of Performing Arts at Alexander Hamilton High School. He is currently based out of New York.
Career.
One of the youngest performers every nominated for the Los Angeles Theater Ovation Awards for Best Lead Actor in a Musical, James was nominated for his leading role in Crazy For You. Later he appeared in the Sir Cameron Mackintosh revival of Oklahoma! as Curly. Following his participation in the musical group Teatro, James appeared West End revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel as Billy Bigelow. He went on to star as El Gallo in the long running off-Broadway musical the Fantasticks and later in the off-Broadway musical Sweetee. He continues to perform in regional theatre productions around the United States.
James was an original member of the Sony BMG group Teatro. Teatro's first album, titled "Teatro", was certified Gold in the UK. The group headlined at The 2007 Royal Variety Performance, performing for and meeting Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
In 2010, James released his debut solo album titled Tupelo, named for the birthplace of Elvis Presley and consisting of covers of Presley's songs.
James conceived, produced, and wrote the book for the 2018 original West End musical It Happened in Key West, based on the true story of eccentric recluse Carl Tanzler. Jill Santoriello wrote the music and lyrics for the musical, with Jason Huza contributing additional lyrics.
Additionally, James has produced numerous theatrical productions and audiobooks.
He began hosting the podcast the University of Pleasure with sex therapist Tera Jansen on February 14, 2020. In June of 2020, Jeremiah James published his first novel, an empowerment erotica book titled Amy: Book One, and written in conjunction with co-author Autumn Karen.


Sid Feller

Sidney "Sid" Feller (December 24, 1916 – February 16, 2006) was an American conductor and arranger, best known for his work with Ray Charles. He worked with Charles on hundreds of songs including "Georgia on My Mind" and worked as Charles' conductor while on tour. Ray Charles once said of him "if they call me a genius, then Sid Feller is Einstein." [739.ece]
Early career.
Feller learned how to play the trumpet while a member of the Boy Scouts of America and also played the piano. He started playing as a member of local bands around New York City in the late 1930s and his career as an arranger started around that time. Feller worked with Jack Teagarden in 1940 before joining the US Army as a musician.
After the war, he worked with Teagarden again before joining Carmen Cavallaro's band in 1949. He joined Capitol Records where he worked as a conductor and arranger. During this period, he worked on records by Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee, Matt Monro, Mel Tormé, Sandler and Young, Dakota Staton, Donna Hightower, Nancy Wilson and Jackie Gleason.
Feller joined a new record label, ABC-Paramount, in 1955, where he worked with Paul Anka, Eydie Gorme and Steve Lawrence. He also recorded three albums of his own: "Music for Expectant Mothers", "Music to Break a Lease By" and "More Music to Break a Lease By".
Work with Ray Charles.
Feller met Ray Charles when Charles left Atlantic Records for ABC-Paramount. Their first album together was "The Genius Hits the Road" featuring "Georgia on My Mind". He also played a significant role in developing "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music". Charles recalled: 'Sid researched the hell out of it and came up with 250 tunes. I picked the ones I liked, and of the ones I picked, they were all new to me except "Bye Bye, Love".' Amongst the songs they recorded was "I Can't Stop Loving You" which would become Charles' biggest hit. Ironically, Feller was skeptical about the market for a pop singer covering country songs. Feller worked with Charles for 30 years, both on record and on tour as a conductor.
Subsequent career.
In 1965, Feller moved his wife and 4 children to California where he worked as a freelancer. He was conductor/arranger on Doris Day's "The Love Album", recorded in 1967. He worked as the musical arranger for "The Flip Wilson Show" in the early 1970s and on specials for John Denver, Andy Williams, Sandler and Young and Pat Boone amongst others. He also produced Broadway soundtrack albums. He finally retired after a heart attack in the late 1990s and moved to Ohio to be near one of his daughters.
Feller died in 2006. He was survived by his wife Gert; his daughters Lois, Debbie, and Jane; and son Bill.


Steven Epstein (music producer)

Steven Epstein is an American record producer. He has won 16 Grammy Awards, two Latin Grammys, and nominated 35 times. He has won Grammy Awards for Classical Producer of the Year seven times. While he is primarily known for his work in classical music, Epstein has Grammy nominations and wins for albums in musical theater, musical show, crossover, soundtrack, and spoken word for children.
He has worked with Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis (classical and jazz), Plácido Domingo, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Murray Perahia, Emanuel Ax, Bobby McFerrin, Juilliard String Quartet, Tokyo String Quartet, Fine Arts Quartet, and Punch Brothers. He has worked with the Vienna, Berlin and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, and with the Chicago, Cleveland, London, Concertgebouw, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles Symphony Orchestras.
Early Years.
Epstein grew up in Queens Village, New York, and had an interest in classical music from a young age. He studied the credits of albums he listened to and imagined being in the concert hall. Tom Frost, the record producer, was a name that came up often in his collection.
In the early to mid-1960s, he was building short-wave radios (from Heathkit catalogs). He attended Martin Van Buren High School where Epstein played violin. He also performed with the New York All-City High School Orchestra. He corresponded with Tom Frost which lead to an invitation to meet. Frost advised Epstein to major in music and minor in communications because there were no programs in recording technology at the time.
Epstein attended Hofstra University from 1969 where he played with the college's orchestra and worked at the radio station, WVHC-FM, all four years (as classical music director and engineer). He used school microphones and sought out chamber groups to record. His senior year, Epstein purchased a Revox 77 tape recorder for $600. His goal was to ask Frost for a job once he graduated.
Epstein graduated in 1973 with a degree in Music Education.
Career.
Epstein got an interview with Tom Frost and Tom Shepherd at Columbia Records and was later called back for a second interview. He knew there was one job, two applicants, and the other applicant was more qualified. Both of them were hired in September 1973. Epstein started as music editor for Columbia Masterworks and eventually became senior executive producer at the label.
Epstein worked as an employee for 33 years with Columbia, then Sony/BMG/Masterworks. He was senior executive producer of Sony Classical. Epstein worked with engineer Buddy Graham until Graham's retirement (in 1991) and has done many recordings with engineer Richard King. As of 2006, he is a freelance producer.
Labels he recorded for include CBS Records Masterworks, Sony Classical, RCA Red Seal, Nonesuch, Deutsche Grommophon, Columbia Records, Naxos and PS Classics.
He has been an adjunct professor of the Sound Recording Program at McGill University in Montreal since 1996. He teaches Classical Music Recording.


Blanton Alspaugh

Blanton Alspaugh (born 1959) is an American record producer, specialised in classical recordings. He has so far (the 63rd Grammy Awards season) won 10 Grammy Awards.
Alspaugh earned a bachelor's of science degree in music education from Tennessee Technological University and a master's degree in orchestral conducting from Rice University. He has been a member of the Soundmirror classical music recording and production team since 1999.
He has worked with a variety of orchestras and musicians, including Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, the Harrington String Quartet, William Boggs, Stanislav Pronin and Emmanuel Feldman.
Alspaugh won his first Grammy in 2009 for Best Small Ensemble Performance for "Spotless Rose: Hymns to the Virgin Mary".


