Shanti Das

Shanti Das (born February 19, 1971) is an American music industry executive, marketing consultant, entrepreneur, philanthropist and author. She was most recently Executive Vice President of Urban Marketing and Artist Development at Universal Motown Records, where she managed the marketing campaigns for artists such as Akon, Erykah Badu, and Ashanti.
Early life.
Das is of multiracial ancestry, being the daughter of a Bengali Hindu immigrant father originally from Kolkata, India and an African American mother native to Atlanta, Georgia. She suffered from a tragedy at an early age, when her father committed suicide when she was 7 months old, leaving her mother, Gloria, to take care of her and her two siblings alone. Her mother raised her Christian, which reflects in her even as an adult as she prays daily.
Career.
1990s.
Das graduated from Atlanta's Benjamin Elijah Mays High School in 1989. She attended Syracuse University, where she majored in Television, Radio and Film in the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications. In the summers of 1991 and 1992, she worked her first record label job as an urban promotions assistant at Capitol Records. She briefly interned in the sales department at Sony Music Atlanta before graduating from Syracuse in 1993 with a bachelor of science degree in communications.
Right out of college, LaFace Records hired Das as its National Director of Promotions, where she worked with label founders Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and Antonio “LA” Reid on developing promotional campaigns for OutKast, Goodie Mob, Usher, TLC and Toni Braxton. She traveled with several artist tours, including Braxton’s first major U.S. concert tour (1993), TLC’s “CrazySexyCool” tour (1995-1996), and Usher’s 1994 and 1995 promotional tours.
In 1996, Das was promoted to LaFace’s marketing department, where she planned and coordinated campaigns for Outkast, Donell Jones, Goodie Mob and Toni Braxton. In 1997, she received "Impact Magazine"’s “National Promotion Director of the Year” award at its “Summer XII Conference.” A year later, Impact named her “Music Executive of the Year.”
2000s.
Upon the sale of LaFace Records to BMG in 2000, Das moved to New York and took on the role of Sr. Director of Urban Marketing at Arista Records, where L. A. Reid was then Arista’s new CEO. However, before leaving Atlanta, Outkast performed a free concert at Club Kaya in her honor. Das was awarded a “Key To The City of Atlanta” and June 5, 2000 was officially named “Shanti Das Day.”
Das left Arista in 2001 and became Vice President of Urban Marketing at Columbia Records. While at Columbia, she marketed high-profile projects for So So Def Records, Jagged Edge, Bow Wow and Jermaine Dupri. In 2003, she was elevated to Sr. Vice President of Urban Marketing at Sony Urban Music, where she developed and coordinated marketing and artist development campaigns for Prince, Vivian Green, Lyfe and Omarion.
In 2005, Das joined Universal Motown as Executive Vice President of Urban Marketing and Artist Development. From 2007-2009, she was co-President of 1st Class Entertainment and co-Founder of R&B Live New York, a monthly live music series that showcased urban talent from signed and unsigned artists.
Das recently completed the program, “Effective Strategies for Media Companies: Navigating the New World,” at the Harvard School of Business in Dec 2008.
Das was named to Crain Communications "40 Under 40" in 2009. Later that year, moved by the plight of those who either could not afford to bury their loved ones, she created May We Rest in Peace, a nonprofit organization to help bury bodies stacking up at Detroit's Wayne County Morgue.
Das left Universal Motown in 2009 and launched the company PressReset.me, an Atlanta-based firm that provides entertainment marketing consulting, talent booking, special event planning and life mentoring services. She is currently co-founder of the live music showcase, ATL LIVE on the Park, a southern version of Das' R&B Live showcase.
2010s.
In August 2010, Das wrote and published the book "The Hip-Hop Professional: A Woman’s Guide to Climbing the Ladder of Success in the Entertainment Business," which chronicles her 20-year career in the music industry.
Shanti is author of The Hip‐Hop Professional 2.0: A Woman’s Guide to Climbing the Ladder of Success in the Entertainment Business
Board affiliations.
Das sits on several boards and committees of organizations including:


Laura Bickford

Laura Bickford is an Academy Award nominated and Emmy Award nominated film and television producer who produced "Traffic", "Che", "Duplicity", "Arbitrage", and "Beasts of No Nation". She was nominated for an Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Picture for "Traffic" in 2001 and an Emmy Award for "Citizen X" in 1996. She has been a member of Producers Branch of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2002. She is a member of the Producers Guild of America and was on the board of the writers and human rights organization PEN USA in Los Angeles from 2012-2018 until their merger with PEN America and is a current member of PEN's LA committee.
Career.
Bickford is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and began her career as a production assistant to Robert Altman in Paris on the 1987 film "Beyond Therapy". Altman became a lifelong influence and friend. She consulted unaccredited on the financing for Altman's final film "A Prairie Home Companion". After working with Altman, Bickford moved to London and went on to produce over fifty music videos, both in the US and in Europe for Vivid Productions.
She produced her first feature "Citizen X" for HBO Pictures in 1996. The film was written and directed by Chris Gerolmo with Stephen Rea, Donald Sutherland, and Max von Sydow. Bickford was nominated for the Emmy and Golden Globe and won the Cable Ace Award for best film made for television.
Bickford optioned the film rights to the British television mini series about the heroin trade in the UK & Pakistan and spent four years researching the war on drugs in the US, South America, and Mexico for a US adaptation. The film, "Traffic", won four Academy Awards for Best Director for Steven Soderbergh, Best Supporting Actor for Benicio Del Toro, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing. The film was nominated for over 300 awards internationally and Del Toro also won the BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award.
In the two-part epic "Che", Bickford again worked with Soderbergh and Del Toro. Del Toro and Bickford worked with Terrence Malick on the script for "" and spent years traveling around the world interviewing the last living members of the Cuban Revolution and researching the life of Che Guevara. The film was selected for competition at Cannes in 2008 and Del Toro won the Best Actor award.
Bickford produced El Yuma, directed by Del Toro and part of the omnibus "7 Days In Havana" which was selected for Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2012.
In 2012, she produced "Arbitrage" with Richard Gere which was the highest grossing day and date released film. In 2015, Bickford and Fiona Druckenmiller backed Cary Fukunaga’s film "Beasts of No Nation" that sold to Netflix and became their first theatrically launched film
Personal.
She was married to the actor Sam Bottoms, who died in 2008. She is the sister of Emily Lansbury and sister-in-law of George Lansbury.
Her mother, Jewelle Bickford, was an investment banker in New York City until 2008 and is currently a partner at Evercore Wealth Management. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, C200, board member emeritus of Women for Women International and Women's Media Center, and a co-chair Paradigm for Parity movement, which is committed to achieving gender parity at the senior level of all major corporations by 2030.
Her father, Nathaniel Bickford was a partner at the law firm Lankenau Kovner Bickford for 25 years and then Windell Marx Laine and Mittendorf until he retired in 2002. He wrote the memoir "Late Bloomer: A Memoir of School Days in 2008". In the 1970s, her father represented contemporary artists introduced to him by Bickford's godfather, Klaus Kertess, and traded art for fees most notably with Brice Marden, David Novros, Joanna Pousette-Dart, and Lynda Benglis.
She is a descendant of passengers from the Mayflower, Francis Cooke and Peter Browne, on both her maternal and paternal side.


