Peter Jesperson

Peter Jesperson is an American music industry businessman from Minneapolis, Minnesota, known for his involvement in discovering the Replacements, and for later serving as their manager. He also co-founded Twin/Tone Records along with Paul Stark and Charley Hallman, and managed the record store Oar Folkjokeopus during the 1970s and early 1980s.
Recent work.
In 1995, Jesperson moved out of Minneapolis to work at New West Records in Los Angeles, where he was still working as of 2011. Jesperson led an effort called Songs For Slim to raise money for former Replacements guitarist Slim Dunlap's medical care after Dunlap had a stroke in 2012, by releasing a series of 7"s. This effort was later endorsed by a number of notable musicians, including Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams, and also led to the 2013 release of "Songs for Slim", an EP featuring Replacements members Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson, and Chris Mars, which Len Comaratta described as "the closest thing yet to a reunion of the Replacements."


John Esposito (music executive)

John Esposito is an American music executive who is the current chairman and CEO of Warner Music Nashville, a country music label group. In that role, he has overseen the careers of Blake Shelton, Dan + Shay, Brett Eldredge, Gabby Barrett, and numerous others.
Early life and education.
John Esposito was born in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. When he was 11, Esposito's family moved to nearby Indiana, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Indiana Area Senior High School where he played drums in various school bands. Esposito later attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania where he graduated in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. While at the school, he also served as a DJ for the university's radio station (WIUP), as a music critic for its newspaper, and as a drummer, guitarist, and vocalist in several bands including Cimarron, the Joe Bagadonuts Band, and Crystal.
Career.
After graduating from college, Esposito moved to Washington, D.C. to pursue a career in journalism. Instead, he found a job as a clerk at a record store called Harmony Hut. He quickly worked his way up to manager, and in a few years, he was managing multiple record stores on the East Coast. This ultimately led to a position as a buyer in the Macy's TV department and eventually a role with the sales and operation staff at Mitsubishi. Esposito worked at Mitsubishi from 1986 to 1993, attaining the title of regional vice president of the northeast division. In 1993, he took a position as the COO of music and movies at The Wiz, an electronics retail chain.
His experience there led him to a job with PolyGram, where he held various executive roles (including senior vice president of PolyMedia) until 1997. In 1998, he became the founding general manager and executive vice president at The Island Def Jam Music Group. In that role, he oversaw acts like Jay-Z, DMX, Bon Jovi, and Ja Rule. In October 2002, he was named the president of WEA, Corp.—the sales and marketing arm of the Warner Music Group. In that role, he also oversaw the Independent Label Group and the Alternative Distribution Alliance. He was later promoted to president and CEO of WEA, Corp.
In September 2009, he was named the first president and CEO of the newly-formed Warner Music Nashville (WMN), a label group for Warner's country music acts and imprints (Atlantic Nashville, Warner Bros. Nashville, Elektra Nashville, and Loudmouth Records). At the time, Blake Shelton was considered to be the label group's "only serious hitmaker". Within five years, however, Esposito had helped increase WMN's market share from 3.4% to 8.6%. He was also credited with jump starting the careers of Shelton, Hunter Hayes, Brett Eldredge, and Cole Swindell during that time. In January 2015, Esposito was named the president of the Country Music Association (CMA) and was named chairman of the CMA board later that year.
In 2016, Esposito was promoted to chairman and CEO of Warner Music Nashville. That year, Blake Shelton broke a record for WMN with 17 consecutive number-one singles on the "Billboard" Country Airplay chart. In 2017, Esposito was honored with the Innovator of the Year Award at the Innovation in Music Awards (IMAs). In 2018, he signed artist Kenny Chesney to WMN. The label saw a 20% rise in market share that year partially due to the success of Dan + Shay's self-titled album. In 2019, Esposito signed Gabby Barrett whose first single, "I Hope," was eventually certified quadruple platinum. In November 2019, Esposito extended his contract to remain chairman and CEO of WMN for several more years. That month, the WMN acts Blake Shelton, Ashley McBryde, and Dan + Shay were nominated for Grammy Awards, with the latter act winning for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. Over the course of his time at WMN, Esposito has routinely appeared on the "Billboard" Power 100 list, including most recently in 2020.


Steve Gottlieb (music executive)

Steve Gottlieb is an American entrepreneur and music executive. He is founder and CEO of Shindig, a platform for large scale online video chat events. Prior to Shindig, Gottlieb founded the independent record label TVT Records and its publishing arm TVT Music, discovered the recording artists Nine Inch Nails, Pitbull, Sevendust, and Ja Rule, produced the "Television's Greatest Hits" series, helped to found the independent music organization A2IM, and served on the boards of Musicmatch (sold to Yahoo! in 2008), Napster, and Tune Up Media. He was the influence for the albino boy character in the film "Powder".
Biography.
Born into a Jewish family, Gottlieb grew up in New Rochelle, New York and attended Harvard Law School. Before law school, he earned a B.A. in literature from Yale University
Recognition.
Gottlieb was selected in 1996 as one of the "40 Under Forty", a listing of leading New York executives, by Crain's New York Business. In 2001, he was featured in a commercial for Credit Suisse during the Super Bowl, where he was cited as a successful and visionary media/technology entrepreneur. Later in the year, he appeared as a witness before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing titled "Online Entertainment And Copyright Law: Coming Soon To A Digital Device Near You".
In 2005, he was named to the Hip Hop Power 30 by The Source magazine. In the same year, he delivered the keynote address at the In The City Urban Music Summit, which is the UK's top international music convention and Europe's largest city-based music festival.
Shindig.
Shindig allows users to see and be seen by participants in an online event. The participants can move freely through a virtual space and are able to engage in private video chats with other participants of their choosing. Featured speakers can address all of the participants as a group from a stage as well as share the stage with participants who may have a question or comment about the speaker's presentation.
Vice President of Engineering Manik Bambha, a former technology executive at MySpace and Fox Interactive Media, joined Shindig in 2011.
Shindig launched a beta release of its platform for video chat book tours in May 2012. By August of the same year, the company had hosted over 150 events for such best-selling authors as A.J. Jacobs, Dan Ariely, Joel Stein, Scott Sigler, and James Howard Kunstler.
Beginning in September 2012, Shindig targeted music events, online nightclubs, magazine subscriber events, and interactive classroom applications as uses for its video chat platform technology.
Notable personalities and entities who've used Shindig include Bill Gates, TEDx, Guy Kawasaki, Michael Pollan, Edward Jay Epstein, Carla Hall, Big Daddy Kane, A.J. Jacobs, Kevin Kelly, Dan Ariely, and Jackson "Cat Daddy" Galaxy.
Music career.
"Television's Greatest Hits".
In 1986, Gottlieb produced "Television's Greatest Hits", which he released on his own label Tee Vee Toons. The double album featured a collection of 65 themes from hit TV shows of the 1950s and 1960s in their original arrangements, production styles, and lengths, including "The Flintstones", "I Love Lucy", "", "Hawaii Five-0", "Bonanza", and "Batman".
Until the release of "Television's Greatest Hits", theme songs (if released to the public as commercial songs) were typically extended from their succinct broadcast versions into 3 to 5 minute versions with additional music and other flourishes. The need to re-record and reproduce the themes, which weren't originally intended to exist in longer form, required new arrangements that were quite different from the familiar abbreviated versions that were heard and enjoyed by tens of millions of viewers each week.
Gottlieb recognized the appeal that these songs had in their organic shortened incarnations. He understood that they represented a variety of American folk culture that was beloved by, and had a deep emotional connection with, millions of consumers the world over. With his belief that t.v. theme music in its original form was ready to be enjoyed and appreciated by consumers, Gottlieb revealed a significant a previously untapped demand for the genre with the release of "Television's Greatest Hits".
In order to bring "Television’s Greatest Hits" to the marketplace, Gottlieb employed a unique business strategy: he bypassed both major label distributors and independent distributors, and in the process, created what became one of the world's most successful self-distributed record labels. With its own proprietary distribution network, "Television's Greatest Hits" became one of the highest charting and biggest selling independent label releases of 1985. It was available in retail outlets across America—including all major chain stores—and was sold directly to consumers via t.v. commercials and mail order. The "San Francisco Chronicle" called the double album "the most fun you can have with your pants on", and "The New York Times" said that it was one of the most innovative business ideas of 1985. Over the next 20 years, a series of 12 volumes of "Television's Greatest Hits" were released, chronicling the history of the TV theme genre from its beginnings in the 1950s through the early 21st century.
TVT Records.
Gottlieb decided to leverage the distribution network that he had developed with "Television's Greatest Hits" by signing artists and building his label, which he renamed TVT Records. TVT would ultimately grow into one of the most successful independent labels in U.S. history, and was named independent label of the year by Billboard Magazine and Soundscan for 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005.
In its 25 years of operation, TVT released over 25 gold, platinum, or multi-platinum albums. Gottlieb discovered and oversaw the development of Nine Inch Nails (including the band's triple platinum debut album "Pretty Hate Machine"), Sevendust, Ja Rule, Pitbull, the Ying Yang Twins, and Lil Jon. He also marketed, distributed, released, and oversaw the production of albums by Snoop Dogg, Gil Scott-Heron, XTC, KMFDM, and Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes, as well as the first U.S. releases of Underworld, Aphex Twin, and The KLF.
In the early 2000s, Gottlieb sought to place TVT at the forefront of the digital music revolution when he offered its library as free downloads and provided its repertoire to the leading digital music retailers, including Rhapsody, Liquid Audio, and Napster.
TVT Records was sold to The Orchard, a global leader in digital music and entertainment.
TVT Music.
Under Gottlieb's direction, TVT Music Publishing was begun in 1990. The goal of the company was to sign and develop the talents of new songwriters and place their compositions with viable artists and labels for release.
TVT Music Publishing's roster of writers wrote or co-wrote such hits as Usher's "Yeah!", 50 Cent's "Candy Shop", Chris Brown's "Run It", and Lil Jon's "Get Low". Other artists who have recorded songs from TVT Music Publishing's catalog include Tom Jones, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Ricky Martin, Beyoncé, Pink, Ludacris, Johnny Cash, Mariah Carey, Fat Joe, Lil' Kim, Toni Braxton, Ja Rule, Janet Jackson, John Legend, Dr. Dre, and the Ying Yang Twins.
TVT Music Publishing's notable popular writers/producers included Scott Storch (ASCAP 2004 Songwriter of the Year) and Lil Jon (BMI 2005 Songwriter of the Year).
TVT Music Publishing was sold to Reservoir Media Management in 2010.
Independent music and digital music.
In 2000, assembled a team of leading independent label executives to establish a body that would represent the interests of independent music labels.
In 2001, Gottlieb appeared as a witness—along with Don Henley, Alanis Morissette, Jack Valenti, Richard Parsons, and other noted entertainment industry figures—before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing entitled "Online Entertainment And Copyright Law: Coming Soon To A Digital Device Near You". He spoke about independent labels and changes in the music business resulting from the digital music revolution.