DJ Drama

Tyree Cinque Simmons (born April 22, 1978), professionally known as DJ Drama, is an American DJ, record executive and music promoter from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the co-founder (with Don Cannon) of Generation Now, an Atlantic Records imprint with artists including Lil Uzi Vert, Jack Harlow, and Skeme on its roster. He initially gained recognition as the official DJ for Atlanta rapper T.I. and as a prominent mixtape DJ with his series, "Gangsta Grillz". Numerous artists have appeared on DJ Drama's "Gangsta Grillz" tapes, including Lil Wayne, Fabolous, Ludacris, Jeezy, Gucci Mane, and many others. He was a co-founder of the Atlanta-based DJ and artist collective known as the Aphilliates. Drama has released 5 studio albums, curating tracks with some of the industry’s most lucrative talent, the most recent of which being "Quality Street Music 2" in 2016.
Early life and education.
Tyree Simmons was born and raised largely in the Germantown area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At age 13, his sister took him to New York City where he purchased his first mixtape. He began making his own tapes soon after, including one titled "Illadelph" which featured artists like Black Thought, Dice Raw, Malik B., and others. He also started experimenting with turntables. Simmons attended Central High School in Philadelphia and graduated in 1996.
After high school, he moved to Atlanta to attend Clark Atlanta University (CAU) where he studied mass communication. While there, he met two other Philadelphia-raised DJs: DJ Sense and Don Cannon. The three would eventually form the Aphilliates DJ and artist collective. During his studies, Simmons began making and releasing mixtapes under the moniker, DJ Drama. One of his first series (called "Electric Relaxation") included a variety of R&B tracks. In 1998, he released his first mixtape ("Jim Crow Laws") composed exclusively of Southern hip hop acts like Outkast, Three 6 Mafia, and Mystikal. The success of that tape led DJ Drama to start the mixtape series, "Gangsta Grillz". He would go on to graduate from CAU in 2000.
Career.
2003–2010: Career beginnings and "Gangsta Grillz: The Album" series.
DJ Drama, alongside Don Cannon and DJ Sense, officially founded the Aphilliates Music Group (AMG) in 2003. The group distributed DJ Drama's "Gangsta Grillz" mixtape series, which saw early successes with T.I.'s "Down With the King" (2004) and Jeezy's "Trap or Die" (2005). By 2005, Drama and his AMG cohorts were hosting radio shows on Atlanta's Hot 107.9 and on Eminem's Shade 45 channel on Sirius Satellite Radio. In late 2005, Drama produced and hosted Lil Wayne's "The Dedication" mixtape, which would spawn a long series of "Dedication" tapes. "Dedication 2", released in May 2006, appeared on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and was labeled by "The New York Times" as "one of the 10 best recordings of 2006."
AMG signed a joint venture deal with Asylum Records in September 2006. The first artist signed was American rapper Willie the Kid. In January 2007, AMG's Atlanta studios were raided by Fulton County police officers, who seized over 80,000 mixtapes, 4 vehicles, and some recording equipment. Both DJ Drama and Don Cannon were taken into custody on RICO charges. Hard drives containing tracks from Drama's first "official" album, "", were also seized despite the fact that the album was due to be released "above-board" by Grand Hustle Records via Atlantic Records. No further legal action was ever taken against Drama or Cannon in relation to the raid.
Despite the setback, DJ Drama's "Gangsta Grillz: The Album" was released in December 2007 on the Grand Hustle label. The album's first buzz single, "Takin' Pictures", was released in March 2007 and featured Jeezy, Willie the Kid, Jim Jones, Rick Ross, Young Buck and T.I. The album's lead single—"5000 Ones" featuring Nelly, T.I., Yung Joc, Willie the Kid, Jeezy, and Twista—debuted on BET. The second single, "The Art of Storytellin' Part 4", was released in 2008 and featured OutKast and Marsha Ambrosius. The album peaked at number 26 on the "Billboard" 200.
In May 2009, DJ Drama released his second album entitled ', with the singles "Day Dreaming" (featuring Akon, Snoop Dogg and T.I.) and "Ridiculous" (featuring Gucci Mane, Yo Gotti, Lonnie Mac and OJ da Juiceman). In addition to his own studio albums, DJ Drama also continued working on mixtapes, including those for Gucci Mane ("Mr. Zone 6"), Chris Brown ("In My Zone 2"), Dead Prez ("Revolutionary but Gangsta Grillz"), and Wyclef Jean ("From the Hut, to the Projects, to the Mansion"), among others. In March 2010, Drama appeared on T-Pain's musical television special ', in a voice role as a radio announcer named Mr. Thanksgiving.
2011–present: "Third Power" and "Quality Street Music" series, Generation Now record label.
Drama released his third album, "Third Power" in October 2011. It featured the single, "Oh My" (featuring Fabolous, Wiz Khalifa, and Roscoe Dash), and reached number 95 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. He followed that with the release of his fourth album, "Quality Street Music", in late 2012. The album was preceded by the singles "We in This Bitch" and "My Moment". The album peaked at number 15 on the "Billboard" 200, which is the highest a DJ Drama album has gotten on the chart to date.
In August 2013, Drama co-founded The Academy, a DJ incubator and art collective, with Don Cannon and DJ Sense. The Academy announced its first roster of 23 DJs in September of that year. In January 2014, it was announced that DJ Drama would join the A&R at Atlantic Records. Within his first year, he had signed several artists to the label, including Kap G, Spenzo, and Que. Throughout this time, he continued hosting and producing mixtapes for artists like 50 Cent ("The Lost Tape"), Nipsey Hussle ("Crenshaw"), Snoop Dogg ("That's My Work Volume 3"), and Big K.R.I.T. ("It's Better This Way").
In 2015, DJ Drama and Don Cannon founded the Atlantic Records imprint, Generation Now. One of their first signees was Lil Uzi Vert, and Drama served as an executive producer on Uzi's 2015 debut commercial mixtape, "Luv Is Rage". Generation Now also signed Skeme to the label that year. In July 2016, Drama released his fifth studio album, "Quality Street Music 2", with the single "Wishing" featuring Chris Brown, Skeme, and Lyquin.
Generation Now had its first number one record on the "Billboard" 200 with Lil Uzi Vert's August 2017 debut studio album, "Luv Is Rage 2". DJ Drama served as executive producer on the album. Other acts signed to Generation Now by Drama include Skeme, Lyquin, Jack Harlow, Lil James, and Killumantii.


Brittany Andrews

Brittany Andrews (born August 13, 1973) is an American exotic dancer, pornographic actress, film producer and club DJ. In 2008, Andrews was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame.
Career.
She worked in a Milwaukee beauty supply company before starting her career as an exotic dancer. After doing photo shoots for men's magazines, she began her career in adult films after meeting Jenna Jameson in 1995, during a photo shoot for "Hustler" magazine in Jamaica.
In February 2008, Andrews retired from porn, and held a Presidents Day party announcing that she was moving to New York to attend film school at the New York Film Academy. However, in 2010 Andrews returned to the business to star in the adult film "Sex and the City: A XXX Parody".
Advocacy.
In December 2003, Brittany Andrews was appointed to the Women in Adult (WIA) board of directors as the Talent Liaison. Andrews has promoted using a condom for hardcore sex scenes. She claims that she is very politically active in the adult business and that her least enjoyable aspect of the business is standing by and watching the exploitation of women being coerced into performing without condoms.
Other ventures.
In addition to her adult film work she hosts several cable TV shows, including Playboy TV and "Talking Blue", which she co-produces. At her self-owned Britco Pictures studio, Andrews starred in, directed and produced pornographic movies such as the strap-on movie "Brittany's Bitch Boys", and "Lesbians in Lust".
Andrews has started her own mainstream film production company Discipline Filmworks. In 2010, she produced and appeared in the short film "Crumble". The film had its world premiere at the 2010 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, where it won a number of awards including Audience Award for Short Film, Best Actor in a Short Film (for Steven Bauer) and Best Actress in a Short Film (Oksana Lada). She has also acted as executive producer for the film "Trick of the Witch".


Freekey Zekey

Ezekiel Giles (born October 13, 1975), better known by his stage name Freekey Zekey, is an American rapper and music executive best known as a founding member of The Diplomats, a group he helped form in Harlem in 1997 alongside his childhood friend Jim Jones and cousin Cam'ron. Freekey also serves as the owner/CEO of 730 Dips Records.
Aside from The Diplomats, he is also a member of fellow rapper Jim Jones' ByrdGang, and has made a habit of yelling his name in songs; it is his signature on tracks, whether he is featured or the solo artist.
Career.
Giles, along with his cousin Cam'ron and their friend Jim Jones formed the hip-hop group The Diplomats in their hometown of Harlem, New York in 1997. Giles adopted the stage name Freekey Zekey and the group began writing and performing songs together. In the early years of the group, Zekey served mostly as a hype man, yelling adlibs or his name during other members' songs and performances. Zekey was responsible for writing and performing almost all of the skits on Diplomat mixtapes and Cam'ron’s albums, and did this until he was sentenced to 35–42 months in prison in February 2004. While in prison, Zekey began writing his own songs and honed his skills as a rapper. Just a few weeks after being released from prison in November 2006, Freekey signed a contract with Asylum Records to release his debut album, Book of Ezekiel. The album was released on July 24, 2007, and featured guest appearances from other members of The Diplomats, including Cam'ron, Jim Jones and Juelz Santana. The album peaked at #23 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart. After The Diplomats effectively disbanded in 2007, Freekey went on to form his own label/group, the 730 Dips, and also joined Jim Jones' new group, ByrdGang.
Personal life.
Giles is the first cousin of Cam’ron, and was a childhood friend of Jim Jones and Damon Dash.
2003 shooting.
On April 25, 2003, Giles and his crew were involved in a minor car collision outside of a Manhattan nightclub, after another car collided with the back of the vehicle Giles and his crew were inside of. After stepping out of their vehicle, the men in the other car attempted to rob Giles and his friends. Giles was shot once in the abdomen and sustained minor injuries after the incident. In total, over 44 bullets were fired at Giles and his crew during the altercation, and one member of Giles’ entourage, his bodyguard Eric Mangrum, was killed. In December 2005, Chauncey Dillon was sentenced to 30 years in prison for both robbery and the murder of Mangrum.
Legal issues.
Giles was sentenced to 35–42 months in prison on February 5, 2004 for running an ecstasy ring. Giles served 33 months at the Durham Correctional Center in Durham, North Carolina before being released on November 20, 2006.


Betsy Beers

Betsy Beers (born 1957) is an American television and film producer whose credits include ShondaLand's "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal," "Private Practice", "How to Get Away with Murder", "The Catch", "Station 19", "For the People", and "Bridgerton".
Life and career.
A graduate of Williams College where she studied theater and English literature, Beers acted and performed comedy for several years in New York City before moving to Los Angeles to make the transition to producing.
While living in New York City, Beers was producer to the 1999 cult film 200 Cigarettes. The cult favorite had an all star cast that included Courtney Love, Guillermo Diaz, Martha Plimpton, Christina Ricci and Ben Affleck. 200 Cigarettes is also the first film to star Goldie Hawn's daughter, Kate Hudson (who played a very similar role to her real life mother).
Beers served as President of director Mike Newell’s Dogstar Films, where she produced the films "200 Cigarettes", starring Ben Affleck, Dave Chappelle, and Kate Hudson, and "Best Laid Plans", starring Reese Witherspoon. She also developed such films as "High Fidelity", directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack, as well as "Pushing Tin", starring Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett, and Angelina Jolie. She also served as Executive Producer on the films "Safe Passage", starring Susan Sarandon, and "Witch Hunt", starring Dennis Hopper, with producer Gale Ann Hurd.
She then served as President of the Mark Gordon Company. While there, she oversaw the development and production of its feature film and television projects, including the development of "Grey's Anatomy". Additionally, Ms. Beers produced the feature films "The Hoax", starring Richard Gere, and "Casanova", starring Heath Ledger; both films were directed by Lasse Hallström.
In 2009, Beers partnered with Shonda Rhimes' production company ShondaLand to develop and produce additional feature film and television projects.
Beers serves on the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) Board of Governors.
Awards.
For her work on "Grey's Anatomy", Beers and her fellow producers were awarded the 2007 Producer of the Year Award from the Producers Guild of America, the 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series Drama, and received the 2006 and 2007 Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series. Beers has been nominated three times by the Producers Guild of America for their Television Producer of the Year Award.
In 2014, "Scandal" was awarded the American Film Institute's Television Program of the Year Award. as well as a Peabody Award.