Mitch Bainwol

Mitchell Burt Bainwol (born March 2, 1959) is an American lobbyist currently serving as Chief Government Relations Officer of Ford Motor Company. He previously was President and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. Before the Alliance, Bainwol was Chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) from 2003 (when he succeeded Hilary Rosen) until 2011. Prior to filling that position, he worked for 25 years in politics and federal policy-making.
Early life and education.
Bainwol was born in 1959 in Munich, Germany. He spent his childhood in Germany, Thailand, the Panama Canal Zone, and Maryland, before graduating from Frankfurt American High School. Bainwol studied as an undergraduate at Georgetown University and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Rice University.
Career.
After his studies, Bainwol became a staff member for various Republican political figures and organizations from 1977 until 2003 (Robin Beard, Connie Mack, Bill Frist, the RNC, and the NRSC). More specifically, he served as a Congressional intern to Robin Beard, a Presidential Management Fellow (formerly PMI) at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Chief of Staff to Senator Connie Mack, a Senate Leadership Staff Director, Chief of Staff of the Republican National Committee, a consultant for Clark and Weinstock, Executive Director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Chief of Staff to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. In 2003 he joined the RIAA as its CEO, succeeding Hilary Rosen. He formerly served as a Board Member of organizations including the National Fatherhood Initiative, the Leadership Music Foundation and the Bryce Harlow Foundation.


Steve Miller (athletics)

Steve Miller is an American athlete, coach and businessman from Chicago.
Early life.
Born in Chicago, Miller attended college in his home state of Illinois at Bradley University in Peoria and Governors State University in University Park, earning respectively Bachelor of Science degrees in English literature and physical education and a Masters of Arts degree in contemporary English literature. He relocated to San Luis Obispo, California to receive a Master of Science degree from California Polytechnic State University.
Athletics.
In 1965, Miller played professional American football with the NFL team Detroit Lions, a career path that ended with an injury to his knee after only four exhibition games. After ten years teaching track and English at suburban Chicago's Bloom Township High School, Miller became head coach at California Polytechnic State University until 1981, moving into the same position at Kansas State University until 1987. After a year as president of the Special Olympics in Pennsylvania, Miller returned to Kansas State University to serve for four years as Athletic Director. During his time as the Athletic Director at Kansas State, Miller was responsible for hiring Hall of Fame football coach Bill Snyder.
Business.
When Miller left his position at Kansas State, he entered the world of business. He spent nine years with Nike, from June 1991 to September 2000, serving successively as Director of Athletics, Director of Global Sports Marketing, Director of National Sports Marketing, Director of Sports Marketing Asia Pacific and Director of Global Sports Marketing Relations. He relinquished his position with Nike following conflict with Phil Knight. In 2000, he took the position of director of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), a position he retained until 2005. During his time with the PBA, where he "was hired to make bowling relevant" according to ABC News, Miller stood as a primary focus for the documentary film "A League of Ordinary Gentlemen", which spotlighted his efforts to transform the PBA "into a slicker, more colorful media-friendly package".
He is a faculty member at the University of Oregon, serving since 2005 as a senior analyst and adjunct professor at the Lundquist Business School and Warsaw Sports Marketing Center.


George Balzer

George Balzer (September 1, 1915 - September 28, 2006) was an American screenwriter and television producer.
Biography.
Balzer was born to a Roman Catholic family in Erie, Pennsylvania, and spent most of his career writing for Jack Benny. He died, aged 91, in Van Nuys, California.


Rock Scully

Rock Robert Scully (August 1, 1941 – December 16, 2014) was one of the managers of the rock band the Grateful Dead from 1965 to 1985.
Living in Haight-Ashbury as a graduate student prior to the Summer of Love, Scully first saw the Grateful Dead play at one of Ken Kesey's Acid Tests, and signed on as the band's manager almost immediately. He started to book the band at local venues, like the Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom, where other bands such as Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Quicksilver Messenger Service got their start. Within a few years, the Dead became more successful, and Scully helped negotiate their initial contract with Warner Bros. Records. He also got them booked into larger concerts (including the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock) and was one of the principal organizers of the Altamont Free Concert.
Although he developed an opiate addiction alongside several others in the Grateful Dead's social network in the late 1970s, Scully was employed by the group in various capacities (including stints as director of advance, road manager and publicist) until 1984, when he was fired by the group, in part for enabling Jerry Garcia's cocaine and heroin addictions. For several years, he had also served as manager of the Jerry Garcia Band and Garcia's housemate; alleged embezzlement from the Garcia Band played a role in the group's decision. Following rehabilitation, he returned briefly in 1985.
Scully was the author of a 1995 memoir, "Living with the Dead: Twenty Years on the Bus with Garcia and the Grateful Dead" (written with David Dalton).
Personal life.
Rock Scully was born on August 1, 1941 in Seattle, Washington. His stepfather was journalist and academic Milton Mayer. Due to Mayer's multifarious career, Scully was raised in Carmel, California (where he cultivated a close friendship with future politician Sam Farr) and various locales in Europe. He finished his secondary education at a Swiss boarding school, where he acquired a penchant for skiing, a lifelong avocation.
After studying under Kurt Adler at the University of Vienna, Scully graduated with a degree in history and literature from Earlham College in 1963. Although he provisionally accepted an administrative post with Farr's father (a member of the California State Senate), Scully refused to remit the required loyalty oath and was unable to assume his duties. Beginning in the fall of 1963, he completed graduate work in history at San Francisco State University, where he coordinated student dances.
Following a monthlong jail sentence for participating in a civil rights demonstration in 1965, Scully determined that aiding the incipient 1960s counterculture would provide "musical relief" to the civil rights movement. He dropped out of graduate school to manage The Charlatans and worked with other groups as a member of Chet Helms's Family Dog collective before joining the Grateful Dead's organization.
Although they never legally married, Scully was in a relationship with Kemetic priestess Nicki Scully from 1969 to 1984; they had a daughter, Sage. He also raised her daughter from a previous relationship (Acacia, also known as Spirit) and fathered a son (Luke) in a previous relationship. Luke died in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami while vacationing in Thailand. During the Grateful Dead's 1974 European tour, he engaged in a brief liaison with and may have married Lady Carolyne Christie, the niece of Lawrence Dundas, 3rd Marquess of Zetland. Scully's brother has subsequently expressed doubts about the legality of the union, which Scully misrepresented to his common-law wife as a green card marriage. Christie later married Roger Waters of Pink Floyd.
Following his separation from the Grateful Dead, Scully worked as a concert promoter near Lake Tahoe before moving to Louisville, Kentucky, where he operated an automotive paint shop for three years with his longtime companion, former Grateful Dead associate Amy Moore. Shortly after relapsing, he broke up with Moore and returned to California in 1992. While he attempted to reclaim his old position, Scully found that his job "had been usurped by others." Nevertheless, he remained on amicable terms with the group, as evinced by a 2010 group interview with Scully, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir.
Scully died of lung cancer on December 16, 2014, in Monterey, California. There, he spent his final years serving as caregiver to his ailing mother following the death of his second wife, Frankie, while also participating in local civic life after regaining his sobriety. In a series of tweets, Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow eulogized his friend, culminating in the following observation: "Though occasionally fraudulent, you were always the real thing."