Steve Broidy

Samuel “Steve” Broidy (June 14, 1905 – April 28, 1991) was an American executive in the U.S. motion picture industry.
Early life.
Samuel Broidy was born on June 14, 1905 in Malden, Massachusetts. He attended Boston University, but he was forced to drop out because of the Great Depression.
Career.
Broidy entered the film industry as a salesman for Universal Studios in 1926. In 1931, he began working for Warner Bros. Studios. He joined Monogram Pictures in 1933 as Boston sales manager and in 1940 was elected to the board of directors and named vice president and general sales manager. As V.P., Broidy took charge of operations early in 1945 and later that year was named president. In 1946 Broidy formed Allied Artists Productions and Monogram changed to that name in 1953.
He remained president of Allied Artists until 1965, when he left to form his own company, Motion Pictures International. As an independent, Broidy produced "Good Times" (Columbia), "The Fox" (Claridge Pictures, 1967), and "80 Steps to Jonah" (Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, 1969). He also produced, uncredited, "The Poseidon Adventure" in 1972.
Philanthropy.
An active philanthropist, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1962, and was Founding Life Chairman of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Broidy served on the MPAA Board of Governors from June 1960 through May 1969, and was their Second Vice President from 1967 to 1968.
Personal life.
Broidy had two sons, Arthur and Steven Broidy, and a daughter, Eleanor Sattinger.
Death.
Broidy died in 1991 in Los Angeles, California, following a heart attacke, at the age of 85.


Steve Greenberg (record producer)

Steve Greenberg is an American record producer currently heading the S-Curve Records label. He also manages the pop band AJR and is the host/writer of the podcast "Speed of Sound.".
He is noted for "discovering" popular musical acts such as Hanson, Baha Men, Jonas Brothers, Joss Stone and AJR. He received a 2000 Grammy Award in the "Best Dance Recording" category as a producer of "Who Let the Dogs Out?" by Baha Men. Greenberg also won a 2019 Grammy Award in the "Best Album Notes" category for his essay featured in the "Stax '68: A Memphis Story" boxed set. From 2005 to 2006, he served as the president of Columbia Records, where he produced the debut album by the Jonas Brothers. Prior to founding S-Curve Records, he was Head of Artists & Repertoire for Mercury Records, where he served as executive producer of Hanson's single "Mmmbop", which spent three weeks at number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, and their debut album "Middle of Nowhere".
S-Curve's roster/catalog includes Duran Duran, Andy Grammer, 'Hamilton' star Leslie Odom Jr., 2018 Eurovision winner Netta, reggae artist Conkarah, Tinted Windows, Fountains of Wayne, Nikki Jean, We The Kings, Joss Stone, A-WA, Betty Wright, Little Jackie, Tom Jones, Care Bears On Fire, David Broza, Rachel Crow, Broadway star Joshua Henry, A Great Big World, Maxi Priest and Diane Birch.
Greenberg co-produced Andy Grammer's triple-platinum single "Honey I'm Good", which was one of the 10 biggest-selling singles of 2015, according to Soundscan and did additional production on Grammer's debut platinum-certified single "Keep Your Head Up". Together with Betty Wright and Michael Mangini, he produced Joss Stone's "The Soul Sessions" and "Mind Body & Soul" albums, the latter which received a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Album" in 2005. This same production troika produced the 2009 debut album by Diane Birch, "Bible Belt". Greenberg also co-produced with Wright and Mangini two tracks on Tom Jones's 2008 album "24 Hours," and the 2019 O'Jays' album "The Last Word," the latter of which was co-produced by Sam Hollander. He was co-Executive Producer of "Betty Wright: The Movie" by Betty Wright and The Roots, which was nominated for a 2011 Grammy in the Best Traditional R&B Performance category. In 2012, he co-produced and executive produced Joss Stone's "The Soul Sessions: Vol. II," the long-awaited sequel to her debut album. "The Soul Sessions: Vol. II" reached the Top 10 on both the U.S. and U.K album charts. He co-produced Care Bears On Fire's single "Everybody Else" with S*A*M and Sluggo.
In 2013, he produced several tracks on Diane Birch's "Speak a Little Louder" album. He also traveled to Jerusalem to co-produce, with Steve Earle, the album "East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem" by the Israeli singer David Broza, backed by a half-Israeli, half-Palestinian ensemble. He appears in the documentary film on the making of "East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem." That year, he also began managing the band AJR whose debut single "I'm Ready", was certified Platinum in the U.S. and Australia, and who have subsequently has hits with songs from their albums "The Click" and "Neotheater."
He has co-written songs for Joss Stone, Jonas Brothers, Boyzone, Baha Men, The O'Jays, Leslie Odom, Jr. and others.
He was also nominated for Grammy Awards in 1992 in the "Best Historical Album" category as producer of "The Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1959-1968" boxed-set and in 1995 in the "Best Album Notes" category for "Otis! the Essential Otis Redding.
In 2020, Greenberg launched the pop music history podcast "Speed of Sound," produced by iHeart Media. Greenberg is the host, writer and co-producer of the podcast.
He contributed the chapter on Sugarhill Records to the book "The Vibe Magazine History of Hip Hop" (1999) and the chapter on pop music in the 1980s to the collection "Living In the '80's" (Gil Troy, ed.), published by Oxford University Press (2009).
In 2014, he published his first book, called "How the Beatles Went Viral In '64", about the Beatles' rise to U.S stardom. The book was excerpted as a cover story in "Billboard" magazine in January, 2014.
In the early 1980s, he was a DJ on the Voice of Peace radio station off the coast of Israel and was a news correspondent for Israel Radio, based in Tel Aviv. He holds an M.A. in Applied Communication Research from Stanford University and a B.A in International Relations from American University.
In 2020, he won the Grammy Award for "Best Album Notes" for Stax Records album, "Stax ’68: A Memphis Story".


Baby D (rapper)

Baby D, also now known as Dizzle, (born as Donald B. Jenkins on November 5, 1984) is an Underground rapper from Atlanta. His first album, "Off Da Chain", was released in 2000 on Big Oomp Records. Two years later his follow up, "Lil' Chopper Toy" was released. A major label bidding war ensued, garnering the young MC a multimillion-dollar deal with Epic Records. He was signed with Koch Records, and released his first mainstream album, "A-Town Secret Weapon", on April 29, 2008. Three years later, in 2011, Baby D signed with Mizay Entertainment.
In March 2012, Baby D changed his stage name to Dizzle. On November 1, 2012, he released his third independent album entitled "About My Grind". He also created his own label, AMG, or Alliance Music Group.
Personal life.
Legal issues.
Jenkins was arrested in March 2008 for assault and cocaine trafficking. Federal charges, as well as warrants in Georgia and Tennessee, ultimately led to his arrest in Butler County, Ohio. Contrary to these allegations, Jenkins claimed in a 2010 interview with hiphopbeef.com that his trust and involvement with the wrong people led to the consequence of imprisonment. He was released from prison in 2010, and remained on house arrest until late 2011.