Mark de Clive-Lowe

Mark de Clive-Lowe (born August 16, 1974) is an American-based Japanese-New Zealand DJ, musician, composer and producer raised in Auckland and now based in Los Angeles, California.
Career.
Born in Auckland, New Zealand, de Clive-Lowe was raised bi-culturally by his Japanese mother and New Zealand father. He started learning piano at age 4 and developed an in interest in jazz through his father's record collection and oldest brother's own piano playing. As a teenager in New Zealand he got his first production and electronic music experiences collaborating with local hip hop and R&B artists. He cites the Tokyo jazz club scene as being a key factor in his decision later to really pursue jazz music.
De Clive-Lowe came to international prominence during his decade living in London, UK. From 1998-2008 de Clive-Lowe was a regular collaborator with a community of producers including Bugz in the Attic, 4Hero and Restless Soul. He is a veteran of the UK's broken beat movement, blending jazz, electronics, funk and percussion-heavy world music. He has been involved with over 200 releases, collaborating artists including Lauryn Hill, Jody Watley, Shirley Horn, UK soul singer Omar, percussionist Sammy Figueroa, bass player Pino Palladino.
Having recorded two locally released solo albums for New Zealand independent label Tap Records in the late 1990s (plus an album as a member of the group Jazz in the Present Sense), his third album "Six Degrees" was released worldwide in 2000 (Universal Jazz/emarcy). De Clive-Lowe released his next full-length album "Tide's Arising" 22 March 2005 on ABB Soul/Antipodean and Columbia in Japan. The album features Pino Palladino and Bémbé Ségué. "Tide's Arising" was cited as one of the most groundbreaking new jazz albums from the UK in 2005.
Mark de Clive-Lowe's 2012 solo album, "Renegades", was released 14 November 2011 on Tru Thoughts Records. The album features Omar, Sheila E., Nia Andrews, Tawiah, Ovasoul7 and Sandra Nkake. "The Why" featuring Nia Andrews was released as the first single in early October 2011. His 2013 album is a collaboration with the Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra "Take the Space Trane" (Tru Thoughts) recorded live at De Doelen, Rotterdam. He has also produced all tracks on the studio album for US singer Sy Smith, "Fast and Curious" released in March 2012 and all tracks on the studio album for US singer Sandra St. Victor of The Family Stand, "Oya's Daughter" released September 2013.
The 2014 album "Church" features guests including Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Nia Andrews, Robin Eubanks et al. showcases the club night party "Church" de Clive-Lowe founded with Nia Andrews in Santa Monica, CA in 2010. A mixture of jazz club, dance club and live remix experiment, the event has been resident in Los Angeles, New York and done pop ups in Chicago and Philadelphia. The album was remixed by international DJ/producers for the 2015 "Church Remixed" release. In 2016, de Clive-Lowe released his tribute to Blue Note Records with "#Bluenoteremixed Vol.1." Recorded live in one take, the mixtape style release sees de Clive-Lowe remixing samples from the Blue Note Records catalog on the fly, joined by guests including Illa J, Bambu, John Robinson, Pino Palladino, Nia Andrews and Nomad Pendergrast.
2017's release "Live at the Blue Whale" was recorded at downtown LA's Blue Whale jazz club with de Clive-Lowe on piano, keyboards and live electronics and drum programming along with saxophonist Josh Johnson, bassist Brandon Eugene Owens and Gene Coye on drums paying tribute to his own inspirational favorites: Yusef Lateef, Sun Ra and Ahmad Jamal.


Sy Bartlett

Sidney "Sy" Bartlett (born Sacha Baraniev; July 10, 1900 – May 29, 1978) was an American author and screenwriter/producer of Hollywood films.
Early life.
Sy Bartlett was born on July 10, 1900 in the Black Sea seaport of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine. His parents immigrated to the United States in 1904, settling in Chicago. Bartlett attended Northwestern University and was trained at the Medill School of Journalism.
He worked as a newspaper reporter before moving to Hollywood to become a screenwriter. His first credited work was for RKO Studios in 1933 and he wrote 28 screenplays from 1933 to 1969. In the 1950s, he became interested in producing films, and with film star Gregory Peck founded Melville Productions in 1956.
Bartlett enjoyed being a Hollywood socialite in the 1930s and was well known for the Sunday barbecues he frequently hosted. He was sometimes connected by tabloids to scandals on occasion, and married three times, each time to Hollywood actresses – Alice White, Ellen Drew, and Patricia Owens. Of Jewish descent, Bartlett was strongly anti-Nazi, once striking an employee of the German consulate in the face during an argument in a nightclub.
Military service.
Bartlett joined the United States Army during World War II as a captain and was assigned to the Army Pictorial Service. However he was not interested in making training films and used connections to meet Beirne Lay, Jr., who was on the staff of Army Air Forces Brig. Gen. Ira Eaker. Lay had a background in both journalism and Hollywood and arranged for Bartlett to meet Maj. Gen. Carl Spaatz, and Bartlett became Spaatz's aide-de-camp.
With the establishment of the Eighth Air Force in England, Bartlett was transferred there and joined the staff of the Eighth's Bomber Command as an intelligence assistant. There he came into daily contact with the inner workings of Air Force commanders in England, including Brig. Gen. Frank A. Armstrong, and was a close observer of the development of the Eighth into a powerful combat force. In November 1944, Major Bartlett became the wing intelligence officer for the B-29 315th Bomb Wing under Armstrong and served with it on Guam.
Return to Hollywood and writing.
Following World War II, Bartlett returned to Hollywood and joined 20th Century Fox as a writer. In 1946, he began a collaboration with Beirne Lay which resulted in the 1948 publication of the novel "Twelve O'Clock High" (Harper & Brothers), and in December 1949, the release of the film based on the same story (work on production began a year before publication).
Bartlett died in Hollywood on May 29, 1978, aged 77, from cancer.


Leslie Bohem

Leslie "Les" Bohem (born 1951) is an American screenwriter, television writer, and former bassist. He is the son of screenwriter Endre Bohem.
Biography.
Bohem played bass in the 1980s with the pop groups Sparks and Gleaming Spires.
Bohem's writing credits include the miniseries "Taken" and the films "Dante's Peak", "Twenty Bucks" (with his father), "Daylight", and "The Alamo". He also wrote the storybook of the Steven Spielberg produced mini-series "Nine Lives."
Bohem wrote parts of the science-fiction television series "Extant", executive produced by Spielberg and created the series "Shut Eye", airing on the streaming service Hulu. It was given a straight-to-series 10-episode order. All ten episodes became available on December 7, 2016. A second season was ordered on March 20, 2017 which was released on December 6, 2017.


George E. Blake

George E. Blake (17 August 1774 in England – 23 February 1871 in Philadelphia) was an American music engraver and publisher. He was born in Yorkshire, England and, according to his obituary in the "Philadelphia Evening Telegraph", emigrated to the United States when he was sixteen. Other sources disagree on the exact year he arrived in America. What is clear though is that by 1793, he began teaching the flute and the clarinet in Philadelphia, operating out of a room above the shop of music publisher John Aitken on South Third Street. During this period, the city was being ravaged by an outbreak of yellow fever. Unlike many others, Blake chose to stay instead of fleeing the city. He remained in Philadelphia for the rest of his long life.
Blake's career.
In 1802, Blake acquired the rights to piano maker John Isaac Hawkins' factory. By the next year, he had published his first piece of music, and by 1810, he was advertising his services by claiming that he had the largest assortment of music in the country. At the height of his career, from about 1810 to 1830, he was considered one of the most prolific music publishers in the United States. He was one of the first to publish full scores of American musical theater, including the popular 1810 musical by John Bray and J.N. Barker, "The Indian Princess" (). One of his greatest early achievements was a complete edition of Thomas Moore's "Irish Melodies" (), which Blake first published in 1808 and continued printing until 1825. During the 1820s and 1830s, he undertook what was then the most ambitious music-publishing project in the United States: the complete vocal works of George Frideric Handel in piano-vocal score over fifteen folio volumes (). In around 1830, he published the first American edition of Handel's "Messiah" (). His publications throughout his career were diverse: he printed songs of the Philadelphia theater (based on London theater music), opera librettos, original American compositions, political songs, excerpts from Italian opera, and minstrel music. By the 1850s, Blake stopped publishing music, although he continued selling his earlier publications out of his small store at 13 South Fifth Street, which adjoined 23 South Fifth, the residence of his friend and artist Thomas Sully.
At his death, in his 95th year, Blake was hailed as the oldest publisher in the United States, save and except Lee & Walker, a Philadelphia-based music publisher that had been in existence since 1773. George W. Lee (d. 1875) and Julius Walker (d. 1857) founded their firm in 1848 by acquiring the publishing firm of George Willig (1764–1851), for whom they both once worked. In 1794, George Willig had taken over the firm of Möller & Capron — John Christopher Möller & — which was founded in 1773 as the first music publisher in the United States.