George R. Batcheller

George R. Batcheller (1892–1938) was an American film producer. Along with Maury M. Cohen he ran the Poverty Row studio Chesterfield Pictures.


Stephen Schenkel

Stephen Schenkel (September 25, 1934 - December 14, 2009) was an American TV producer and network executive. Schenkel produced a number of soap opera programs; in particular he is known for his production of "All My Children" for which he was Executive Producer, "Another World", and "The Edge of Night."
Early life and education.
Schenkel was a graduate of Columbia University, class of 1956.
Career.
Schenkel served as an executive at NBC, CBS, ABC and Benton & Bowles. He developed and produced variety, mini-series, and game shows programs as well as Discovery Channel documentaries. He was also co-creator and creative consultant on "Ryan's Hope" and ABC After School Specials.
Schenkel was hired as a producer on the daytime serial Another World in 1985; he then became executive producer of "All My Children" in 1987, but resigned in 1989 because of ill health.
Personal.
Schenkel married Penny Bergman in 1990 after meeting her on the set of "All My Children." He died December 14, 2009.


Y. Frank Freeman

Young Frank Freeman (14 December 1890 – 5 February 1969) was an American film company executive for Paramount Pictures. Freeman was born in Greenville, Georgia, and graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1910. In addition to his work with Paramount, he also worked in the fields of banking, higher education, and athletics.
He was the first winner of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1957. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960. He died in California and was buried at Westview Cemetery in Atlanta.
Freeman supported Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election.


Ron Cornelius

Ronald Dean Cornelius is a session musician and producer who has played on albums by Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Al Kooper and Loudon Wainwright III. He is also the president of Gateway Entertainment which was established in 1986. As a producer he has produced Miko Marks's "Freeway Bound" album in 2007. He is also the co-writer of "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" (with Cohen), which has been covered by many artists including Rufus Wainwright.
Biography.
In the mid-1960s Cornelius was a member of Capt. Zoom & The Androids aka Captain Zoom. They released three singles including "Here Comes Captain Zoom" b/w "The Zoom". Later he was a key member of a folk country rock band called West that was formed in San Francisco in 1967 that also featured Cornelius on lead guitar and vocals, Michael Stewart on guitar. Other members were Joe Davis, Bob Claire, Jon Sagen and Lloyd Perata. The band recorded the album "West" in 1968 and two others.
His solo album "Tin Luck" released on Polydor, PD50ll featured Joe Davis on bass and Paul Distel on drums. Cornelius played both guitar and keyboards. Most of the tracks on the album were composed by him.
Productions.
He produced the third album by Miko Marks which was scheduled for release in spring 2007.
Session work.
Cornelius played guitar on the album "Self Portrait" by Bob Dylan, playing with Charles E. Daniels and Bubba Fowler at the Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville, Tennessee on March 17, 1970. The session was produced by Bob Johnston and the tracks were "Early Morning Rain" and "Woogie Boogie". Cornelius also worked alongside Charlie McCoy, Al Kooper and David Bromberg in a recording session for Bob Dylan's 1973 album "Dylan".