Justin Goldberg

Justin Goldberg (born April 12, 1966) is an American music and film industry executive and artist manager. Goldberg has held senior executive positions at such companies as Sony Music, Red Light Management, and Razor & Tie Entertainment. He has worked extensively in music, television and film as a producer, writer and music supervisor, collaborating on projects including Disney's animated features Tangled, "", the Forest Whitaker narrated film "Before the Music Dies", Touchstone/ABC's "Veritas: The Quest", "In Memory of My Father", and various music video productions at events such as Bonnaroo and Coachella. He is the author of "The Ultimate Survival Guide to the New Music Industry: Handbook for Hell" (Crown Publishing Group / Random House). An outspoken critic of the music industry's traditional business model, he is an early advocate for online marketing and distribution. He is the founder of Measurement Arts, which has managed a broad range of projects and artists focused on the music industry. Goldberg has been a featured speaker at the prestigious Milken Institute Global Conference, SXSW, Midem and other major industry conventions.
Goldberg is credited with the development and discovery of several prominent artists in the music industry, including Martin Sexton and Grace Potter.
He has been active in music education. In March 1997, Goldberg was appointed Adjunct Professor at CUNY/Baruch College where he taught entertainment marketing. He lectured at The Musician's Institute, USC, The Dickensen School of Law, and at various industry conventions including ASCAP, SXSW, NARM, National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and the Milken Institute, where he debated with Quincy Jones and then Sony Music CEO Andrew Lack on the subject of recorded music industry revenues.
One of digital distribution's early pioneers, Goldberg founded the Online Music Channel in 1998, and held key posts at major online music companies such as iMesh, Tonos, and Riffage.com. An accomplished graphic artist, Goldberg has had several gallery showings, including a benefit for the City of Hope at the Patricia Correia Gallery in Santa Monica in 2001. As a music executive and manager, he has worked with a wide range of artists and producers, including Mos Def, Dee Dee Ramone, David Foster, Dave Grohl, Martin Sexton, T Bone Burnett, Mark Batson, Willie Nelson, Warren Haynes, Kenny Chesney, Peter Buck, Mick Taylor, Barrett Jones, Wally Gagel and Rage Against the Machine.
Biography.
Early life and career.
Goldberg initially geared his career towards becoming an actor, training in New York City at Herbert Berghoff studios, then later in Los Angeles with Charles Conrad at CEC studios. He graduated from USC with a Bachelor of Arts in theatre. His career as a music executive in A&R began at Sony Music International and later with Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 1991 as an A&R assistant. Goldberg's father, New York City based attorney Jay Goldberg, introduced him to clients in his youth such as Miles Davis, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, who encouraged his interest in the music industry and helped produce his demo tapes. After a successful case involving Mick Jagger, his college fund was established by a check from the Rolling Stones. After losing a personal bet with Donald Trump related to his independent record label, Goldberg agreed to work for The Trump Organization in real estate for one year, beginning in 1998.
Sony Music Publishing.
From 1991 to 1996, Goldberg served as Director of Artists & Repertoire for Sony/ATV Music Publishing in Santa Monica, CA where he built the company's publishing profile by signing early publishing deals with such artists as Martin Sexton, Rage Against the Machine, Candlebox Chixdiggit, Menthol, Gus Black, and projects related to Pearl Jam's guitarist Stone Gossard’s Loose Groove label, founded by Regan Hagar, including Brad, Satchel, Pigeonhed and Devilhead, featuring Kevin Wood, brother of the late Andrew Wood a founder of Pearl Jam.
Tonos Entertainment.
From January 2000 to March 2001, Goldberg was the Sr. Vice President of Content at Tonos Entertainment, a large scale online music company based in Culver City and founded by producers David Foster, Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds and songwriter Carole Bayer Sager. Goldberg led a development team to help devise and produce the first online music collaboration community during a period where most online users still dialed through landlines for internet access.
Laundry Room Records, Inc..
Laundry Room Records was founded in September 2006 by Goldberg and Seattle based producer Barrett Jones, whose credits include producing Nirvana and Foo Fighters at the Laundry Room Studio, founded by Jones in 1990. The record company was run by Goldberg in New York City while most of the company's releases were recorded or mixed at the company's recording studio on Greenwood Avenue in Seattle. The company released full length albums by Tube Top (produced by R.E.M.'s Peter Buck), Harlingtox, Angel Divine (featuring Dave Grohl), Churn (featuring Barrett Jones), Walkie Talkie (with collaborations by Mick Taylor) Sharon America, For Stars and Xing, and seven inch singles from The Chauffeur. The company was distributed initially by the Northwest Alliance of Independent Labels (NAIL) and later by Never Records Group and Proper Sales & Distribution, a successful distribution and label services pairing that were an early model for other independent distribution coalitions, and outlined sharing for labels and artists.
Indie911.com.
Launched in March of 2003, Goldberg was the founder, CEO and lead architect of indie911 networks, which provided one of the earliest social networking websites focused on selling new music online. Circulating podcasts of original radio programming and a daily “hoooka of the day” to over 100,000 subscribers for a three-year period, Goldberg helmed an artist discovery platform spotlighting dozens before they were signed by record deals and known to the public, including Shiny Toy Guns and The Submarines. The company maintained distribution and marketing agreements with entertainment companies such as Disney, CBS, Reveille/NBC, American Express, Ingrooves, The European Music Office, The Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA), V2, Associated Production Music (APM), IODA, Yangaroo, Live Universe/Live Video, Songcatalog, Mediaguide, MECA, and ASCAP.
indie911 Myspace Controversy.
In December 2006, indie911 launched “Hoooka”, the first online sales widget and player providing personalized streaming of audio and video playlists from consumers and artists offering distributed retail as an online transaction. Under the Hoooka brand, indie911 marketed content from developing artists on a daily basis by publishing exclusive content to its online subscribers under the title "Hoooka of the Day."
A New York Times article covering the controversy helped lead to a national discussion on the public's expectations for social networking sites.
indie911 launched the "Small Screen Film Festival" the first online film festival focusing exclusively on content created for cell phones. By 2005, the website contained over 200,000 pages of web content and was one of the largest streaming music websites with over 1,000,000 copyrights licensed for online streaming and digital sales.
Television and film.
Goldberg was featured as a music industry commentator in the film "Before the Music Dies", featuring Erykah Badu, Eric Clapton and Dave Matthews and narrated by Forest Whitaker. From 2003 through 2004, Goldberg served as music supervisor for the television show "Veritas: The Quest," created by John Zinman and Patrick Masset by Touchstone Television and was the music supervisor for the film "In Memory Of My Father". Goldberg appeared as an actor with Sean Penn and Robert Duvall in Dennis Hopper's film "Colors" (1987), playing the role of a police officer, and with Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson in the film "Another Pair of Aces" (1991) Aces where he played an FBI agent.
As author.
Goldberg wrote the play "Testing Negative," produced at the McCadden Place Theatre in 1988. It ignited local controversy as the first US production to address the AIDS epidemic from a heterosexual point of view. In his review, Don Shirley of the Los Angeles Times said: "There is talent here: Writer Justin Goldberg [...] is tuned into the pitiless chatter of extended adolescence."
Goldberg's book "The Ultimate Survival Guide to the New Music Industry: Handbook for Hell" was published in 2004 by Crown Publishing Group / Random House and continues to serve as a leading resource for independent musicians seeking to distribute their music in the digital age.
As graphic artist.
As a graphic artist Goldberg dubbed his work "A&Rt", a reference to those in and around the business of acquiring new talent in the music industry, known as "Artists and Repertoire," or A&R. Utilizing a process that typically begins with digitally manipulated photographs transferred to cotton canvass, he creates a mood of depth and antiquity by then applying water-soluble crayons and acrylic paint. The work is both an homage to and an indictment of its primary subject matter, the music business and those who work in it. Musical luminaries common to most followers of pop music culture appear throughout the work including Dave Grohl, Courtney Love, Jewel, Dave Matthews Band, P Diddy, Cake and Incubus, as well as music industry figures such as Guy Oseary, Tommy Mottola and Fred Davis.
Quotes.
“Why shouldn’t they call it FoxSpace? Or RupertSpace?” – Goldberg to "New York Times" reporter Brad Stone
“Pretty soon both of you will be out of business (well maybe not you Quincy)" – Goldberg to Quincy Jones and then Sony Music CEO Andrew Lack