Bob Crewe

Robert Stanley Crewe (November 12, 1930 – September 11, 2014) was an American songwriter, dancer, singer, manager, and record producer. He was known for producing, and co-writing with Bob Gaudio, a string of Top 10 singles for the Four Seasons.
As a songwriter, his most successful songs include "Silhouettes" (co-written with Frank Slay); "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Walk Like a Man", "Rag Doll", "Silence Is Golden", "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)", "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and "Bye, Bye, Baby" (all co-written with Gaudio); "Let's Hang On!" (written with Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell); and "My Eyes Adored You" and "Lady Marmalade" (both co-written with Kenny Nolan). He also had hit recordings with the Rays, Diane Renay, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Freddy Cannon, Lesley Gore, Oliver, Michael Jackson, Bobby Darin, Roberta Flack, Peabo Bryson, Patti LaBelle, Barry Manilow, and his own Bob Crewe Generation.
Early life.
Born in Newark in 1930 and reared in Belleville, New Jersey, Crewe demonstrated an early and apparent gift for both art and music. Although lacking in formal musical training, he gravitated to learning from many of the great 19th- and 20th-century classical romantic composers as well as giants of jazz and swing, including Stan Kenton, Harry James, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Tommy Dorsey. He studied for almost a year at Parsons School of Design in New York City with the intention of eventually pursuing a career in architecture.
Career.
The 1950s.
In 1953, Crewe met and partnered professionally with Frank Slay Jr., a young pianist from Texas. Their collaboration created several hit songs (as well as a small record label, XYZ), for which Crewe performed as the demo singer. Crewe and Slay's 1957 recording session with the Rays for XYZ (picked up nationally by Cameo Records) produced two major hit songs. "Silhouettes", produced by Crewe, became a doo-wop anthem of the era. Climbing to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1957, "Silhouettes" displayed the flair for story-driven lyrics, innovative musical hooks, and final lyrical twists that were to become known as Crewe trademarks. In 1965, with a slightly faster tempo, "Silhouettes" again became a hit, this time for the British group Herman's Hermits, reaching #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Bob Dylan recorded "Silhouettes" during his legendary "Basement Tapes" sessions of the late 1960s, although his version was not released until 2014.
"Daddy Cool" was the B-side of the Rays' "Silhouettes" single. Written and produced by Crewe and Slay at the same 1957 session, it achieved considerable note. Both "Daddy Cool" and "Silhouettes" were covered the same year by the Canadian group the Diamonds, whose version of "Daddy Cool" reached #10 on the "Billboard" charts. In 1961, Guy "Daddy Cool" Darrell released another single version on the Warwick label, and in 1977, the UK band Darts made the song their first-ever studio recording, scoring a #6 hit.
Crewe and Slay built on their success by signing a deal with new, Philadelphia-based Swan Records. Sessions with Billy and Lillie (singers Billy Ford and Lillie Bryant) produced the 1958 hit "Lah Dee Dah", which reached the #9 position on the Billboard Hot 100; the following year, Billy and Lillie's recording of "Lucky Ladybug" hit #14. Crewe and Slay also wrote two Top 10 hits - "Tallahassee Lassie" and "Okefenokee" - for Swan's rising star Freddy Cannon. Crewe also began to score his own hits, "Sweetie Pie" (US #111, 1959) and "The Whiffenpoof Song" (#96, 1960).
The early 1960s.
As a solo singer, Crewe recorded a pair of albums in 1961, one of which included a Ralph Burns-produced swing version of Yale University's signature "The Whiffenpoof Song". The record became a major hit in New York and led to Crewe's receiving "teen heartthrob" coverage in such popular teen magazines as "16 Magazine", and to guest appearances with Mickey Rooney and Connie Francis on such TV variety shows as "The Revlon Revue".
In the early 1960s, Crewe began writing with Bob Gaudio, who had risen to fame at age 15 as a member of The Royal Teens, for whom he'd co-written the hit "Short Shorts". The first Crewe-Gaudio collaboration, "Sherry", was written by Gaudio and produced by Crewe. In 1962 it became a #1 single for the Four Seasons (fronted by Frankie Valli). The pair wrote many other songs for the group, including the #1 hits "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Rag Doll", and "Walk Like a Man", as well as "Ronnie", "Bye, Bye, Baby (Baby, Goodbye)", and "Connie-O".
Crewe collaborated with Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell on the Four Seasons hit "Let's Hang On!". The Four Seasons were also the first to record the Crewe-Gaudio composition "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)", later covered virtually note-for-note by the American singing group the Walker Brothers, who recorded their #1 selling version in England; their version made the American Top 10 as well. The Crewe-Gaudio collaborations capitalized on the extraordinary and distinctive voice of Frankie Valli, who could effortlessly soar to a piercing, emotionally expressive falsetto that became one of the emblematic and widely imitated sounds of the era. Record sales racked up by the Four Seasons are estimated as being between anywhere from 100 million to 199 million.
As the "Four Seasons sound" became more and more defined, other signature touches emerged, including dense but pristine-sounding percussion, such as the military-sounding march cadences and drum-stomps of "Sherry", "Big Girls Don't Cry", and "Walk Like a Man". The sophisticated harmonic patterns of the Four Seasons punctuated by the distinctive falsetto of Frankie Valli were at once classic and innovative, as was Crewe's use of melancholy harmonica on "Big Man in Town", the space-age organ of "Save It for Me", and the otherworldly glissandos of "Candy Girl".
In addition to his work with the Four Seasons, Crewe produced recording sessions by such artists as Dee Dee Sharp, The Orlons, Ben E. King, and The Highwaymen ("On a New Road"). With Bud Rehak and Eddie Rambeau he co-wrote "Navy Blue" for singer Diane Renay, and also produced it. Renay's recording made the Top 10 on the US pop chart in early 1964, and number one on the adult contemporary chart.
The mid to late 1960s.
In 1965, Crewe formed his own record label, DynoVoice Records. With the release of the 1965 hit "Concrete and Clay" by Eddie Rambeau, DynoVoice launched a run of twenty-one Top 100 hits. The label found early success with the R&B trio the Toys, best known for their single "A Lover's Concerto", a #2 hit single, and "Attack". The Toys were produced by Denny Randell and Sandy Linzer for executive producer Crewe. Writing about "A Lover's Concerto", based on a melody inspired by Bach's "Minuet in G major", critic Dave Thompson observed, "Few records are this perfect. Riding across one of the most deceptively hook-laden melodies ever conceived ... 'A Lover’s Concerto' marks the apogee of the Girl Group sound." The song was subsequently recorded by the Lennon Sisters, the Delfonics, Sarah Vaughan, the Supremes, Mrs. Miller, Audrey Hall, and Kelly Chen.
Another DynoVoice powerhouse of the mid-1960s emerged when Crewe discovered a band called Billy Lee & The Rivieras. The group had limited success until he renamed them Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels. Under his direction, they scored eleven Top 100 hits, most notably Crewe's powerful and muscular arrangements of "Devil with a Blue Dress On", the group's highest-charting single at #4, as well as "Sock It to Me, Baby!", a #6 hit in 1967, and "Jenny Take a Ride", which reached #10 in 1965.
Another often-recorded song from the 1965 Linzer-Randell album by the Toys is "Can't Get Enough of You Baby". The number, co-written by Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell, was also recorded by the Bay City, Michigan, rock group ? and the Mysterians, best known for their 1966 hit "96 Tears". "Can't Get Enough of You Baby" has enjoyed subsequent reinterpretations by the Colourfield and Smash Mouth, among many others.
Crewe's record label scored another hit with Norma Tanega's off-beat, folksy "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog". Crewe also helped bring success to the Epic Records group the Tremeloes with their hit cover of "Silence Is Golden", a song originally written for and recorded by the Four Seasons.
Bob Crewe himself (recording as The Bob Crewe Generation) released a version of Sid Ramin's 1967 instrumental "Music to Watch Girls By" (originally composed as a Diet Pepsi commercial jingle) on DynoVoice. The song became a Top 20 hit and spawned another successful instrumental version by Al Hirt and a vocal hit by Andy Williams. In 1967, Bob Crewe produced and wrote seven of the songs sung by Lesley Gore on her last commercially successful album, "California Nights", including producing the title track. The Bob Crewe Generation also recorded the original soundtrack (composed by Crewe and Charles Fox) for the 1968 Paramount Pictures motion picture "Barbarella", starring Jane Fonda and directed by Roger Vadim. The soundtrack for the cult favorite features vocals by Crewe and the group the Glitterhouse.
In 1967, Crewe and Gaudio scored one of their greatest successes with "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", recorded by Frankie Valli with the Four Seasons. The song reached #2 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and earned a gold record. "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" has since been recorded by a wide variety of vocalists and bands, in several different languages. A 1968 version by singer Andy Williams climbed to #5 on the UK Singles Chart. Also achieving chart status over the decades were English-language versions by the Lettermen, Maureen McGovern, Boys Town Gang and Lauryn Hill. The song has been heard in numerous motion pictures, including "The Deer Hunter", "The Fabulous Baker Boys", "Conspiracy Theory", "10 Things I Hate About You", "Drop Dead Gorgeous", "Bridget Jones's Diary", and "Jersey Boys".
In 1969, Crewe collaborated with the singer Oliver, producing his pop hit "Jean", a song written by poet Rod McKuen which served as theme to the Oscar-winning film "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie", starring Maggie Smith. Crewe also produced a hit single of Oliver performing the optimistic "Good Morning Starshine" from the rock musical "Hair". The song reached #3 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening singles surveys.
The Crewe record label released a series of well-received recordings such as Ben Bagley's "Cole Porter Revisited" and "Rodgers and Hart Revisited" featuring vocal performances by such artists as Harold Arlen, Elaine Stritch, Dorothy Loudon, Anthony Perkins, Ann Hampton Callaway, Bobby Short, Jerry Orbach, Tammy Grimes, and Blossom Dearie.
Crewe appeared on ABC-TV's "American Bandstand" and also "Where the Action Is", both with Dick Clark. He was interviewed and some of his current 1960's songs were played for the dancers and crowds.
The 1970s.
The Generation's late 1969 LP "Let Me Touch You", including covers of Henry Mancini's "Moon River" and "Two For The Road", arranged by Charles Fox, remains a favorite of lounge music collectors. It was also their only quadraphonic release. The Bob Crewe Generation briefly reappeared as a chart act in the mid-1970s, recording material for the disco era. The 1976 LP "Street Talk" on Elektra was in this vein.
In 1975, Crewe wrote and produced disco material for the Eleventh Hour, who had dance club success with at least three releases on 20th Century Records: "Hollywood Hot" (45 rpm single, number: TC-2215), "Bumper to Bumper", and "Sock It To Me/It’s Your Thing".
In the mid-1970s, Crewe and Sir Monti Rock III formed the disco club favorites Disco-Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes, best known for their 1975 successes "Get Dancin'" and "I Wanna Dance Wit' Choo (Doo Dat Dance)". The group is referenced by Elvis Costello in his song "Invasion Hit Parade" and by The Pet Shop Boys in their song "Electricity".
In 1977, at the insistence of producer Jerry Wexler, who had been an early mentor of his, Crewe recorded a solo album in Memphis, with Barry Beckett co-producing. The album, entitled "Motivation", was a showcase for his singing voice. Although the album did not achieve chart success, it included the ballad "Marriage Made In Heaven", a collaboration between Crewe and Kenny Nolan which later became popular with Carolina beach music bands. The album also produced the song "It Took a Long Time (For The First Time In My Life)", also recorded by Patti LaBelle.
Crewe and Nolan had previously written two other songs - "My Eyes Adored You" and "Lady Marmalade" - which became back-to-back #1 records in 1975. "My Eyes Adored You" was produced by Crewe and performed by Frankie Valli with the Four Seasons. When the record label, Mowest, balked at releasing it, Crewe, certain of its quality and hit potential, bought back the rights for $4,000 and it was issued on Private Stock Records. Despite widespread rejections from music industry pundits, the song became a smash solo hit for Valli, and was the fifth biggest song of the year. "Lady Marmalade", recorded by Labelle, became notorious for its sexually provocative, New Orleans-inflected chorus, "" The song became a radio and dance club sensation. When it reached #1 on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100, it displaced "My Eyes Adored You". Both songs spent one week at #1. "Lady Marmalade" has since been used in numerous motion pictures, including "Cheech and Chong's The Corsican Brothers", "Beethoven", "Carlito's Way", "The Birdcage", "The Long Kiss Goodnight", and "Semi-Pro".
The 1980s and beyond.
In 1984, a collaboration by Crewe and writers Jerry Corbetta and Bob Gaudio produced another Billboard Top 100 success with the romantic duet "You're Looking Like Love To Me", sung by Roberta Flack and Peabo Bryson. Another Crewe-Corbetta project united them with singer-songwriter-producer Ellie Greenwich, for whom they produced the original cast album of Greenwich's Broadway musical "Leader of the Pack". The album was a Grammy Award nominee and the show itself was nominated for a Tony Award.
In 1985, Crewe was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
"Lady Marmalade" was re-recorded by Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mýa, and Pink for the soundtrack of the 2001 film "Moulin Rouge!", and their version stayed at #1 in the U.S. for five weeks. It achieved the same chart position in the United Kingdom and Australia. "Rolling Stone" ranked "Lady Marmalade" as the 479th greatest song of all time.
In 1999, when the US performing rights and royalties organization BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) announced its Top 100 Songs of the Century, "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" landed in the Top 10 with six million airplays. BMI calculates one million continuous performances of a song of the average length (3 minutes) as representing 5.7 years of continuous airplay.
In addition to his numerous benchmarks and accolades in music, Crewe has also achieved recognition as an artist, having designed a number of album covers as well as having had highly successful one-man gallery showings of his paintings at the Earl McGrath Gallery, Thomas Soloman's Garage, and the Jan Baum Gallery in Los Angeles.
Since 2005 Crewe has been featured as a supporting character (played originally by Peter Gregus) in "Jersey Boys", the long-running, multiple Tony Award-winning Broadway musical based on the story of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons. Although the 2014 film version (with Mike Doyle as Crewe) was only a modest success, the play has gone on to become an international hit, with Crewe credited as the show's lyricist. He used his proceeds from the show to start a foundation supporting gay rights, people with AIDS, and bringing music and art to children in deprived communities.
Personal life.
While Crewe was portrayed as openly gay in the "Jersey Boys" film, his brother Dan Crewe told an interviewer that his brother was discreet about his sexuality, particularly during the time he was working with the Four Seasons. "Whenever he met someone, he would go into what I always called his John Wayne mode, this extreme machoism," Dan Crewe told "The New York Times".
From April 2014 until his death, Crewe resided in a Scarborough, Maine, nursing home. His charity, the Bob Crewe Foundation, donated $3 million to the Maine College of Art in April 2014.
Crewe died in the nursing home on September 11, 2014, at the age of 83. He had been in declining health for several years following a fall.
Selected U.S. singles (written and/or produced by).
US peak chart position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart follows the song title. Only singles that reached a position of #30 or higher on the Hot 100 are listed here.