Joe Escalante

Joseph Patrick Escalante (born January 30, 1963) is an American television writer, film and television director, musician, radio host, and former television executive. He is known professionally as the bassist and song writer for the punk rock band The Vandals, and creator and episodic director of the paranormal travel series Monsters Across America on Fox Nation.
Biography.
Escalante was born the youngest of 7 children in Long Beach, California to a Mexican father and Irish mother and grew up in Rossmoor, California, an unincorporated area of Orange County. His father was a pioneer in the electric sign industry, founding Superior Signs, Intl. and designing several iconic atomic age flashing signs that have dotted prominent American city skylines.  His mother worked as a bowling alley clerk in Seal Beach, California.
Education.
Escalante received his Bachelor degree from UCLA studying under Professor Jesse Byock in the Department of Old Norse (literature, language, history), and his Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School. He graduated from Los Alamitos High School in the class of 1981 and was elected to the Los Alamitos High Hall of Fame in 2014. Escalante studied at University of Iceland at Reykjavik Graduate Program in 1985.
Career with The Vandals.
In 1980, at age 18, Escalante joined the punk rock band The Vandals, becoming their first permanent drummer. He would remain the sole constant member of the band throughout the rest of their career. They released their debut EP "Peace thru Vandalism" in 1982 through Epitaph Records. In 1984 Escalante and the other band members appeared in the Roger Corman film "Suburbia, directed by" Penelope Spheeris and released their first album "When in Rome Do as the Vandals". In 1987 they appeared in another Spheeris film, "Dudes". By 1989 Escalante had moved from the drums into the bass guitar position. Fluctuations in the band's membership left him as the only member remaining from the original recording lineup. In order to continue the band, vocalist Dave Quackenbush set about finding new members, recruiting guitarist Warren Fitzgerald and drummer Josh Freese in 1989. This lineup released the album "Fear of a Punk Planet", establishing themselves amongst an emerging new crop of southern California punk rock bands. This lineup would remain consistent throughout the rest of the band's career and would release numerous albums, tour extensively, and form their own record label.
Television career.
After graduating law school in 1992, Escalante worked as an executive in the department of business affairs for CBS. During his time with the network, he negotiated actor, writer, and director deals on programs  like Everybody Loves Raymond, Rescue 911, and Walker Texas Ranger, for which he co-produced the theme song “Eyes of a Ranger” after convincing Chuck Norris to sing the theme song to his own series.
After four years, he left CBS to consult with the United Paramount Network,  tour with The Vandals,  and  operate his record label Kung Fu Records where he also produced concert films, low-budget features, and in 1999, one of the first streaming TV series, “Fear of A Punk Planet” ordered by the Digital Entertainment Network (DEN), in 1999, and later released as a comic book in 2017.
In 2015, Escalante was hired by the Discovery I.D./Discovery Channel channel to produce scripted true crime TV series "True Nightmares" where he wrote scripts and served as the production re-writer for the 1st and 2nd seasons. In 2017 he began working as a writer for History Channel's sci-fi documentary series Ancient Aliens. As a free-lance writer, Escalante has penned scripts for such shows as Oxygen Channel's “Buried in the Back Yard, Travel Channel's “In Search of Monsters,” and History (U.S. TV network) “Curse of Oak Island.”
In 2018, Escalante wrote the pilot script for the reboot of the 1960s hit TV series Hogan's Heroes for original creator and 2 time best picture winner Albert S. Ruddy, which as of 2019 is still in development with Albert S. Ruddy Productions. This time, the series is set in Guantanamo Bay.
Escalante sold a paranormal show to Fox Nation in 2020.
Marriage.
Escalante married in 1996. His wife, Sandra Escalante, appeared briefly in the 2005 film "Cake Boy" which he directed (as a member of the counseling group). The two now live together in Seal Beach, California.
Family.
Escalante's brother Greg Escalante founded Juxtapoz magazine and the Gregorio Escalante Gallery. Escalante’s step brother Mike Fries is CEO and Vice Chairman of Liberty Global. Escalante's brother in law is actor/composer Paul Williams (songwriter).
Nitro and Kung Fu Records.
In 1995 the Vandals signed a record deal with Nitro Records owned by The Offspring's Dexter Holland and released the album "Live Fast, Diarrhea". The album brought increased attention to the band and Escalante toured with them internationally. He directed their music video for "I Have a Date," and would continue to direct the band's videos throughout the rest of their career. The band released 3 more albums on Nitro over the next 5 years, with Escalante participating on all of them.
In 1996 Escalante and Warren Fitzgerald started the record label Kung Fu Records, initially to release a debut album by the Assorted Jelly Beans. Escalante named the label after his study of Kung Fu San Soo. Eventually, Escalante left CBS Television and took over operations of the label, signing acts such as The Ataris, Ozma,  Tsunami Bomb, Kenneth Keith Kallenbach, Longmont Potion Castle, and The Vandals. Kung Fu’s most successful release was Buddha, the debut album by the band Blink-182. Escalante ran the U.S. and European operations for 20 years, then sold the label to Cleopatra Records, who continue to maintain it as a separate imprint.
Directing and producing.
Using his experience in the television industry, Escalante formed Kung Fu Films in 2000 as an offshoot of the record label, and produced and starred in the independent film "That Dam Punk" and the early streaming series "Fear of a Punk Planet". He also continued to produce and direct music videos for The Vandals and for other acts on the Kung Fu label. In 2002 he launched the DVD live concert series "The Show Must Go Off!"  for which produced and/or directed over 20 long form concert films. In 2005, he directed the independent film, shot on film, "Cake Boy" featuring Scott Aukerman, Warren Fitzgerald, Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn,  and Cherry 2000’s Pamela Gidley.
Settlement with ex-Vandals members.
In 2003 a settlement was reached between the Vandals and ex-members with respect to past royalties and merchandise rights. The dispute centered around a deal supposedly made between the parties in 1989. 14 years later, some parties claimed the deal was never made, and if made, should have been in writing. After a flurry of letters written back and forth disputing song writing credits on the first two releases, it was agreed that all three original songwriters would split income from all the early songs.
Sweet and Tender Hooligans.
In 2004 Escalante joined the Sweet and Tender Hooligans, a Smiths/Morrissey tribute band composed primarily of Latino members. In 2006 he traveled with them to the United Kingdom to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Smiths album "The Queen Is Dead".
Radio hosting.
In 2005, Escalante was hired to host a weekly radio program originally "Barely Legal Radio" on the Los Angeles/Orange County radio station Indie 103.1 FM, where he dispensed entertainment and legal advice to aspiring musicians. In May 2006, he became the host of the station's morning drive-time program "The Last of the Famous International Morning Shows", replacing Mighty Mighty Bosstones singer Dicky Barrett.
Escalante's morning show included daily appearances by film director David Lynch, who served as weatherman, and actor Timothy Olyphant, who served as a sports commentator. The show also featured a weekly wine tasting and education hour called "Wino Wednesday", and hosted a number of celebrity guests including Crispin Glover, Christina Ricci, Pat Buchanan, Will Ferrell, Maynard James Keenan, Werner Herzog, Phil Donahue, Kristen Stewart, Harry Shearer, Dennis Hopper, and Andy Dick. The show was endorsed by companies and products such as iPod, iTunes, and AT&T. Indie pulled the plug on the show in November 2008. Two months later, the entire station went off the air and switched to Spanish ranchero music.
Joe's call-in entertainment law show stayed on the web version on Indie 1031 until it finally landed on Clear Channel/Iheart Media's KEIB AM 1150 in 2009, where it can still be heard today live on Sundays at 5pm to 7pm, PST. In April 2019, the name was changed to "Joe Escalante, Live from Hollywood."
Religious and political views.
Escalante teaches Catechism at St. Peter Chanel Catholic Church in Hawaiian Gardens where he is a daily communicant. He has no stated political party affiliation.
From 2008 to 2012, Escalante worked as a volunteer temporary judge for the Los Angeles superior court, and later placed himself on the ballot for a paid position in a non-partisan race. Street artist Shepherd Fairey created a campaign poster for Escalante, his first candidate poster since his iconic representation of President Barack Obama. Escalante raised $15,000 for his campaign with the posters and received 18.41% of the vote. His opponent spent a record $450,000 to defeat him.
Filmography.
Acting.
I Escalante's scenes in "Punk Rock Holocaust" were deleted from the final version of the film.