Howard W. Koch

Howard Winchel Koch (April 11, 1916 – February 16, 2001) was an American producer and director of film and television.
Life and career.
Koch was born in New York City, the son of Beatrice (Winchel) and William Jacob Koch. His family was Jewish. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School and the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey. He began his film career as an employee at Universal Studios office in New York then made his Hollywood filmmaking debut in 1947 as an assistant director. He worked as a producer for the first time in 1953 and a year later made his directing debut. In 1964, Paramount Pictures appointed him head of film production, a position he held until 1966 when he left to set up his own production company. He had a production pact with Paramount for over 15 years.
Among his numerous television productions, Howard W. Koch produced the Academy Awards show on eight occasions. Dedicated to the industry, he served as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1977 to 1979. In 1990 the Academy honored him with The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and in 1991 he received the Frank Capra Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America.
Together with actor Telly Savalas, Howard Koch owned Telly's Pop, winner of several important California races for juveniles including the Norfolk Stakes and Del Mar Futurity.
Howard W. Koch suffered from Alzheimer's disease and died in Los Angeles in February 2001. He had two children from a marriage of 64 years to Ruth Pincus, who died in March 2009. In 2004, his son Hawk Koch was elected to the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Filmography.
Director.
Film (director)
Television (director)
Producer.
Film (producer):
Television (producer)


Curtis Frasca

Curtis Frasca (born August 29, 1968 in New York City, United States) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and former multi-platinum award-winning record producer, songwriter, and remixer.
Career.
Frasca is a former multi-platinum record producer, songwriter, re-mixer, engineer, instrumentalist, currently residing in New York City with wife singer/songwriter Sabelle Breer and children. Breer is the daughter of legendary artist Robert Breer. Frasca's work appears on over 100 million albums sold worldwide, including those of Aretha Franklin, Prince Janet Jackson, Moby. Frasca's songs appear on over 50 million albums sold worldwide, including the artists Missy Higgins, Celine Dion and Avril Lavigne. He co-founded Verse Music Group in 2010, Verse Music Group is part of the Wicks Group of Companies.
1980.
Growing up in New York, Frasca started drumming at a very early age. In his teens he listened to punk music, bands like The Jam, Sex Pistols, MC5, The Clash and Ramones. Professional career started while still in high school mixing, recording, programming on such influential records as De La Soul "Say No Go", 3rd Bass "Brooklyn Queens", "The Gas Face", albums produced by producer Prince Paul. Other artist's Frasca worked with during this period was Queen Latifah, Big Daddy Kane, Fine Young Cannibals "Good Thing". "When Rolling Stone Magazine showed up to shoot De La Soul for its cover, I knew we had changed the direction of pop music". With mainstream success Frasca's drum programming and mixing skills were in demand!
1990.
Columbia Records CEO, Tommy Mottola requested Frasca (then 19) to produce Mariah Carey's "Someday" for her 1991 American Music Awards appearance, that appearance helped Someday reach Billboard's number one in the United States. Frasca and Mariah have remained friends ever since. In the early 1990s Frasca worked heavily with legendary DJ/Producer Shep Pettibone, a few of the artists included Madonna, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Cher, Patti Labelle, Jeffrey Osborne, Cyndi Lauper, Jane Child, Bananarama, Spice Girls, Prince. Moby requested Frasca mix his major label debut "Move", the album entered the Billboard dance charts at #1. Remixing k.d. lang "Lifted by Love", Sophie B. Hawkins"Right Beside You", Tangerine Dream, Paul Haslinger amongst many others.
Mid 1990s Frasca focused on signing up and coming talent, founding Verse Entertainment. Verse Entertainment featured a private multi-room facility located in Hell's Kitchen NYC - Verse Studio was profiled in MIX magazine October 1999 issue. Verse Studios is a combination of vintage gear and digital recording tools and features a custom Neve 8058 console from the 1970s and an SSL 9000J.
2000.
In 2001 after attempts to capture Avril Lavigne's sound, Arista A&R head Josh Saurbin reached out to the production and writing team of Frasca and Sabelle Breer (Madonna, Ryan Cabrera, Stacie Orrico) to help with the album. Avril Lavigne's debut record "Let Go", would go on to sell 18 million albums worldwide and garner 3 Grammy Award nominations.
2002 Frasca and Breer discovered and signed artist Ryan Cabrera producing and co-writing much of his multi-platinum debut release "Take It All Away", which debut on at #18 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The album included the Top 40 big hits "On The Way Down" and "40 Kinds of Sadness". The single "On the Way Down" went double platinum and receive an ASCAP Pop Award for most airplay of 2006.
Frasca wrote "Warm Whispers" with the great Missy Higgins for her album On A Clear Night. The album entered the charts at #1.
In 2009, Frasca, the former multi-platinum award-winning record producer, songwriter and re-mixer, partnered with the private equity firm The Wicks Group raising $75 million to acquire entertainment-based intellectual property. In 2010 the company officially renamed itself Verse Music Group.
2010 - Present.
In 2010, Frasca founded Verse Music Group along with Breer as an acquisition platform to purchase music-related intellectual property rights and other assets.
Elected to the RIAA Grammy's Board NARAS of Governors.
June 2015, Frasca and partners The Wicks Group sold Verse Music Group, which he founded in 2010 to BMG Rights Management. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.


Al Lichtman

Alexander "Al" Lichtman (April 9, 1888 – February 20, 1958) was a businessman working in the motion picture industry, occasionally working as a film producer.
Biography.
Lichtman was born in Monok, Hungary. His parents were Joseph Lichtman and Pepe (aka Josephine) Zuckermandel.
A field manager for Famous Players in 1912, Lichtman had his own distribution company, Al Lichtman Corp, in the early 1920s. He was president of Preferred Pictures in 1923 and became sales manager at United Artists in 1927. He was promoted to president of the company in 1935, but resigned after only a few months due to a fallout with Sam Goldwyn over the production of "Barbary Coast" (1935).
In November of that same year he joined MGM as a special sales adviser and became an executive producer with them in 1938. He left MGM for 20th Century Fox in 1949, and stayed there until his retirement in 1957. During this time he produced the film, "The Young Lions".
Lichtman has a "Star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He died in Los Angeles, California.


Mathew Knowles

Mathew Knowles (born January 9, 1952) is an American record executive, talent manager, and businessman. He is best known for being the manager of Destiny's Child. He also managed the solo careers of his daughters Beyoncé and Solange Knowles.
Early life.
Knowles was raised in Gadsden, Alabama, the son of Lou Helen Knowles ("née" Hogue) and Matthew Q. Knowles (April 4, 1927 – December 30, 1996). He is a 1974 graduate of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he earned both a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.
Career.
Knowles began his business career in sales of office and medical equipment. He moved to Houston in 1976 and worked for the Xerox Corporation for 10 years, primarily in the medical-systems sales division. Knowles afterward worked selling a CT/MRI diagnostic imaging equipment to hospitals and health facilities. He also worked in neurosurgical sales. In 1992, Knowles left this career to devote himself to his music company, Music World Entertainment, which he founded that year.
Knowles established several recording imprints under Music World Entertainment, including Music World Gospel, Music World Kids, and Music World Country/Compadre. Knowles also established joint ventures with Sony Music, Interscope/Geffen/A&M, Fontana/Universal, Integrity Africa, Fontana International, and Sony Brazil.
In 2002 Knowles founded Spirit Rising Music, which became Music World Gospel. Its artists include Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Brian Courtney Wilson, Micah Stampley, Juanita Bynum, Le'Andria Johnson, Amber Bullock, Andrea Helms, Trinitee 5:7, and Elder Goldwire. In 2016, through Music World Music, Knowles acquired the country music catalog Compadre, which includes Johnny Cash, Billy Joe Shaver, James McMurty, Trent Willmon, and Kate Campbell. Knowles also launched the family-oriented music imprint, Music World Kids. The label has released youth projects that include Baby Jamz, Krazy Kuzins, Kid's Rap Radio, and the Music World Kids CD 5-pack. The venture also has released music from Nickelodeon's popular cartoon series, "Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!".
Knowles became manager of the vocal group Destiny's Child, working as either a producer or an executive producer on many of the group's projects. Under Music World Artist Management, Destiny's Child became a top-selling group, winning several awards including the Grammy Award, the American Music Award, BET Awards, and many others. "Billboard" magazine inducted the group into the All Time Hot 100 Artists. Following the departure of his daughter Beyoncé from the group, Knowles managed the solo careers of the other members of Destiny's Child, Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland.
In addition to his work in music, Knowles is also one of the executive producers of the 2009 movie "Obsessed", which stars Beyoncé. He is also executive producer of, and is featured in, two reality series: The UK's "Chancers", and MTV International's "Breaking From Above".
In October 2015, Mathew Knowles released his first book, "The DNA Of Achievers: 10 Traits of Highly Successful Professionals". In an interview with Madamenoire.com, he spoke about teaching entrepreneurship on the college level, and his entertainment industry seminars.
In March 2018, "Billboard" announced that Mathew Knowles joined the advisory board of Tunedly, an online recording studio for songwriters.
In July 2019, Mathew Knowles joined the cannabis and real-estate firm Bangi as its chief marketing officer.
On October 25, 2019, Knowles announced via an Instagram video that he will release an album featuring then-unreleased music from the group's childhood days as Girls Tyme. The album, "", was released on all streaming platforms and the iTunes Store on December 2, 2019. The album's release was also accompanied by a book, "Destiny's Child: The Untold Story" written by Knowles.
Teaching.
Knowles is a visiting professor at Texas Southern University, where he teaches courses on the entertainment industry in the School of Communications. In 2018, the university established the Mathew Knowles institute in his honor.
Accolades.
Knowles is the recipient of the Century Award of Excellence (1911–2011) from the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He also received the 2011 Living Legends Foundation Award and was named the "2007 International Executive of the Year" by the Greater Houston Partnership. Knowles is an active and longtime voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) and serves on its GRAMMY Board Committee. In 2011, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Gospel Music Association.
Personal life.
Knowles married Tina Knowles in 1980. She filed for divorce in 2009, dropped the matter in 2010, then refiled in August 2011, stating "discord or conflict of personalities" that prevented them from "reasonable expectation of reconciliation" as the reason. The divorce was finalized in November 2011.
On June 30, 2013, he married former model Gena Avery.
In October 2019, Knowles announced he had been diagnosed with male breast cancer.