Roger A. Graham

Roger A. Graham (12 June 1885 Providence, Rhode Island – 25 October 1938 Chicago) was an American lyricist, composer, singer, and music publisher who flourished from 1906 to 1920 — a period that included World War I, the golden age of Tin Pan Alley (from about 1915 to 1920), the dawn of the Jazz Age "(circa" 1914), and the silent film era. Graham was a proponent of vaudeville and burlesque songs. But as a lyricist and publisher, Graham is most remembered for having been an exponent of blues songs.
From about 1914 to 1919, Graham's success and popularity as lyricist and publisher led to close friendships with stars of the stage and silent screen — George M. Cohan, Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, and many others.
But after failing to have a hit as a writer or publisher for three or four years, and a year after the start of Prohibition, Graham quit writing music and publishing in 1921 and took a job as a department manager at Mandell Brothers, a large department store.
In 1938, nine years after the Wall Street Crash and in the throes of the Great Depression, Graham died alone and penniless in the Cook County Hospital charity ward, reportedly unknown to those attending him and without any kin or friend mourning at his side. Graham's remains would have been interred in a pauper's grave were it not for an alert attendant at the Cook County Morgue, who, after recognizing his name on a list, contacted a sister, Elizabeth (Mrs. Lawrence Joseph Mulhearn; 1887–1982) of Bronxville, New York, and his ex-wife of 8 years, May Olivette Hill (1888–1978) of Los Angeles.
According to Hill, his lyrics from "I Ain't Got Nobody", and other melancholy songs that made him popular, seemed to foreshadow his decline and ensuing loneliness.
Federal court case.
Graham's firm, Roger Graham Music Publisher, published the "Livery Stable Blues". It was recorded in 1917 by the Original Dixieland Jass Band on the Victor label and is widely acknowledged as the first commercially recorded jazz. It was the first recording to sell a million records and its success established jazz as a popular genre. During production, Victor executives re-titled the B-side of Victor 18255 as "Barnyard Blues" in an effort to avoid offending target audiences with a seemingly vulgar title. Due to a labeling error, however, the record itself retained the band's original title.
In June 1917, Roger Graham published "Livery Stable Blues", attributing the composition to Alcide Nunez (clarinetist) and Ray Lopez (cornetist; "né" Raymond Edward Lopez; 1889–1970), who were New Orleans jazz community colleagues. Months later, Leo Feist published virtually the same music under the title "Barnyard Blues", attributing the composition to Nick LaRocca, the director of the ODJB and cornetist on the ODJB recording.
Publishing it landed Graham in federal court with a charge of pirating the theme — Max Hart "(né, phonetic:" Numkovsky; 1874–1950), manager for ODJB, "et al. v." Roger Graham (1917). Graham won acquittal after Judge George A. Carpenter asked Nunez to define the blues, whereupon he made his famous reply: "Judge, blues is blues — a little off key but harmony against the rules". The judge ruled that the blues could not be copyrighted, resulting in neither party having a copyright. The judge also expressed doubt that musicians unable to read or write music could be said to have "composed" anything.
Career highlights.
Rhode Island
First marriage
Move from Providence to Chicago in 1910
Theodore Morse Music Company, Chicago
Ellis & Co., Chicago
Marriage to May Olivette Hill
Retirement from music
Divorce
Roger Graham, 143 Dearborn Street
Theory over the etymology of the word, "Jazz"
Death.
At the height of his career, around 1918, his friends were stars of the stage and silent screen — George M. Cohan, Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, and many others. Two decades later, he died, only aged 53, but alone, almost forgotten, in a charity ward at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago. When his body had been taken to the Cook County Morgue, an attendant recognized the name on his files and the county notified his sister in New York and his ex-wife of 10 years and song writing collaborator, May Hill, whom he divorced in 1936. "It's strange that everyone should have forgotten Roger", Hill remarked. "The songs he wrote seem to fit the loneliness of his death". He was buried in Palos Hills Memorial Park (aka Mount Vernon Memorial) in Cook County.
Extant music.
Graham wrote lyrics to nearly 200 songs. His biggest hit, "I Ain't Got Nobody", is a blues that became a perennial standard. As of 2013, in jazz recordings alone, it has been recorded 311 times according to "The Jazz Discography" tune database; and it has been used in 23 films according to "IMDb".
Craig & Co. of Chicago, of which Graham was manager and partner, copyrighted it in 1916, and attributed the music to Spencer Williams and Dave Peyton and the lyrics to Graham.
A 1915 manuscript copyright credits the music to Williams and Peyton, no mention of Graham.
Attribution, however, was clouded by two earlier works. David Young copyrighted it in 1914, attributing the music to Charles Warfield (1878–1955) and the lyrics to himself.
Clarence E. Brandon Sr. claimed that the more well-known Williams-Graham-Peyton song was written in response to his refusal to sell the publishing rights to his 1911 "I Ain't Got Nobody", which, according to him, was shelved and sold only under the counter. Brandon's version was apparently not widely disputed.
The two disputed versions were cleared in 1916 when Graham and Williams sold their rights to Frank K. Root & Co., a Chicago publisher "(né" Frank Kimball Root; 1856–1932), and later that year, Warfield and Young sold their rights to Root. Root henceforth published the work both ways; but the prevailing attribution has gone to Graham and Williams.
R.A. Graham, Wickford, Rhode Island
Roger A. Graham, Providence, Rhode Island
M. Witmark & Sons, New York
Pearsall & Graham, Providence, Rhode Island
Ellis & Co.
Craig, Ellis & Company, Chicago
Craig & Company, Chicago
Roger Graham, Chicago
Frank K. Root & Co, Chicago, New York City
McKinley Music Co., Chicago
May Hill, Hollywood, California
Joe Slater, Sydney, Australia (between 1911 and 1920)
Copyright renewals
May Hill, Evanston, Illinois
Selected discography.
"I Ain't Got Nobody"
Filmography.
According to IMDb, "I Ain't Got Nobody" has 23 film credits. "Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble", a 1917 hit composed by Spencer Williams and published by Graham endures today as the impetus for the shimmy, a dance move. Graham sold the copyright for "Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble" to the New York publishing firm of Joseph W. Stern. "Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble" was also used in the film "Cinderella Man" and was the name of a TV episode for "Fox."