Nina Jacobson

Nina Jacobson (born September 15, 1965) is an American film executive who, until July 2006, was president of the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. With Dawn Steel, Gail Berman and Sherry Lansing, she was one of the last of a handful of women to head a Hollywood film studio since the 1980s. She established her own production company called Color Force in 2007, and was the producer of "The Hunger Games" film series.
Personal life.
Jacobson was born in Los Angeles, to a Jewish family. In 1987, she graduated from Brown University. She began her film career as a documentary researcher. She joined Disney in 1987 as a story analyst but was dismissed in a management change.
Jacobson is married to Jen Bleakley, with whom she has three children. In 1995, she and American Beauty producer Bruce Cohen formed Out There, a collection of gay and lesbian entertainment industry activists.
Career.
1988–1997: Early producing roles.
In 1988, she joined Silver Pictures as director of film development. She was later head of development at MacDonald/Parkes Productions before she joined Universal Pictures as senior vice president of production. There, she took part in the development and production of such projects as "Twelve Monkeys" and "Dazed and Confused".
Later, Jacobson became a senior film executive at DreamWorks SKG where she was responsible for developing "What Lies Beneath". She also takes credit for the idea behind DreamWorks' first animated feature "Antz". Speaking of her mode of working while listening to pitches for new films, she said, "We start with the obligatory chat about the weather, traffic, sports or politics. Then somebody concludes the chitchat (usually me) and the writer does his or her schpiel. The 'dog and pony.' The desired outcome is for me to love the story and want to buy it. But a big part of my job is to pass. I leap only once every six to eight weeks."
1998–2006: Disney executive.
In 1998, she moved to Disney where she was responsible for developing scripts and overseeing film production for Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures. Among her projects as studio executive were "The Sixth Sense", "Remember the Titans", "Pearl Harbor", "The Princess Diaries", "The Chronicles of Narnia", and the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise. For her efforts at helping expand the role of women in the entertainment industry, Women in Film awarded her the Crystal Award in 2003. In 2005, "Forbes" magazine named Jacobson one of "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women" in acknowledgement of her success.
Closely associated with film director M. Night Shyamalan at Disney (besides "The Sixth Sense", she also worked with him on "Unbreakable", "Signs" and "The Village"), she and Shyamalan clashed during pre-production of his 2006 film, "Lady in the Water". Shyamalan left the studio after Jacobson and others became, in Shyamalan's eyes, overly critical of his script, which would eventually be produced by Warner Bros. Shyamalan is quoted in a book about the difficult period that he "had witnessed the decay of her creative vision right before [his] own wide-open eyes. She didn't want iconoclastic directors. She wanted directors who made money." In her own defense, Jacobson said, "in order to have a Hollywood relationship more closely approximate a real relationship, you have to have a genuine back and forth of the good and the bad. Different people have different ideas about respect. For us, being honest is the greatest show of respect for a filmmaker."
2007–present: Color Force.
Immediately after the birth of her third child on July 17, 2006, while still in the delivery room, Jacobson was fired over the telephone by Richard Cook, studio chief for The Walt Disney Company. Apparently as part of a studio restructuring, she was replaced by Oren Aviv, marketing chief of the studio. Soon after she was fired, Jacobson quoted Jerry Bruckheimer saying, "There are two kinds of people in this job: the ones who think they'll have it forever and the ones who know they won't." She said she had treated her own job at Disney "as a privilege, not an entitlement." Among her last projects as production executive was "The Game Plan," a family comedy released in late September 2007. The film opened number one in its first week at the box office and held the top spot through the second week of release.
By the start of 2007, she was back at work, this time at her own newly established production company, Color Force. Color Force signed a three-year "first-look" production deal with DreamWorks in December 2006. The first feature project released in theaters was "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" (2010). She also produced the 2011 feature "One Day".
Jacobson produced all of the films based on the bestselling "Hunger Games" trilogy by Suzanne Collins, and co-wrote the screenplays for the series. The first of the four films based on the trilogy was released on March 23, 2012.
In 2015, Color Force mounted its first television series, "," based on Jeffrey Toobin's 1997 book, "The Run of His Life".
Color Force produced the film adaptation of "Crazy Rich Asians", which was released in 2018 to general acclaim. "The Hollywood Reporter" presented Jacobson with its third annual Equity in Entertainment award at its 2018 Women in Entertainment event on December 5, 2018. Previous Equity in Entertainment award winners include Ryan Murphy and Amy Pascal.
Other.
Jacobson produced the 2019 film adaptation of the bestselling novel "Where'd you go Bernadette" by Maria Semple which according to the Critic's Consensus of Rotten Tomatoes "offers dispiriting proof that a talented director, bestselling source material, and terrific cast can add up to far less than the sum of their parts." Jacobson and her production company Color Force also acquired and produced the 2019 adaptation of Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Goldfinch" which despite the novel's devoted fan base was universally panned by critics and was named one of the worst movies of the year by CBS News. It lost over 50 million dollars, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting. In the video, Jacobson and others told the stories of the people killed there.


Sidney Beckerman (movie producer)

Sidney Beckerman (November 26, 1920 – February 25, 2008) was a producer of notable movies including "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai", "Cabaret", "Joe Kidd", "Kelly's Heroes", "Portnoy's Complaint", "Marathon Man", "Marlowe", "Red Dawn" and "The Sicilian".


Chris Albertson

Christiern Gunnar Albertson (October 18, 1931 – April 24, 2019) was a New York City-based jazz journalist, writer and record producer.
Early life.
Albertson was born in Reykjavík, but his father left the family before he was a year old. Yvonne, his mother, married three more times. He was educated in Iceland, Denmark and England before studying commercial art in Copenhagen.
In 1947, while living in Copenhagen, Albertson listened by chance to a Bessie Smith recording on radio; it led to an abiding interest in jazz and blues music. "We found magic in such names as Kid Ory, King Oliver, Johnny Dodds, Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey", he wrote on his "Stomp Off" blog in 2010. On his home tape machine, Albertson recorded visiting British New Orleans revivalists Ken Colyer, Chris Barber and Lonnie Donegan in 1953. These recordings were subsequently released on the Danish Storyville Records and British Tempo Records labels.
Career.
In 1957, after two years as a disc jockey for Armed Forces Radio at Keflavík Air Base, in Iceland, Albertson migrated to the United States, initially working for radio stations in Philadelphia. At WCAU (a CBS affiliate) and WHAT-FM, a 24-hour jazz station, he conducted interviews, including one with Lester Young, one of only two extant with the tenor saxophonist. He was naturalised as an American citizen in 1963.
In 1960–61 he was employed by Riverside Records' Bill Grauer as a producer. In this capacity, he arranged and recorded the last sessions of blues singer Ida Cox (whom he brought out of retirement) and boogie woogie pianist Meade Lux Lewis, and supervised the label's 'Living Legends' series of location recordings. The initial albums in this series were made in New Orleans and featured such early jazz musicians as pianist Sweet Emma Barrett, clarinetist Louis Cottrell, Jr., trumpeters Percy Humphrey and Kid Thomas, blues duo Billie and De de Pierce, and trombonist Jim Robinson. He continued the series in Chicago, with performances by Lil Armstrong, Alberta Hunter, Little Brother Montgomery, and Earl Hines.
Albertson subsequently worked as producer for Prestige Records, supervising sessions by, among others, guitarist/singer Lonnie Johnson, whom he had pulled from obscurity while working in Philadelphia. He also founded his own production company, supervising sessions with Howard McGhee, Roy Eldridge, Bud Freeman, Ray Bryant, and Elmer Snowden.
In the mid-sixties, he worked at NYC radio station WNEW, leaving there for Pacifica Radio's NY station WBAI, where he eventually became General Manager. In 1967, Albertson worked for the BBC in London, advising them on how to adapt their radio programs for sale in North America.
In 1971, Albertson co-produced and hosted "The Jazz Set", a weekly television program that was aired from coast to coast by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Public television and featured such guests as Charles Mingus, Bill Evans, Randy Weston, Jimmy Heath, and Ray Bryant.
At this time, he was also producing reissues for Columbia Records, including the complete Bessie Smith LP sets. His work on these albums won Albertson 1971 two Grammy awards (one in the Best Album Notes category for "The World's Greatest Blues Singer" and a Grammy Trustees Award), a Billboard Trendsetter Award and the Montreux Jazz Festival's Grand Prix du Disque.
His standard work, "Bessie", a biography of Bessie Smith, first appeared in 1972, with a revised and expanded version published by Yale University Press in 2003. The revised biography was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame in the "Classic of Blues Literature Hall of Fame" category in May 2012. In 2015, HBO premiered a biopic, "Bessie", starring Queen Latifah in the title role, but Albertson's book was not credited as its basis.
Albertson wrote TV documentaries, including "The Story of Jazz" and "My Castle's Rocking" (a bio-documentary on Alberta Hunter), as well as articles and reviews for various publications, including "Saturday Review" and "Down Beat". He was a contributing editor for "Stereo Review" magazine for twenty-eight years.
Albertson was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on April 24, 2019.