Fred Barzyk

Fred Barzyk (b. Milwaukee, October 18, 1936) is a Boston-based television producer and director who was president of Creative Television Associates, Inc., from 1965–2001. Known for his avant garde experiments in broadcast television, he worked as a producer for GBH, the multiplatform public media organization, from 1958–2001. He has produced and directed television programs for PBS, HBO, NBC, ABC and CBS, directing such stars as Morgan Freeman, Christian Slater, Dan Aykroyd, Rosie Perez, Matt Dillon, Claire Danes and Lily Tomlin. He has won the Venice Film Festival Award, two ACE awards, three Emmys and a Peabody Award.
Career.
Barzyk earned his bachelor’s degree in 1958 from Marquette University, where he was active in the theater program. He studied for a master’s degree in communication at Boston University.
Barzyk came to Boston in 1958 and joined GBH in 1959. He was the founder and first director of GBH’s New Television Workshop from 1967–1979. He and his work are featured in the 2001 essay collection "Fred Barzyk: The Search for a Personal Vision in Broadcast Television". An accomplished videographer and artist, Barzyk has shown his work at the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Mass., and at the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University in Milwaukee, which held an exhibit that featured Barzyk’s work from his years at GBH.
Awards and Nominations.
Venice Film Award, 1985 for best television director worldwide for HBO’s "Countdown to Looking Glass"
Cable ACE Award, 1985 for "Countdown to Looking Glass"
Peabody Award for "Tender Places"
Karios Award, 2001, from Marquette University
Filmography.
"Negro and the American Promise" (1961)
"Five Days" (1961)
The “Double Channel” Broadcasts, (1968)
"The Medium is the Medium" ( 1968)
"What’s Happening, Mr. Silver?" (1968)
"Between Time and Timbuktu" (1972)
"Jean Shepherd’s America" (1972)
"Mother’s Little Network" (1972)
"Collisions: The Grand Failure" (1977)
"Visions’ Charlie Smith and the Fritter Tree" (1978)
"The Chicken that Ate Columbus (1978)"
"The Lathe of Heaven" (1979)
"Secrets" (1985)
"Jenny’s Song", 1988
"Tender Places", 1987
"Puzzlemania" (1987,1988)
"Destinos", (1988–92)
"Breast Care Test" (1994)
"The Ryan Interview" (2000)
"The Journey" (2011)


Jason Ferguson (writer)

Jason Ferguson (born July 28, 1980 in Tampa, Florida) is an American writer and producer mainly known for the London revival of the musical "Ragtime" and the immersive theatre show "SXSWestworld".
Early life.
Ferguson was born in Tampa, Florida, to Thomas Burns Ferguson III, a pilot, and Deborah Karen (Haug), an executive assistant at a cancer research center. His great-uncle was cellist Frank Miller.
Ferguson attended East Bay High School in Gibsonton, Florida. Ferguson attended the University of South Florida for two years before dropping out. He later went to the University of London and New York University.
In 2003, Ferguson worked as a personal assistant to Sean Combs.
Theatre management.
Ferguson began his professional theater career as a spotlight operator at Busch Gardens in Tampa. He then worked as an intern and stage manager at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa.
Ferguson's first Broadway credits were as an assistant company manager working on Twyla Tharp shows, the musical "Movin' Out", "The Odd Couple", and "Mark Twain Tonight". In 2004, Ferguson was a stage manager for "Tosca" at the Boston Lyric Opera.
Between 2004 and 2006, Ferguson spent nine months working on the MS Caribbean Princess and the MS "Island Princess overseeing the entertainment production shows. From 2006 to 2012, Ferguson worked in London on the Punchdrunk and Old Vic immersive theatre production of "Tunnel 228" staged in the tunnels beneath Waterloo Station.
Ragtime.
In 2011, Ferguson and John-Webb Carter became producers of the London revival of the musical "Ragtime". The production, referred to as "Ragtime Reimagined", was presented at the Landor Theatre. "The Stage" called it "a resounding success". Time Out listed the show as one of its Best of 2011.
Writer.
Ferguson was a writer, director, and producer of the concert to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the opening of the musical "This Is the Army" at the 54 Below cabaret. Presented on Veterans Day, 2017, the concert celebrated the U.S. Army soldiers who made up the original cast and crew. Ferguson wrote the script, adapted from Alan Anderson's book "The Songwriter Goes to War". Music and lyrics were by Irving Berlin.
The "This Is the Army" concert performed songs together from the 1943 musical for the first time since World War II. The concert told the behind-the-curtain story of the soldiers involved. It remembered how this troupe became the first racially integrated Armyunit (though only off-stage). It also told about openly gay soldiers who risked military prison, and the brushes with death that the troupe endured during trips to combat zones.
In 2017, Ferguson wrote and produced a fictional 360-degree virtual reality short film called "The Crew", directed by Johan T. Anderson. The film was based on Ferguson's experience living and working on cruise ships.
"The Crew" It tells the story of a Filipino cruise ship cabin steward who uses karaoke to escape difficult working conditions. The experimental film is inspired by the opera Pagliacci, but in this story it is the crewmember who must use a smile to hide his emotional pain.
"The Crew" was part of the inaugural class of Google's Jump Start program for VR creators. It played at the DTLA Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Kaohsiung Film Festival, Seattle True Independent Film Festival, Toronto New Wave, World VR Forum, DC Web Fest, Seoul Web Fest, Tacoma Film Festival, F/Stop Film Festival, Edmonton Short Film Festival, Lusca Fantastic Film Fest, VR Days Europe, Baltimore Next Media Web Fest, and Blow-Up Arthouse Film Fest.
In 2018, Ferguson was part of the creative team of "SXSWestworld", an Emmy-nominated immersive theatre show that was presented at SXSW. The show was created by HBO, Kilter Films, and Giant Spoon.
Ferguson is a board member at Clubbed Thumb, a Manhattan theatre company that commissions, develops and produces new plays by living American writers. Ferguson is a former member of the Young Vic Genesis Directors Network and is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.
Branded entertainment.
"Huffington Post" has Ferguson “a young theatrical with an intriguing resume: mounter of plays in offbeat settings around London (a room over a pub, an old train tunnel), also an award-winning advertising copywriter and creative director, and a bit of a social media savant.”
"The Verge" called Ferguson's video campaign for Samsung Mobile “subtle, enigmatic, and really tasteful. I look at them, and I start wishing to meet the humans responsible for putting them together. They seem like real swell people. Building up hype, but handling it with an unusual restraint and maturity. A remarkably composed campaign.”
During the iPhone 6 launch keynote, Ferguson helped create a video series for Samsung Mobile, calling it "It Doesn't Take a Genius". Written and shot in real-time, the series received over 14 million views, appeared in 60 publications, and globally reached 300 million people.
He worked with Samsung again music video to showcase the new Galaxy phone. The video was composed from over 200 looping GIFs and launched the song “When I Rule the World” by LIZ.
Personal life.
Ferguson is married to photographer Bogdana Ferguson, and they live in Brooklyn. They were married at City Hall in New York City.


Dan Lorge

Daniel Peter Lorge (born February 8, 1962) is an American voice actor. He currently teaches acting at Take 2 Performers Studio in Reno, Nevada.
For many years, Lorge was commonly credited under the pseudonyms "Dan Martin" and "Jake Martin". As a result, several of his roles are frequently misattributed to actor Jacob Daniel "Dan" Martin.