William Hamling (publisher)

William Lawrence Hamling (June 14, 1921 – June 29, 2017) was a Chicago-based writer, science fiction fan, and publisher of both science fiction digests, and adult magazines and books, active from the late 1930s until 1975. He was a lifelong member of First Fandom.
The early years.
Hamling was born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 14, 1921. His father, a railroad man who worked for the Illinois Central Railroad and who retired after 40 years' service, and his mother, who was a housewife, were both native born. Hamling has one sister, two years younger than he.
Due to a typographical error on the discharge papers of Hamling's paternal grandfather, who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, the family name Hemmerling was changed to Hamling.
Hamling attended the St. Hilary's grammar school, a parochial school in Chicago, where he received his elementary education and graduated after completing the eighth grade. Four years later, in 1939, he graduated from Lane Technical High School in Chicago, one of the largest schools in the country, with over 9,000 students at that time, where he received both a vocational and general education. Hamling had just turned 18. In 1940, he entered the University of Chicago, but left school less than a year later because he had already begun to write fiction and was selling a great deal of the material that he wrote. He was still living at home, and for a time, to please his father, he had gone to work for the Milwaukee Railroad as a clerk, ostensibly to learn the railroad business. However, he had begun to make writing his life's work and did not stay with the railroad for very long.
His first sale as a writer was the science fiction story, "War with Jupiter," a collaboration with fellow Lane Technical High School classmate, Mark Reinsberg. Reinsberg and another friend of Hamling's, and fellow Lane Tech classmate, Melvin Korshak, would go on to found Shasta Publishers.
In 1942, Hamling was drafted into the United States Army as a private but was thereafter sent to a pre-officer candidate school. Later, Hamling was sent to an officer candidate school, graduated, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. The army then sent Hamling to further schooling, where he became a motor maintenance officer, still with the rank of lieutenant. Hamling was scheduled to be attached to the Fourth Division, a division that was later to go into Normandy, but while he was on a combat exercise in this country, Hamling sustained an accident in the field with a land mine and was later hospitalized with a bad ear problem. Thereafter, Hamling was retired from service for medical reasons, and he received an honorable discharge in 1944.
Early writing career.
On his return to Chicago, Hamling resumed writing and selling fiction. He wrote various forms of fiction, including science fiction, westerns, mysteries, and detective and adventure stories, and these were published in, particularly, such Chicago-based Ziff-Davis Publishing Company magazines such as "Amazing Stories", "Fantastic Adventures", "Mammoth Western", "South Sea Stories", and similar periodicals which were being published at the time. In January, 1946, Hamling became an assistant editor at Ziff-Davis. Hamling was with ZD for five years and in that period was promoted to associate editor and finally managing editor of the company's fiction magazines.
While Hamling was with the Ziff-Davis Publishing Company he met a man named Leroy Yerxa, from whom he purchased on behalf of the company fiction material which Yerxa wrote on assignment. Yerxa was then married, with four children, and his wife, Frances, also wrote for the company. Her writing was more in the factual areas, articles on various fields of science, which were purchased by his magazines. Yerxa died in 1946, having suffered a stroke, and Frances remained a widow until 1948, when she and Hamling were married.
They were married in the St. Mary's church in Evanston, Illinois. Frances was born in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, and had come to Chicago prior to her first husband's death. She acted not only as a mother to four children, but worked professionally as a free-lance writer. When they were married the oldest child, Kay, was approximately 11 or 12 years old, and the youngest was Carol Ann, who was about 4 or 5 years old. Between these two were the two boys, Richard and Edward. In 1949, their son, William Lawrence Hamling, Jr., was born, and in 1952, their daughter, Deborah was born.
Hamling began as an author. His "Shadow of the Sphinx" is a horror novel about an ancient Egyptian sorceress. First published during the 1940s in "Fantastic Adventures", it was described by Lin Carter as "the best story of its kind I read in many a moon. The character of Zaleikka was done to perfection. This is the type of yarn we have all too few of nowadays."
Greenleaf Publishing Company.
In 1950 Ziff-Davis decided to move their corporate headquarters, both editorial and business offices, to New York City. Hamling was asked by the president of the company to go with the company to New York, but declined due to family ties. The president of the company asked Hamling to stay with Ziff-Davis until the company moved, and in the interim gave Hamling permission to form a publishing company of his own. Therefore, at the time Ziff-Davis moved, Hamling had already organized the Greenleaf Publishing Company in Chicago.
After work as an editor at Ziff-Davis, Hamling started his company, Greenleaf Publishing (which was at different times known as Greenleaf Classics, Reed Enterprises, Corinth Publications, Regency Publications, Blake Pharmaceuticals, Phenix Publishing and Freedom Publishing) in the early 1950s with "Imagination". His wife, science fiction author Frances Deegan Yerxa Hamling, worked closely with him in the early years of his publishing company.
"Imagination" published its first issue in October 1950. Although there is no editorial credit given for the first two issues, the editorials and letter column responses are signed "RAP", initials which Raymond A. Palmer commonly used. The first two issues were published by Clark Publishing Company which also published Palmer's "Other Worlds" which had a similar look. However, from its inception, Hamling was the editor and publisher, and Ray Palmer the front. Although Hamling credits Palmer as the editor in response to a letter in the February 1951 issue of "Fantastic Adventures", the last issue of that magazine which Hamling edited. Hamling was to become notorious for the layers of insulation he kept between his activities, his fronts, and even between himself and co-workers and employees.
With the third issue "Imagination" became an "official" Greenleaf property, as too "Imaginative Tales" when it was launched in September 1954.
According to L. Sprague de Camp's 1953 "Science-Fiction Handbook", Hamling was at that time a "slim, dark man who looks too young to be not only an independent publisher but also the father of five."
"Rogue".
The Greenleaf Publishing Company initially published science fiction magazines and a spectrum of similar publications, and it was not until November 1955 that Greenleaf published the first issue of "Rogue" (although it had a cover date of December), a magazine which was competitive with "Playboy", a magazine dealing with sex which had been published for about two years at this time. In 1953, as a solo and unidentified effort, Hugh Hefner's "Playboy" V1#1 appeared without a date late in the year [November]. It was an almost immediate success with that wonderful calendar photo of Marilyn Monroe being reused to its best advantage.
About "Playboy" and Hugh Hefner, Hamling states in a letter to his friend, and lawyer, Stanley Fleishman: "I remember my friend Hugh Hefner coming to me in 1953 to propose an idea for a magazine to be called "Playboy". Hef was talented but poor and his passion had been fantasy. He was a struggling cartoonist and had been working in a clerical capacity at "Esquire". I had been buying fantasy cartoons from him for several years (they were so bad I never published them but he needed the money and to this day we have a running routine where I threaten to issue them as a nostalgic bonanza but defer to his pleadings of personal embarrassment) and one evening he and his charming wife, Millie [Mildred "Millie" Williams], visited Fran and me and I responded to his suggestion of "Playboy" with the remark, 'Hef, you can't sell sex to the American public.' Today Hef is still talented but he is no longer poor. My quote has since become a standard joke in the fourth estate.
"...That night brought another turning point in my life. While I refused financial participation in "Playboy" (the greatest economic error in publishing history) I helped him secure authors and artists and indeed over the early years actually provided a training school for his editorial and art personnel. I trained the editors and he hired them away..."
Greenleaf, then, published "Rogue" and a photographic magazine in book form called "Model Art", as well as different numbers of science fiction publications. "Rogue" began much as "Imagination" had before it, there in the Hamling basement on Fowler Avenue in Evanston. Hamling and his wife, Frances, sat side by side and worked on it together, business as usual.
The initial cover price on the magazine was 35 cents and it remained that way until January 1960 when it was raised to 50 cents. In just one more year, the cover price was raised to 60 cents and remained at that figure for the rest of the life of the Greenleaf magazine.
Both "Playboy" and "Rogue" were distributed by Empire News, and in 1955 attempts were made by the Post Office to ban these magazines. The services of Thurman Arnold, Abe Fortas, and Paul Porter were obtained in Washington, D.C., and Judge Thurman Arnold represented "Rogue" before the district court in Washington, where an injunction was granted against the government, and the magazine received the right to use the mails. The adjudication took place in 1957. Second class mailing privileges were granted, and within 30 days "Playboy" received the same relief.
Hamling was the editor and publisher, his wife, Frances, was executive editor, and Frank M. Robinson was the associate editor. Lead fiction was by a hot science fiction author, Harlan Ellison, who became associate editor with the third issue (April 1956).
In 1958, business at "Rogue" was so good that both "Imagination" and "Imaginative Tales" were no longer needed in order to make Hamling money, and the offices were moved from the Hamling basement to the Graphics Arts Building at Sherman and Dempster in Evanston. Coupled with the recent liquidation of the major US distributor for magazines, American News Company, Hamling ceased publication of his science fiction digests and began to concentrate solely on "Rogue".
The adult paperback empire.
In 1959, Hamling started publishing paperback novels. Originally, these novels were published under the trade name of Nightstand Books, Midnight Reader, and Regency Books. Nightstand Books was an imprint for paperback original sex novels by authors working under house names. (Later imprints included Leisure Books, Ember Library, Midnight Readers, and others). Still later, books were published under the trade name of Greenleaf Classics.
In 1959, Harlan Ellison, along with his new wife Charlotte [Stein], moved to Evanston where Harlan was employed by William Hamling at "Rogue". Ellison had returned to Chicago, to setup William Hamling's black box operation for publishing pornography under the false front company of Blake Pharmaceuticals, housed in the offices next door to the headquarters for "Rogue". The "black box operation" was how they received manuscripts secretly provided for by the Scott Meredith Literary Agency.
Beginning in 1959, Scott Meredith Literary Agency, and Scott Meredith personally, became the single largest supplier of pornography in the U.S., and chief supplier for Hamling's and Earl Kemp's adult book Greenleaf operations, part of which involved a "Black Box" (anonymous) delivery system. During his career, Scott Meredith innovated many of the basic practices of his field. Such innovations included attention to foreign rights, tie-ins with movies,