Tim Collins (manager)

Tim Collins is a businessman, manager, and mentor most noted for his work as the manager for American hard rock band Aerosmith from 1984-1996.
Personal history.
Just as the 1980s marked the return of Aerosmith -- "one of the most dramatic comebacks ever in rock"—they also underlined the rise to prominence of the band's personal manager, Tim Collins.
At the age of 14, Collins joined a band called Tax Free. Playing guitar in the band, Collins also took responsibility for booking gigs for the band and handling their finances. While playing in the band and going to school, Collins worked full-time at Anderson-Little as a clothing salesman and used the money he earned to buy the band a sound system and a truck. When Tax Free replaced Collins in 1970, they told Collins that "you make a better manager than a guitarist" and asked Collins if he would manage them. Before “Tax Free”, Tim had formed the band “Valley Decision”; with Tim on Guitar, John Voymus on keyboard, Kevin Wormsley on drums and Bill Walsh on bass guitar. All the members of the band attended St. Mary’s High School in Waltham, Massachusetts. Named after a Walt Whitman poem,”VD” even competed in a Battle of the Bands in Waltham, Massachusetts—at least, they did not come in last!
By this point, Collins graduated from Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts, where he majored in Organizational Behavior and Marketing.
As he continued to manage Tax Free, Collins opened Bands Unlimited Productions, which booked local talent in the Boston area that played all of the local colleges and night clubs. In 1977, he signed The Fools, a young rock band with a novel edge. They rose to high regional prominence very quickly. In order to gain the clout to develop them, he moved to New York City in 1978 to work for Castle Music Productions Inc., where he brought The Fools.
Collins worked for artist manager Peter Casperson, known for his work with some of the great folk-rock artists of the era including Jonathan Edwards, Martin Mull, Orphan, and Duke and the Drivers. While working at Castle Music,the company managed to get The Fools signed to EMI Records.
The Fools, with the support of the larger organization at Castle Music, experienced success with the hits "Psycho Chicken" and "It’s a Night for Beautiful Girls". In 1979, "Psycho Chicken", an X-rated parody of The Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer", exploded over the airwaves of Boston. The band was so excited that they followed up almost immediately with another hit, "It's a Night for Beautiful Girls". Shortly thereafter, EMI Records signed the band and sent them to tour the U.S. with The Knack. "The tour was a smashing success." After the tour, the band headed to Miami to record their debut album "Sold Out".
Collins also met Jonathan Edwards, who is known for his million selling hit "Sunshine."
Collins left Castle Music on April 1, 1979 and started Collins/Barrasso Agency. Steve Barrasso, his new partner, was a local Boston musician whose musical career with a band called Calamity Jayne was cut short by a lung condition. Thankfully, though, the two met and Steve convinced Tim to leave Castle and start their own business. The Collins/Barrasso Agency established its headquarters in Allston, MA.
The Collins/Barrasso Agency became the place to be for New England-based regional recording artists. Some of the many talented musicians who were on the roster included Jonathan Edwards, Aztec Two-Step, The James Montgomery Blues Band, Duke and the Drivers, Orleans, and many others. They also produced and procured talent from the major agencies for college shows and larger concert venues throughout New England.
History with Aerosmith.
In the early 1980s, Tim Collins worked as the manager for The Joe Perry Project, the solo project created by guitarist Joe Perry who had left Aerosmith in 1979. In 1984, Collins orchestrated the reformation of the original Aerosmith. He succeeded when guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford rejoined the band in April 1984. He believed he could make Aerosmith the biggest band in the world by 1990, if he reformed the original band and helped to orchestrate an intervention on the band members that led to them getting clean and sober. Aerosmith officially reformed in May 1984 and hired Collins as their manager. After every major record label passed on signing Aerosmith to a recording contract in the summer of 1984, Collins, with the help of the infamous music attorney Brian Rohan, inspired legendary A&R man John Kalodner to sign Aerosmith to Geffen Records. The band toured extensively and created their first album after the reunion of the classic lineup in 1985, titled "Done with Mirrors". However, the album was not the success they had hoped for, the band was not receiving mainstream publicity, and the drug addictions of the band members and their attempts to quit drugs on their own weren't working. Collins and his team, with the help of Dr. Louis Cox PhD. of New York City, orchestrated a drug and alcohol intervention on lead singer Steven Tyler. Tyler entered a drug rehabilitation program at the Caron Foundation in Pennsylvania that was extremely successful for him. The rest of the band members followed suit shortly thereafter.
One of the major things Collins had Aerosmith agree to was the appearance of Tyler and Perry on Run-DMC's cover of Aerosmith's song "Walk This Way". The collaboration and subsequent video made Aerosmith a household name again and opened the band up to a new generation.
By the time their next album, "Permanent Vacation", was released in 1987, all of the band members had gotten clean, and Collins was now working hard to make sure the band won their fame back, through his namesake "Collins Management". By this point in time, Kalodner and Collins had forged a creative partnership that was a winning combination. They enlisted the help of top-notch outside songwriters and producers to work with the band in recording their albums, had the band touring the world extensively with up-and-coming acts opening for the band, including the (then soon to be) legendary Guns N' Roses, he enlisted the help of top-notch music video directors, and was now having the band make numerous appearances in television, movies, video games, major festivals, and the like, helping to win over a new generation of fans, while retaining their old fanbase.
Between 1987 and 1994, Aerosmith released three albums and a compilation album ("Permanent Vacation", "Pump", "Get a Grip", and "Big Ones") which sold a combined 23 million copies in the United States alone, won the band three Grammy awards, and numerous Video Music Awards.
When the 18-month Get a Grip Tour concluded at the end of 1994, the band wanted to take an extensive break and take their time in recording their next album ("Nine Lives"), this one for Columbia Records. However, Columbia records pressured Collins and the band, who wanted time off. Collins and his team created more structure for the band to achieve a quicker means by which to meet their contractual obligations to Columbia Records. This was ill received by the band. Recording for Aerosmith was historically a long and arduous process which often caused contention between the band members. The band took extensive vacations and Tyler and Perry were working with producer/songwriter Glen Ballard in the mid-1990s, writing, recording, and rehearsing songs, in sessions including ones in Miami, Florida. Some of the Columbia executives felt that since Tyler and Perry were working independently with Ballard in penning songs and that the entire band would not be working together for months at a time, that the band in whom they had a $50 million dollar investment in had the potential of breaking up. However Tyler and Perry were noted for writing songs together and then having the band record the songs during recording sessions. Additionally, drummer Joey Kramer was sidelined during pre-production due to health problems. Columbia was afraid that Collins, with whom they made the recording deal, was losing control of the band. This excessive pressure caused problems between Collins and Aerosmith.
The members of Aerosmith, while grateful for all the help Collins and John Kalodner had given them in helping the band resurrect and rise back to mainstream popularity and acceptance, fired Collins in July 1996.
Life After Aerosmith.
Tim Collins has been active in many capacities in the music, recovery, and business community.
Some of his activities include:
In 2009, Tim Collins did an interview for the Biography Channel, which later appeared on the A&E Network. An article in the "Boston Globe" mentioned that Collins' interview on Biography's Aerosmith special was a "real surprise" since it was his first interview since being fired, thirteen years prior.
"I've never done an interview like this, but time heals all wounds," Collins told the "Boston Herald". "They said Steven (Tyler) wasn't going to participate and had squelched a lot of people. I just think they're America's greatest rock band, and I wanted to set the record straight. I was only supposed to do 30 minutes, but I let them keep me on tape for 4.5 hours." Collins mentioned that his participation in the rock doc prompted Aerosmith guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford to talk after seeing a raw cut of Collins' footage.
Collins was asked by the "Herald" directly if he would consider coming back to manage the band. "I haven't spoken to them. I really couldn't imagine it," Collins said. "Life moves on."
In the summer of 2009, by total coincidence, Collins and Tyler literally bumped into each other in the lobby at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Denver, CO, where there was an exchange of deep feelings, reminiscent of days gone by. Regarding the incident, Collins said "It's always nice to have a situation come full circle, and to be friends (once again) with someone who was so important in your earlier life."