Chuck Traynor

Charles Everett Traynor (August 21, 1937 – July 22, 2002) was an American businessman and talent agent best known for having promoted the careers of pornographic film stars Linda Lovelace and Marilyn Chambers, both of whom were also married to him. Lovelace wrote in her autobiography "Ordeal" that Traynor was abusive during their marriage and had threatened and coerced her into her role in the pornographic film "Deep Throat".
Career.
Traynor was a minor figure in the early US East Coast pornographic film industry and appeared in a number of short "loops" in the early 1970s, usually with his then-wife, Linda Lovelace. He was the production manager of the 1972 movie "Deep Throat".
Relationship with Linda Lovelace.
In a 1980 article in "Ms." magazine, "The Real Linda Lovelace", Gloria Steinem discussed Traynor and Lovelace's relationship. Steinem stated that "the myth that Lovelace loved to be sexually used and humiliated was created by her husband" and that he kept her as his prisoner. Lovelace claimed that Traynor forced her into prostitution by threatening her with a gun, repeatedly beat her, forced her to make pornography, and allowed men to rape her repeatedly. Lovelace tried to escape from Traynor three times before she was successful. She said that during "Deep Throat" one can see scars and bruises left on her legs from a beating by Traynor. According to Steinem, Traynor once stated, "When I first dated [Linda] she was so shy, it shocked her to be seen nude by a man... I created Linda Lovelace."
In 1979, Lovelace underwent a polygraph examination in which she repeated allegations she made against Traynor. During the session the test results supported the following allegations:
In a "Vanity Fair" article on Marilyn Chambers, whom Traynor married after Lovelace divorced him, Traynor said he considered himself a country boy in that he could live away from civilization and that if his woman said something he didn't like, he thought nothing of hitting her for it.
Lovelace's allegations against Traynor have been disputed since she voiced them but in the second commentary on the DVD of "Inside Deep Throat," one member of the production crew of "Deep Throat" backed up Lovelace's allegation of a brutal beating that she claimed left bruises that are visible in the film. The man said his motel room was next to Lovelace and Traynor's and emphatically stated that Traynor beat Lovelace viciously at night. Marilyn Chambers later claimed that Linda's allegations "hurt Chuck," but "Deep Throat, Part 2" actress Andrea True said that most people did not like Chuck Traynor and sided with Lovelace as to her allegations.
Traynor was portrayed by actor Peter Sarsgaard in the 2013 film "Lovelace".
Death.
Traynor died at the age of 64 of a heart attack in Chatsworth, California, on July 22, 2002, three months after Lovelace died from massive trauma and internal injuries as a result of a car accident. Lovelace's sister, Barbara Boreman, later said in an interview in "Inside Deep Throat" that she (Barbara) was disappointed that Traynor died before she could kill (murder) him.


James G. Ellis (composer)

James Garfield Ellis (February 12, 1880 Dayton, Ohio – April 1, 1966 Los Angeles) was an American violinist, silent film theater pioneer, composer, lyricist, and music publisher.
Early life.
Ellis was the only male of eight children born to Jay Bartlett Ellis, MD (born 1852), and Antonette Roberts "(née" Hall; 1856–1896), who were married in Elkhart, Indiana, May 28, 1875. Between 9 and 16 years of age, James G. Ellis lost six of his siblings—Pauline (died 1892), Jennie (1876–1889), Maud (1878–1896), Clara (1885–1888), Mary Winnifred (1887–1888), Mabel (1889–1991)—and also lost his mother, all to complications from diphtheria.
His father became a homeopathic physician in 1891. His only surviving sister, Helen (1882–1965) became a nurse. Helen married someone with the surname Russell and then John Joseph Allen, MD (187–1948). James G. Ellis' maternal grandfather, John Wood Ellis (1825–1917) was, among other things, an industrialist executive with the Excelsior Starch Mfg. Co. of Elkhart, Indiana. When James G. Ellis was 17, he gained a stepbrother, John F. McNair (1888–1956) when his father married Jennie Althea Standifird McNair (1867–1952) in Minneapolis on March 1, 1897.
He lived during his childhood at 1212 Wayne Street, Dayton, Ohio. Ellis served in U.S. Army in the Spanish–American War (1898).
Personal life.
James G. Ellis was married three times. He first married Edna Lenore Roberts (1884–1987) in Merced County, California, November 27, 1902. They had two daughters, Althea Claire Ellis (1909–2005), who never married, and Ruth M. Ellis (born 1917). Ruth married Howard Paul Boyington (born 1927) in Los Angeles, California on April 4, 1966; but she formerly had married a man with the surname of Baker. James and Edna Ellis divorced sometime between January 7, 1920, and June 9, 1921, when Edna married Robert Hassett in Lake County, Indiana. Edna and James lived in Los Banos, California in 1903. They lived at 4349 W. West End Avenue, near Kostner Avenue, Chicago between 1917 and 1920. According to the 1920 U.S. Census, Robert Hassett had been a boarder in his and his wife's home.
Sometime between January 7, 1920, and 1930, James G. Ellis married Anna G. Long (born 1876). In 1930 Ellis lived at 1090 St Andrews Place, Los Angeles and in 1940 lived at 2711 W. 14th Street, Los Angeles.
When Ellis died in 1966, he was survived by this third wife, Phyllis Ellis, who was a music teacher. At the time of his death he lived in Los Angeles at 611 N. Larchmont Boulevard.
Career.
Silent film theaters.
Ellis started out as a silent film theater entrepreneur in Utah Ellis had managed and controlled 3 movie theaters from 1909 to 1910, then sold them to individuals, including W.W. Hodkinson, who four years later was the founding president of Paramount Pictures.
Ellis and his father, who had been working at the Joie Theater in Ogden, purchased the Globe Theater in Ogden on October 1, 1909. Ellis, as the new manager of the Globe, installed a stage in late November 1909 for the inclusion of vaudeville acts for movie audiences. Ellis then moved his family from Ogden to Brigham, Utah, leaving the management of the Joie Theater to his father.
In July 1909, Ellis, with at least one other partner, acquired Dreamland Theatre, located 2410 Washington Avenue, and renamed it the Joie Theater. Ellis, who had been profitable in the venture, sold his interest on December 28, 1909, to Harry Ambrose Sims (1864–1921), William Wadsworth Hodkinson (1881–1971), Albert Scowcroft (1871–1918), and Charles Alexander Ziemer (1864–1929). Ellis and his wife then moved to Salt Lake City.
On March 22, 1910, Ellis filed articles of incorporation in Salt Lake County for the Ellis Theater Company, taking over the Joy theater in Brigham, the Orpheum in Park City and the Luna in Springville. The officers were James G. Ellis, president; Max M. Florence (1865–1932), vice president; John Alphonso Rugar (1883–1970), secretary, treasurer; and Soren X. Christensen (1866–1942) and Louis B. Marcus (1880–1936) as additional directors.
On May 5, 1910, Max M. Florence (1865–1932) and Joseph Falsette (born 1880) purchased outright the Ellis Theater Company and changed the name to Florence Theater Company.
Composer, lyricist, and music publisher.
Ellis, as a popular songwriter in Chicago from 1910 to 1920, had some minor hits that include "The Tale the Tear Drop Told" and "I Am Dreaming Of My Irish Rose". As a music publisher during that same period, Ellis published his own compositions, as well as those of others, including works by Roger A. Graham and Harry L. Alford. Ellis had been a principal partner in five Chicago firms from 1913 to about 1920: (i) The Ellis & Armitage Music Publishing Company, (ii) Ellis & Co., (iiii) Craig-Ellis & Co., (iv) Acme Music Publishers, and (v) Phenix Music Publishers.
As a songwriter of sacred music, beginning around 1917, he became an exponent of Christian Science and, around 1920, became a Christian Science practitioner. Some of his sacred works endure today, particularly within Church of Christ (Science) congregations, including "Transfiguration", "Leave It With Him", "Rejoice, My Son, Rejoice", and "Love, Thrill My Heart". Sometime between 1920 and 1930, Ellis moved to California.
Ellis published the works of Roger A. Graham and Harry L. Alford.