and auctioning rights to publishers.
Writing and editing for William Hamling's "Rogue" magazine was the "story" to cover Ellison's real activities. Ellison started Blake, did six titles in 1959, and then walked away from the job cold without notice. Hamling followed him to New York City and bribed him to come back, continue with Blake, and he was given the bonus of editing books for Hamling's Regency Books, again "a clean thing to cover his ass with."
Under the Regency imprint Hamling published novels and anthologies by writers such as B. Traven, Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Bloch, Philip José Farmer, and Clarence Cooper, Jr. In 1959, along with Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison wrote pornography for Hamling's Nightstand Books. His best known work was "Sex Gang" (Nightstand Book, NB1503, November 1959), as by Paul Merchant. "Sex Gang", a short story anthology, would become the only porn paperback he would write for publisher Hamling. Ellison arranged for Algis Budrys to be his assistant but in reality was setting Ajay up to take over and had plans to again walk away cold without notice. However, "Ajay" Budrys blew his plans away by telling Hamling what Harlan was about to do. Hamling fired Ellison, and replaced him with Budrys (who hired Earl Kemp as his assistant in ’61). After this internal reorganization Hamling paid Ellison to write back cover blurbs for Nightstand Books at $50 a pop for a year or so, and then cut him off cold. With Ellison out of the way Hamling had the blurbs written by the Blake staff, then numbering about four (Earl Kemp among them), not counting his stepson Eddie Yerxa, now dead.
Beginning in 1960 Hamling began to visit friends and family in Palm Springs and Beverly Hills, and decided to move his home and business to that state. In 1964 Hamling moved his family to Palm Springs. When Hamling first moved to California, Greenleaf continued to publish the magazines. A subsequently formed corporation, Corinth, published paperback books, and Reed Enterprises was organized to do the distribution. Later, in 1966 and 1967 the book and magazine publishing were consolidated under the Greenleaf banner and Corinth was liquidated, so there remained Greenleaf and Reed Enterprises, only.
From 1961 on his primary editor was Earl Kemp. Pseudonymous writers for Kemp/Hamling included Lawrence Block, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Harlan Ellison, Evan Hunter, Robert Silverberg, Arnold Hano, and Donald E. Westlake.
First Amendment Supreme Court trials.
Other than the [[Rogue (magazine)|"Rogue"]] litigation, the only other litigation which Hamling became involved in prior to his 1971 indictment was in 1966, when there was an indictment returned in the district court in [[Houston]], [[Texas]], charging violations of the obscenity law with respect to seven novels Hamling had published. There was a hung jury in that case and after a mistrial was declared, the case was transferred to [[San Diego]]. Finally, in 1971, when the indictment in the "Illustrated Report" was returned, the government moved to dismiss the [[Houston]] case and it was dismissed with prejudice. The dismissal followed rulings by the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] that books virtually identical to those involved in the [[Houston]] case were not obscene. See, "[[Redrup v. New York]]", 386 U.S. 767; "Corinth Publications, Inc. v. Wesberry", 388 U.S. 448; "A Quantity of Copies of Books v. Kansas", 388 U.S. 452; "Books, Inc. v. United States", 388 U.S. 449.
Hamling helped finance the defense of bookstore clerk Robert Redrup. His appeal of his conviction on [[obscenity]] charges for selling two Greenleaf Books ("Lust Pool" and "Shame Agent") in 1965 went to the [[Supreme Court of the United States]], where it was overturned in "[[Redrup v. New York]]" in 1967.
During the [[Richard M. Nixon|Nixon Administration]], Hamling published an illustrated edition of the "[[Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography]]". The book was "replete with the sort of photographs the commission examined." Hamling and editor [[Earl Kemp]] were hit with lengthy prison sentences for distributing the book (it has been suggested that this prosecution was in part retaliation for Hamling and Kemp's part in "[[Redrup v. New York]]"), but served only the federal minimum. The story of their arrest and prison time was covered in [[Gay Talese]]'s "[[Thy Neighbor's Wife (book)|Thy Neighbor's Wife]]" (1980).
On September 18, 1970, [[Charles Keating]], the head and founder of the [[Citizens for Decent Literature]], and President [[Richard Nixon]]'s only appointee to the eighteen-member panel commissioned by former President [[Lyndon Johnson]] to produce the report, disputed the findings and petitioned a federal court in [[Washington, D.C.]], to issue a temporary restraining order preventing the publication of the final report, which called for the legalization of all pornography in the United States. He failed.
The 1969 [[President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography]] issued its un-illustrated 656-page report on September 30, 1970. One month later, the report went on sale at the [[Government Printing Office]]. On November 11, 1970, copies of Greenleaf Classics’ 352-page "The Illustrated Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography" were published, and two weeks later, on Monday, December 13, 1970, went on sale throughout the U.S. for $12.50.
Three months later, on Tuesday, March 8, 1971, four officers of three San Diego companies were arraigned on charges that they used the U.S. mail to sell an unauthorized, and allegedly obscene, version of the report of the [[President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography]]. The indictments were announced in [[Washington, D.C.]], by the current U.S. Attorney General, [[John N. Mitchell]]. He gleefully announced, "They are the result of a three-month investigation by the [[Postal Inspection Service]] and the [[FBI]]."
Named in the original anti-Illustrated Report indictments were Greenleaf Classics, Inc., Library Services, Inc., and Reed Enterprises. Twenty of the indictment charges dealt with violating postal laws by mailing obscene books and advertisements, and the final one was a count of conspiracy to violate the laws. Hamling, Greenleaf, and Reed were also charged with two counts of shipping obscene matter by truck from [[San Diego]] to [[Dallas]]. The indictments were reported in the Sunday, March 6, 1971, edition of the "[[The San Diego Union-Tribune|San Diego Union]]" newspaper (...it was also announced that 17,000 young men would be drafted to fight in the [[Vietnam War]]).
Of the 21 indictments that were handed down they were only convicted on those pertaining to mailing an advertising brochure (plus the one conspiracy count). Hamling, to his great good character, stood up in court and testified that he—and he alone—was the only one who knew about this brochure, that he personally created it, and he had it mailed out under his command.
However, Hamling standing up and taking the fall was not enough, and they all were still convicted. Hamling received a four-year regular adult sentence. [[Earl Kemp]] received a sentence of three years and one day. The report as published by Greenleaf was not found to be obscene. Nonetheless, on the other hand the brochure was found to be clearly obscene by the jury. Of some note, [[Earl Kemp]] was in Europe at the time Hamling created and mailed the ad brochure.
On June 21, 1973, following the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] decision in "[[Miller v. California]]", 413 U.S. 15, Hamling immediately ceased publishing works with pictorial content and withdrew from the marketplace vast numbers of such books which had been distributed prior to that date. The pictorial books which were withdrawn from the market had a retail value of approximately $900,000.
On Monday, June 24, 1974, the [[Supreme Court of the United States]], after Greenleaf lawyer [[Stanley Fleishman]] argued to overturn the Greenleaf conviction, in a 5-4 ruling, upheld the lower courts' verdict. "It's hell to go to jail knowing I'm an honorable man," said Hamling to "[[Los Angeles Times]]" newspaper reporter Gregg Kilday in an interview following the Supreme Court announcement.
"[[Hugo Black|Justice Black]] was sitting at the time the brochure for the book was mailed...The one vote would have been different...I would not be a criminal...reasonable men may differ. But Justice Black is not now sitting, therefore I am a criminal, consigned to the limbo of convict life and brand. How does one adjust to this? A question of personal taste and legal ambiguity that swings the scales of justice 5 to 4 either way, as capricious as the changing wind at sunset. The sunset of my personal life and professional career."
On Monday, January 5, 1976, after being out on bond (William Hamling's bond was $15,000, and [[Earl Kemp]]'s bond was $10,000) since their sentencing in 1972 (while they were appealing the verdict all the way to the [[Supreme Court of the United States]]) they both surrendered in the courtroom of Judge [[Gordon Thompson, Jr.]]...the judge who originally tried and sentenced them. They both went to prison, the [[Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island]], at the same time, and both were released at the same time.
Of note: On January 5, 1976, by court order, all involvement in any aspect of producing pornography by all members indicted, charged, and convicted, and now imprisoned, ceased.
By court order they were both released on May 17, 1976. Although out of custody, the defendants' sentences were still in effect, and both received five years of probation. Hamling was also ordered to terminate any connection with Reed Enterprises and Library Services, Inc., as both had been named in the original indictments. Judge Thompson also ordered him to sell all his stock in these same organizations. Hamling was allowed to keep the real estate that housed these enterprises (primarily a fantastic building directly across the freeway from the [[Chargers]] [[Qualcomm Stadium]], bought many years before it was built). Hamling was also ordered to pay a total of $87,000 in fines ($43,000 for Reed and $12,000 for Library Services), and he was personally fined $10,000 on the one conspiracy charge, and $2,000 for each of the 11 counts of mailing an obscene brochure for a total of $32,000.
The other two officers, David L. Thomas and Shirley Wright, both received five years on probation. Although, they were both given a sentence of one and a half years in prison, it was suspended when they were placed on probation. Shirley Wright was the bookkeeper and secretary for Greenleaf. David Thomas was the office manager and treasurer.
So, of the original 21 indictments all four Greenleaf company officers and the two corporations were convicted of the same twelve counts on Monday, February 7, 1972, following a two-month jury trial. The jury deliberated for six days and was hung on the remaining nine counts.
Publications of note.
Hamling published [[gay]]-themed books while at Greenleaf, one of the earliest publishers to do so. Novelist [[Victor J. Banis]], one of Hamling's authors, says that once Greenleaf proved how much of a market there was for erotic gay fiction, other publishers soon joined in.
According to [[Frank M. Robinson]], one of the Greenleaf gay-themed books, "Song of the Loon" [by [[Richard Amory]]] became a million-copy-plus bestseller. "Everybody made money off "Loon"—except for the author, who was paid the standard price of $800, while Hamling made millions and the store owners who sold them made thousands."
External links.
[[Category:1921 births]]
[[Category:2017 deaths]]
[[Category:American magazine editors]]
[[Category:American book publishers (people)]]
[[Category:American pornographers]]