Sunny Skylar

Sunny Skylar (October 11, 1913 – February 2, 2009) was an American composer, singer, lyricist, and music publisher. He was born Selig Shaftel in Brooklyn, New York. As a singer, he appeared with a number of big bands, including those led by Ben Bernie, Paul Whiteman, Abe Lyman, George Hall and Vincent Lopez. It was Lopez who changed the singer's professional name from Sonny Schuyler to Sunny Skylar. After the end of the big band era, Skylar continued to sing in nightclubs and theaters until 1952.
List of compositions.
Among the songs he wrote (either music or lyrics) are:


Jack Bender

Jack Bender (born September 25, 1949) is an American television and film director, television producer and former actor best known for his work as a director on "Lost", "The Sopranos" and "Game of Thrones".
Biography.
Bender grew up in a secular Jewish family in Los Angeles. His father was a furrier to the Hollywood community. He studied art with Los Angeles artist Martin Lubner (spouse of actress Joanna Merlin) and then went into acting "because it seemed like what I could do and make a living." As an actor, Bender guest-starred on "All in the Family", "The Bob Newhart Show" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". He co-starred in "The Million Dollar Duck", "Savage" and "McNaughton's Daughter". He then went into directing, working on a number of television series.
He directed the popular slasher film "Child's Play 3" before becoming an executive producer and lead director on the ABC TV series "Lost", directing 38 episodes of the show, including the series finale. Bender has also directed on other popular shows such as "The Sopranos", "Carnivàle", "Alias" and "Boston Public". In recent years he was an executive producer and lead director on the TV series "Under the Dome" (2013) and "The Last Ship" (2014–15). In 2016, Bender directed the fifth and sixth episodes of the sixth season of "Game of Thrones", followed by a limited TV series adaptation of Stephen King's novel "Mr. Mercedes".
Bender received nominations for the "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series" for his direction of the "Lost" episodes "Live Together, Die Alone", "Through the Looking Glass" and the series finale "The End". He was also nominated for the "Game of Thrones" episode "The Door".
Family/Personal life.
Bender is married to Rabbi Laura Owens of B’nai Horin. They have two daughters, Hannah and Sophie Owens-Bender.


Oak Felder

Warren "Oak" Felder (born November 9, 1980) is a Turkish-born American songwriter and record producer based in Atlanta and Los Angeles. He is known for his work as part of the production duo Pop & Oak, and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2015.
Early life.
Felder was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. He studied poetry jam and artificial intelligence at Istanbul Technical University, and then moved to the United States in 2001 to attend Georgia Tech. His nickname comes from his Turkish name, Okay.
Career.
While at Georgia Tech, Felder recorded a demo with the singer/songwriter Sterling Simms, which led to a meeting with L.A. Reid and resulted in Felder writing and producing a track on a Mariah Carey album in 2005.
Around 2009, Felder became production partners with Pop Wansel as the production duo Pop & Oak. Their first big hit was "Your Love", the lead single on Nicki Minaj's 2010 debut studio album "Pink Friday". Other notable songs they have written and produced include six tracks on Elle Varner's 2012 album "Perfectly Imperfect", including the singles "Only Wanna Give It to You" and "I Don't Care"; nine songs on Kehlani's debut album "SweetSexySavage"; and six tracks on Alessia Cara's 2015 debut album "Know-It-All", including the singles "Here" and "Scars to Your Beautiful", which both went to number 1 on the "Billboard" Mainstream Top 40 charts.
Felder was nominated for a 2015 Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for writing Usher's single "Good Kisser"; produced two songs on the Alicia Keys album "Girl on Fire", which won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album; wrote and produced "Invincible", the lead single from Kelly Clarkson's 2015 album "Piece by Piece"; wrote and produced "Clumsy", the second single from the 2016 Britney Spears album "Glory"; and wrote and produced five tracks on Demi Lovato's 2017 album "Tell Me You Love Me", including the lead single "Sorry Not Sorry", winning a 2019 BMI Pop Award for the single. He has also written and produced songs for artists including Trey Songz, Rihanna, Miguel, Kehlani, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Lopez, Mario, Tamia, ZZ Ward, and Sabrina Carpenter. He was named as a top producer by BMI in 2012 and 2013, and won a 2017 BMI Pop Award for co-writing Alessia Cara's "Here", and a 2018 BMI Pop Award for co-writing her single "Scars to Your Beautiful". He also wrote and produced three tracks on Lizzo's 2019 major label debut "Cuz I Love You", wrote and produced the top 40 single "Who Do You Love" by The Chainsmokers featuring 5 Seconds of Summer, and is working on new music with Kehlani, Demi Lovato, and Alessia Cara in 2019.
Felder is published by Kobalt for the world, and managed by Lucas Keller and Peter Coquillard at Milk & Honey. He is on the board of directors of the Music Licensing Collective, which works to increase the royalty money from streaming companies to songwriters.
Personal life.
Felder is married and lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and has a studio in Los Angeles, California.