Estelle Axton

Estelle Axton (September 11, 1918 – February 25, 2004) was an American record executive and co-founder of Stax Records, along with her brother Jim Stewart.
Biography.
Born in Middleton, Tennessee, Estelle Stewart grew up on a farm. She moved to Memphis as a school teacher, married Everett Axton, and was working in a bank when, in 1958, her brother Jim Stewart asked for help to develop Satellite Records, which he had set up to issue recordings of local country and rockabilly artists. She convinced her husband that they should remortgage their house and, in 1959, joined Satellite as an equal partner. The following year, Axton and Stewart turned the Capitol Theatre, in a black Memphis neighborhood, into a recording studio and record shop, and began making hit records with predominantly black artists.
Satellite was forced to change its name in 1961 after it was discovered that a Los Angeles label already owned the title, and it changed its name to Stax, taking its name from Axton and Stewart's surnames: Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton. Axton was actively involved with selecting and developing the artists on the label, who included Rufus Thomas, Otis Redding, Booker T & the MGs, and Isaac Hayes.
She sold her interest in the company in 1970. After a noncompete agreement expired, Axton formed Fretone Records whose biggest hit, "Disco Duck", by Rick Dees, was licensed for distribution by RSO Records.
In December 2006, the Recording Academy announced that Axton would be honored with a Trustee's Award as part of the upcoming Grammys.
Axton was the founder of the Memphis Songwriters Association in 1973, which was formed to foster the education and advancement of local songwriters. There was a focus on the development of the songwriting craft with the intention of producing commercially viable songs and improving performance skills. The association has consecutively maintained membership for over 35 years. The formation of the Memphis Songwriters Association helped to motivate many local songwriters and singer-songwriters to publish their original material. Some of these songs and artists met with some surprising success. Unfortunately, historical records are fragmented and scarce; however, there are a number of MSA alumni that could still tell their stories. As of 2015, the Memphis Songwriters Association is still actively holding meetings and events.
Axton went on, with her friend Cordell Jackson, the founder of Moon Records, to work with the Music Industries of Memphis, later named the Memphis Music Association, to assist in the development of Memphis music as a global force once again. Their collaboration and guidance helped launch the first Memphis Demo Derby, the brainchild of the PR director Brett Hamilton, which was designed to present and showcase Memphis musical talent to A&R reps, studio heads, producers and the like. The event was such a huge success, it continued for several years. Joe Savarin, the founder of the Handy Awards, and Wanda Freeman of Tenant Laboratories lent a hand in spite of public opposition. The MMA was the umbrella organization for all Memphis music and still exists today.
In 2012, Axton was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, along with her brother and Stax co-founder Jim Stewart.


Louis P. Goullaud

Louis P. Goullaud (c. 1839 – December 7, 1919) published and sold music in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 19th century. In the 1860s he worked for "Koppitz, Pruefer & Co." With Asa W. White and Edward W. White – as the firm "White & Goullaud" – he sold musical instruments and published sheet music (c. 1869 – 1875). Under his own imprint he issued sheet music and "Goullaud's Monthly Journal of Music." He retired c. 1886, and died in Braintree on December 7, 1919.


Jordan Powell

Phillip Jordan Powell is a Nashville-based music manager and record producer.
Personal life.
Powell was born in Dallas, TX and attended Texas A&M University in College Station, TX where he was awarded a B.A. in English. He moved to Nashville in 2006. On May 22, 2012, he married singer-songwriter and Pistol Annies member Angaleena Presley, for whom he had served as tour manager, in a small ceremony in Jackson Hole, WY. On January 22, 2019, Powell and Presley welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Phoenix Joeleena Jean Powell. Presley also has a son named Jed, born in 2006, from a previous relationship.
Management.
Powell began his career as a tour manager while still in college at Texas A&M. While living in Texas, he worked for several artists including Roger Creager, Chris Wall, Phil Pritchett and Jack Ingram. In 2005, he began tour managing RCA recording artist and country star Miranda Lambert. Powell remained with Lambert until his departure in late 2012, upon which time he acted as personal manager for clients such as Will Hoge, Jamie Lynn Spears and Angaleena Presley. Since that time, he has also served as tour manager for a variety of acts such as Jewel, Jennifer Nettles, Tony Joe White, and Ben Rector.
Record production.
While tour managing, Powell also began producing demo sessions in Nashville for then relatively unknown artists like Adam Hood, Charlie Worsham and Chelsea Lankes. After meeting Nashville recording artist Will Hoge, Powell produced a session which included the song “Another Song Nobody Will Hear” written by Hoge and Dylan Altman. The song was released by Hoge in January, 2013 as a duet with Texas mainstay Wade Bowen. It reached #1 on the Texas Regional Radio Report.
Powell co-produced Angaleena Presley’s 2014 solo debut album “American Middle Class” which "The Telegraph" gave “five stars" and "Billboard" said in a glowing review "Presley -- and her husband, Jordan Powell, who served as producer -- fill the album with acoustic playing, light percussion and pretty male-female harmonies. There's not much to suggest this music was made in the past 30 years.” It includes guest appearances by Patty Loveless, Chris Stapleton and Emily Saliers of The Indigo Girls and featured a number of Nashville “A-list” players such as Glenn Worf, Audley Freed and Keith Gattis. The record reached #29 on Billboard's US Top Country Albums chart and #14 on Billboard's US Top Heatseekers Albums. " "


Harry Cohn

Harry Cohn (July 23, 1891 – February 27, 1958) was a co-founder, president, and production director of Columbia Pictures Corporation.
Life and career.
Cohn was born to a working-class Jewish family in New York City. His father, Joseph Cohen, was a tailor from Germany, and his mother, Bella Joseph, was from Pale of Settlement, Russian Empire. He left school early and had a variety of jobs, including chorus boy, fur salesman, pool hustler, shipping clerk, streetcar conductor and song plugger for a sheet music printer. He also appeared in a vaudeville act with Harry Ruby.
He entered the film industry when he got a job with Independent Moving Pictures (which had recently merged to become part of Universal Film Manufacturing Company), where his elder brother, Jack Cohn, was already employed. The brothers made their first film there, "Traffic in Souls". Cohn became personal secretary to Universal president, Carl Laemmle.
In 1919, Cohn joined his brother and fellow IMP employee Joe Brandt, to found CBC Film Sales Corporation. The initials officially stood for Cohn, Brandt, and Cohn, but Hollywood wags noted the company's low-budget, low-class efforts and nicknamed CBC "Corned Beef and Cabbage." Harry Cohn managed the company's film production in Hollywood, while his brother managed its finances from New York. The relationship between the two brothers was not always good, and Brandt, finding the partnership stressful, eventually sold his third of the company to Harry, who took over as president, by which time the firm had been renamed Columbia Pictures Corporation.
Most of Columbia's early work was action fare starring rock-jawed leading man Jack Holt. Columbia was unable to shake off its stigma as a Poverty Row studio until 1934, when director Frank Capra's Columbia comedy "It Happened One Night" swept the Academy Awards. Exhibitors who formerly wouldn't touch Columbia product became steady customers. As a horizontally integrated company that only controlled production and distribution, Columbia had been at the mercy of theater owners. Columbia expanded its scope to offer moviegoers a regular program of economically made features, short subjects, serials, travelogues, sports reels, and cartoons. Columbia released a few "class" productions each year ("Lost Horizon", "Holiday", "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", "The Jolson Story", "Gilda", "All the King's Men", etc.), but depended on its popular "budget" productions to keep the company solvent. During Cohn's tenure, the studio always turned a profit.
Cohn did not build a stable of movie stars like other studios. Instead, he generally signed actors who usually worked for more expensive studios (Wheeler & Woolsey, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Mae West, Humphrey Bogart, Dorothy Lamour, Mickey Rooney, Chester Morris, Warren William, Warner Baxter, Sabu, Gloria Jean, Margaret O'Brien, etc.) to attract a pre-sold audience. Columbia's own stars generally rose from the ranks of small-part actors and featured players (Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth, Larry Parks, Julie Bishop, Lloyd Bridges, Bruce Bennett, Jock Mahoney, etc.). Some of Columbia's producers and directors also graduated from lesser positions as actors, writers, musicians, and assistant directors.
Cohn was known for his autocratic and intimidating management style. When he took over as Columbia's president, he remained production chief as well, thus concentrating enormous power in his hands. He respected talent above any personal attribute, but he made sure his employees knew who was boss. Writer Ben Hecht referred to him as "White Fang." An employee of Columbia called him "as absolute a monarch as Hollywood ever knew." It was said "he had listening devices on all sound stages and could tune in any conversation on the set, then boom in over a loudspeaker if he heard anything that displeased him." Throughout his tenure, his most popular moniker was "King Cohn."
Moe Howard of the Three Stooges recalled that Cohn was "a real Jekyll-and-Hyde-type guy... socially, he could be very charming." Cohn was known to scream and curse at actors and directors in his office all afternoon, and greet them cordially at a dinner party that evening. There is some suggestion that Cohn deliberately cultivated his reputation as a tyrant, either to motivate his employees or simply because it increased his control of the studio. Cohn is said to have kept a signed photograph of Benito Mussolini, whom he met in Italy in 1933, on his desk until the beginning of World War II. (Columbia produced the documentary "Mussolini Speaks" in 1933, narrated by Lowell Thomas). Cohn also had a number of ties to organized crime. He had a long-standing friendship with Chicago mobster John Roselli, and New Jersey mob boss Abner Zwillman was the source of the loan that allowed Cohn to buy out his partner Brandt. Cohn's brash, loud, intimidating style has become Hollywood legend and was reportedly portrayed in various movies. The characters played by Broderick Crawford in "All The King's Men" (1949) and "Born Yesterday" (1950), both Columbia pictures, are allegedly based on Cohn, as is Jack Woltz, a movie mogul who appears in "The Godfather" (1972).
In his own way, Harry Cohn was sentimental about certain professional matters. He remembered the valuable contributions of Jack Holt during Columbia's struggling years, and kept him under contract until 1941. Cohn hired the Three Stooges in 1934 and, according to Stooge Larry Fine, "he thought we brought him luck." Cohn kept the Stooges on his payroll until the end of 1957. Cohn was fond of what he termed "those lousy little 'B' pictures," and kept making them, along with two-reel comedies and serials, after other studios had abandoned them.
According to biographer Michael Fleming, Cohn forced Curly Howard of the Stooges to keep working after suffering a series of minor strokes, which possibly contributed to a further deterioration of Howard's health and his eventual retirement and early death, though some people speculated that this was not true.
Personal life.
Cohn expected, or at least asked for, sex from female stars in exchange for employment. Harry Cohn's relationship with Rita Hayworth was fraught with aggravation. The biography "If This Was Happiness", describes how she refused to sleep with Cohn and how this angered him. However, because Hayworth was such a valuable property Cohn kept her under contract because she made money for him. During the years they worked together, each did their best to irritate the other despite their lengthy work relationship which produced good results. Cohn wanted to groom Mary Castle as Hayworth's successor. When Joan Crawford was subjected to Cohn's advances after signing a three-picture contract with Columbia, she quickly stopped him by saying "Keep it in your pants, Harry. I'm having lunch with Joan and the boys [Cohn's wife and children] tomorrow."
According to writer Joseph McBride, Jean Arthur quit the business because Cohn used to attack actresses.
In a BBC documentary, "Sammy Davis Jr - The Kid in the Middle", along with the titular star's episode of TVOne's "Unsung Hollywood", it was disclosed that Cohn, in order to end Kim Novak's relationship with a black man, had mobsters threaten Sammy Davis, Jr. with blinding or having his legs broken if he did not marry a black woman within 48 hours.
Cohn was married to Rose Barker from 1923 to 1941, and to actress Joan Perry (1911–1996) from July 1941 until his death in 1958.
His brothers all worked at Columbia. As well as co-founder Jack, the eldest brother Maxwell was a shorts subject producer and Nathan was the New York division manager. Cohn's nephew, Ralph, one of Jack Cohn's three sons, founded Screen Gems. Another of Jack's sons, Robert, was also a Columbia executive. Maxwell's daughter was Leonore "Lee" Cohn Annenberg, the wife of billionaire publishing magnate Walter Annenberg of Philadelphia.
Death.
Cohn had been suffering from an enlarged heart and suffered a heart attack while flying back from New York in December 1957 and was told to slow down. In February 1958 he suffered another heart attack at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona, shortly after having finished dinner, and died in an ambulance en route to St. Joseph's Hospital.
Cohn's well-attended funeral on stage 12 of the Columbia lot was the subject of the famous (perhaps apocryphal) quote attributed to Red Skelton: "It proves what Harry always said: Give the public what they want and they'll come out for it." He is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood.
Media portrayal.
Cohn was portrayed by Eric Roberts in the 2018 film "Frank & Ava".