Bob Kain

Bob Kain is an American sports business executive. He joined sports and lifestyle management and marketing firm IMG in 1976, and was named director of IMG Tennis in 1983, CEO of IMG Americas in 2001, and co-CEO of the company in 2003.
He represented tennis players such as Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. He also co-founded touring figure skating show Stars on Ice in 1986.
In 2004 he married figure skater Rosalynn Sumners.
In September 2006, Kain became a board member of Aston Villa following Randy Lerner's acquisition of the club.


James Diener

James Diener is an American entertainment and music executive.
He is the co-founder of Freesolo Entertainment; an entertainment company comprising Freesolo Music, a record label joint venture with Interscope Records/Universal Music Group; Freesolo Publishing, a joint venture with Sony/ATV Music Publishing; and Freesolo Management, a joint venture with Vector Management. Freesolo has represented artists such as Avril Lavigne, Rachel Platten, The Struts, Gavin DeGraw, Jharrel Jerome, Hailee Steinfeld and Pitbull.
He is the co-founder of Alignment Artist Capital, a New York-based specialty finance company created specifically for the entertainment industry in partnership with BlackRock.
He is the Executive Music Producer for Netflix's 2018 unscripted music series, "Westside".
Early life.
Diener grew up in New York and attended The Fieldston School. His father, Steve Diener, was the president of ABC Records in the 1970s. He attended Johns Hopkins University and graduated in 1991 with honors.
Career.
Diener was the founder, CEO, and President of A&M Octone Records, a joint venture between Octone Records and Universal Music Group. A&M/Octone Records signed and developed platinum artists including Maroon 5, Hollywood Undead, Flyleaf and K'naan. After six years of operation, in September 2013, Octone initiated its buy/sell rights in the joint venture, resulting in Universal Music Group purchasing Octone Records' 50% interest in A&M Octone Records.
In 2000, Diener founded Octone Records, while simultaneously serving as Senior Vice President of A&R Marketing for Clive Davis and the RCA Music Group. As part of that relationship, Diener negotiated a joint venture with Sony Music that gave Octone the ability to upstream successful acts in partnership with the RCA Music Group for further international marketing and promotion. While at RCA, Diener signed and developed singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw.
Octone was also noted in the music industry for its private-equity financing model and is the subject of a 2007 Harvard Business School case study. Upon Octone's original launch, Diener raised $5 million of private equity investment from BlackRock, The Blackstone Group, Lazard Freres, Credit Suisse First Boston, MacAndrews & Forbes, Kelso & Company and Soros Fund Management.
Prior to Octone Records and RCA Music Group, Diener was Vice President of A&R and Marketing at Columbia Records, working with Aerosmith, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Johnny Cash, Black Crowes, Clutch, The Jayhawks, Tony Bennett, Roger Waters, Chris Whitley, Jesse Malin, Iron Maiden, Terence Trent D'Arby, and New Kids on the Block, among others.
Diener is a record producer and member of both NARAS and the Academy of Magical Arts.
He has been an invited guest speaker at New York University, Harvard Business School, Wharton School of Business, Berklee College of Music, and the Benjamin N. Cordoza School of Law. Diener was also featured in "Blockbusters", a 2013 book on the business of entertainment and a 2002 "New York Times Magazine" cover story on the pop music industry. He delivered the Keynote Speech at the 2010 NARM Convention in Chicago.


Fred Baron (producer)

Fred Baron is an American film producer and studio executive, who currently serves as executive vice president of feature production at 20th Century Fox.
Biography.
Baron was raised in Manhattan, son of two movie fans who would go as far as driving to Connecticut to see new pictures. He would inherit this appreciation for cinema, going as far as screening 16 mm films he got from a neighbor who worked at Paramount Pictures on his basement.
Baron received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1976, majoring in English Literature. He also studied criticism at St. Clare's College, in Oxford England. After leaving college, Baron went to Los Angeles to enter the movie industry, living in Malibu with a friend who was going to USC Film School. After a few months in LA, he got a job at Bullock's and eventually began his movie career in the mailroom at Universal Studios. After he met Lauren Shuler, a young producer who had gotten a job to run the West Coast Division of Martin Poll Productions, he decided to become a runner for Shuler. He became a production assistant on the first film made by the company, 1981's "Nighthawks". Afterwards he worked on "Continental Divide", where he met both his wife and producer Bill Badalato, who hired Baron as his assistant. Then Baron did varied jobs: location coordinator for "The Man with Two Brains", Badalato's assistant in "Top Gun", production assistant for "Weeds", production associate on "1969", and first assistant director on "Stand Alone".
In 1990, Baron worked as a producer and executive at HBO Pictures, where he helped develop the TV series "Tales from the Crypt". Then he got a job in 20th Century Fox through his producer friend Tom Jacobson, who became Executive Vice-President of the studio and introduced Baron to Jon Landau. Then Baron supervised successful projects such as "The Last of the Mohicans", "Edward Scissorhands", "Hot Shots!", "Broken Arrow", and "Bulworth".
When Baron renegotiated his contract in the late 1990s, he negotiated a right to produce as well. After some invitations, he accepted Baz Luhrmann's call to produce "Moulin Rouge!", and stepped down from his executive job to spend three years (1999–2001) working on the film. "Moulin Rouge!" was much successful, earning Baron a Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award from the Producers Guild of America and an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Baron then returned to his job at Fox, overseeing aspects of "Moulin Rouge!" as well as prepping new features for the studio. In 2002, he was promoted to executive vice president of Feature Production. Baron's most common task in his job is contacting production teams spread around the globe, as "We travel the world to find the best locations to make our films as cost effective as possible" given Fox's politics of producing tent pole films at smaller budgets compared to other major film studios.
Baron helped create the PGA Green Initiative, which advocates for green politics and sustainable filmmaking, and won a prize at the 2011 Environmental Media Awards. In 2011, Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him for the California Film Commission, which aims to keep film and television industry projects in the state.


Sid Rogell

Sid Rogell (January 16, 1900 – November 15, 1973) was an American film producer. He became RKO's production chief in 1948 following Dore Schary's departure but only lasted two years. He was the nephew of the director Albert S. Rogell. He was married to the actress June Clayworth.


Julie Howe

Julie "Jules" Howe is a California screenwriter, producer and children's book author. Her first children's book and Hoffer Award winner, "Catty Wompus: A Tale of Friendship", is about a lonely girl who learns the true value of friends. It's based on a childhood experience of the author. The sequel, "Catty Wompus and The New Kid", takes the lessons learned, one step further. In 2015, Catty and her pals were brought to life in a musical television pilot called "The Adventures of Catty Wompus" that she hopes will become a series.
In addition to the Catty Wompus books, Howe is a screenwriter whose screenplay, Jasper Milliken, won the Austin Film Festival comedy award in 2010. Since then, her screenplays have placed in top-ranking film festivals and screenplay competitions such as BlueCat, Nicholl Fellowship, PAGE International Screenwriting Awards and Fresh Voices. She recently had the honor of being included in the Austin Film Festival's Inaugural Screenwriters to Watch article in MovieMaker magazine, July 19, 2016.
Howe holds a Feature Film Writing Certificate from UCLA Extension as well as the Academy of Film Writing. She's a founding board member of the Cinematic Arts and Technology Foundation of Cal State Monterey Bay whose goal is to empower at-risk youth through year-round community programs that investigate, educate and celebrate the cinematic arts.
Recognition.
Howe's feature script, Jasper Milliken, won the Austin Film Festival Screenwriting competition, comedy category, in 2010 and her script Dead Sexy was an AFF semi-fnalist the following year. Howe's screenplay Epiphany finished third in the BlueCat Screenwriting Lab Awards in 2008 and was a PAGE Awards Semi-Finalist in 2014. The Richmond Film Festival 2015 Official Screenplay Selections for a short screenplay was Howe's A Stroke of Genius. Her feature script Down on the Farm won the Fresh Voices 2014/2015 Screenplay Competition, family film category, and was a 2015 PAGE Awards semi-finalist.