James Bracken

James C. Bracken (May 23, 1909 – February 20, 1972) was an American songwriter and the co-founder and co-owner of Vee-Jay Records with his wife Vivian and her brother, Calvin Carter.
Life.
Bracken was born in Oklahoma and grew up in Kansas City. He was living in Chicago when he met Vivian Carter in 1944. In 1950 they founded Vivian's Record Shop in Gary, Indiana, and three years later decided to start their own record company, which they named Vee-Jay from their initials. As well as producing and releasing records through his label, Bracken also wrote some of the songs recorded. During the 1950s and early 1960s Vee-Jay became a major independent record label with acts including Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, Gene Chandler, Jerry Butler, The Four Seasons and, for a time, The Beatles. The company folded in 1966.
Bracken died in Los Angeles in 1972.
Songwriting credits.
Bracken is sometimes credited with songs recorded by Vee-Jay artists, such as John Lee Hooker ("Baby Lee", "Dimples", "Little Wheel", "Kiss The Girls"), Jimmy Reed ("High and Lonesome"), Memphis Slim ("Steppin' Out," which ultimately became a showcase for Eric Clapton with John Mayall's group and, especially, with Cream), The Spaniels ("Baby It's You", "Sloppy Drunk"). He is often erroneously credited as the songwriter on releases of the 1969 Buddah Records live recording by Bill Haley and His Comets of "Rock the Joint", which was written by Harold Crafton, Wendell Keane, and Harold Bagby.


Jeffrey Bowen

Jeffrey Bowen is an American songwriter and record producer, notable for his work at both Motown Records and Holland-Dozier-Holland's Invictus and Hot Wax labels. He is best known for his work with the Detroit male vocal groups Chairmen of the Board and the Temptations. Bowen produced three albums for the Temptations: "In a Mellow Mood" (1967), "A Song for You" (1975), and "Wings of Love" (1976).
In 1978, Bowen met and married singer Bonnie Pointer. He produced her 1978 and 1979 self-titled LPs for Motown (also known as Pointer's "red" and "purple" albums, respectively, because of their cover art) as well as her 1984 album "If the Price Is Right" for Private I Records. In July 2014, Pointer filed for divorce, which was finalised in 2016.


Matthew Bennett (TV producer)

Matthew Bennett is an American television producer and director and former Broadway stage actor.
Career.
Theater.
From 1986 until 2003, Bennett was an actor in New York City. He made a career on the New York stage in the original productions of "Floyd Collins", "Titanic," "Blood Brothers", "Zara Spook and Other Lures", "Amour", "Radio Gals", Anne Bogart's "Marathon Dancing", and the original off-Broadway (Sullivan Street) production of "The Fantasticks".
Bennett created the musical stage play, "Ten Years Apart", as well as the play "Badger Country", both with writing partner Sean McCourt.
Television.
Bennett is the founder of the television and film production company, Silent Crow Arts. Notably, he created the first modern "after show" television format: the "Deadliest Catch" partner series, "After The Catch", for Discovery Channel. Bennett has also served as Executive Producer, director and showrunner on many television specials, pilots and series.
In addition to performing on stage and in film, Bennett also acted in roles for television's "Law & Order", "Law and Order SVU", and "Remember WENN".
Recognition.
The theatrical production "Ten Years Apart" in which Bennett also starred, was created by Bennett and his partner Sean McCourt. "St. Paul Pioneer Press" called the production "Innovative, but ultimately ineffective," noting that its stars (Matthew Bennett and Sean McCourt) "are both adept musicians, highly adaptable actors and solid singers. Their resumes show accomplishment, and they're both gifted and versatile enough to enjoy good strong careers." The "Cincinnati Enquirer" called the musical "a wrenching tale of a full life," and said, "Some musicals offer nothing more than an excuse to come in out of the rain. But this play put a hand on my heart... The play got to me. Tears. Hard swallows. Long thoughts."
Personal life.
Bennett was married to actress Dorrie Joiner until her early death in 1999.
He is now married to actress Marsha Dietlein Bennett.


Robert Titsch

Robert Titsch is an American businessman who is credited as a co-founder of the American political television network C-SPAN. At the time of the founding of C-SPAN, he was the publisher of "Cablevision" magazine where C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb served as the Washington bureau chief. Titsch served on the first board of directors of C-SPAN.
Titsch is from Denver, Colorado. He has been in the publishing and businesses since 1969. He has been living in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.


Thom Beers

Thom Beers (born July 20, 1952 in Batavia, New York) is an American television producer and narrator/voice-over artist.
Career.
Beers, a former producer and executive with Turner Broadcasting and Paramount Syndicated Television, has produced more than 40 television series since the mid-1990s, most under the banner of his own production company formed in 1999, Original Productions, for which he serves as CEO and Executive Producer. Beers produces some of the shows on the Discovery Channel family of networks, including "Deadliest Catch" (for which he received Emmy nominations in 2006 and 2007), "Lobster Wars", "Monster Garage", "Monster House", and "". He is the former chairman & CEO of FremantleMedia's US division, FremantleMedia North America.
Beers narrates for many of the shows he produces. He narrated for several Discovery Channel series like ', and "Verminators"; in addition to narrating most of Original Productions' shows (Beers narrated the pilot for "Deadliest Catch" but turned over series narration duties to fellow Discovery Channel personality Mike Rowe after the series was picked up), he can be heard narrating many shows on Discovery Health Channel, including '. In 2007, he produced and narrated "Ice Road Truckers" for the History Channel and narrated "Ax Men" in 2008 about logging. Like "Deadliest Catch", both shows had their roots in a special about a dangerous occupation. In 2010 he was also the executive producer and narrator of "Storage Wars" on A&E.
Most recently, truTV has enlisted Beers and Original Productions for their own "dangerous occupation" series: "Black Gold", a documentary about oil drillers. Beers is also executive producer and narrator for "Tornado Road", a mini-series on The Weather Channel and Whisker Wars which airs on IFC.
Also, he narrates for the show "America's Port", narrates and is an executive producer for "Wild Justice" both on the National Geographic Channel, the pilot episodes of "1,000 Ways to Die" on Spike, "Pitchmen", and "The Colony" on the Discovery Channel. Beers was also the supervising producer for the cartoon "Captain Planet and the Planeteers" on TBS from 1990-1991 for 26 episodes.
Personal life.
Beers is married to Leslie Beers, president of Amygdala Music, which produces all the music for Original Productions shows as well as licensing music for other production companies. They have one son named Max who attends Highland Hall, a Waldorf School.