Vanessa Claire Stewart

Vanessa Claire Stewart is an American actress, producer, and writer.
Early life and education.
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Stewart attended the Webster Conservatory for the Performing Arts in St. Louis, Missouri. After graduating, she was admitted to the Oxford School of Drama in England.
Career.
In 2004, Stewart received an LA Weekly Theatre Award for Best Leading Female Performance, for her gender-bending portrayal of Alex in Los Angeles director Brad Mays' controversial multi-media production of Anthony Burgess's "" at the ARK Theatre Company in 2003. She also directed the popular "Return to the Forbidden Planet" while at ARK.
In 2008, she co-wrote "Louis and Keely: Live at the Sahara" with actor Jake Broder for Sacred Fools Theatre. The show became an overnight success and was discovered by filmmaker Taylor Hackford. Hackford later became director of the show and brought Louis and Keely to a successful 8 month run at the Geffen Playhouse in 2009. While at the Geffen, Stewart met her future husband actor French Stewart in the green room before his performance in "Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas".
In 2010, she received an LA Weekly Theatre Award, a Garland and an Ovation Award for "Louis and Keely Live at the Sahara," for her portrayal of legendary jazz vocalist Keely Smith.
In 2012, Stewart wrote "Stoneface" for Sacred Fools Theater Company, about the life of Buster Keaton, starring her husband French Stewart. Stoneface won the 2013 LA Weekly award for best production. Stoneface appeared in the 2013–2014 season at Pasadena Playhouse.
In 2015, thanks to theater producer Hershey Felder, "Louis and Keely: Live at the Sahara" moved to a commercial run in Chicago at the Royal George Theater starring Tony Award winner Anthony Crivello as Louis Prima. The run officially began April 9 and closed eight weeks later on May 17. An additional run at Laguna Playhouse was announced for February 2016.
In 2019, her original musical about serial killer HH Holmes entitled "Deadly" premiered at Sacred Fools Theatre Company. Written by Stewart and composer Ryan Johnson, the musical later moved to Webster Conservatory for further development and premiered a new revision online in December of 2020 due to Coronavirus restrictions on live performances.
Stewart has appeared in various film and television productions, including "Chase The Slut", "Shakespeare's Merchant", "Joan of Arcadia", "Rules of Engagement", and "The List".
Personal life.
She moved to Los Angeles in 1999 where she met and married her first husband, Lance Arthur Smith. They divorced in 2005. In 2009, while performing at the Geffen Playhouse, she met actor French Stewart. They married in 2011 and had a daughter, Helene Claire, in 2013. Once remarried, she took the surname Stewart. Stewart lives in Los Angeles, California.
Awards and nominations.
Ovation Awards
Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards
LA Weekly Awards


Stony Blyden

Thorsteinn Sindri Baldvinsson Blyden, (born March 9, 1993) better known by his stage name Stony Blyden, is an Icelandic actor, rapper, singer, drummer and record producer.
Life.
Blyden was born in Reykjavík, Iceland. His father, Baldvin, is an Icelandic baker and his mother, Deborah, a Cuban fitness instructor. Blyden began drumming at an early age. receiving his first drum set as a Christmas present from his father. Blyden graduated from Reykjavík College of Music with a degree in jazz drumming and music theory, as well as studying dramatic acting at Reykjavík School of the Arts. He previously attended Akureyri Junior College.
Career.
For his musical artist name, he chose Stony, which is a rough translation of the second part of his Icelandic name, Thorsteinn, "Thor stone." Using a camera he borrowed from his father he started filming him and his friends covering various songs. He then went on to upload his own drum covers to YouTube under the name Stony's World. As an actor, Blyden has appeared in the films "The Standoff" and "Hope Springs Eternal", as well as the Hulu television series "Casual". He stars in the 2017 Nickelodeon television series "Hunter Street".


Jeff Gold

Jeff Gold (born 1956) is an American music business executive, author, music historian, Grammy Award winning art director, and music memorabilia collector and dealer.
Music Business.
Gold was the first employee of Rhino Records, and in 1975 produced the label's first release, "Go To Rhino Records" by Wild Man Fischer. In 1977 he signed former Thirteenth Floor Elevators' singer Roky Erickson to Rhino, overseeing his comeback single, "Bermuda/The Interpreter," and in 1981 signed Spirit to the label, supervising the release of their album The Adventures of Kaptain Kopter & Commander Cassidy in Potato Land.""
In 1981 he joined A&M Records as assistant to president Gil Friesen; he was later promoted to vice president of marketing & creative services and worked with The Police, Cat Stevens, Iggy Pop and Bryan Adams. Gold wrote liner notes and helped compile albums by Cat Stevens, Captain Beefheart, and The Flying Burrito Brothers, and was editor of the book "A&M Records: The First 25 Years". Gold art directed album covers for numerous artists including The Neville Brothers, Al Green, and John Hiatt, and in 1991 won a best album package Grammy Award for the Suzanne Vega album "Days of Open Hand".
In 1990 Gold joined Warner Bros. Records as senior vice president of creative services, working with artists including Seal, R.E.M., and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and art directed album covers for artists including Prince, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Squeeze and New Order. He received Best Album Cover Grammy nominations for his work on packages for R.E.M, ZZ Top, and Paul Westerberg. He was an executive producer of the albums Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix (featuring Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Seal, and The Cure) and the soundtrack to the Howard Stern movie "Private Parts".
In 1991 Gold had the idea to include a Rock The Vote petition postcard supporting the Motor Voter Bill on the back of the longbox for R.E.M's "Out of Time" CD, resulting in thousands of postcards being delivered to the United States Senate, and lending critical support to the eventual passage of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. The podcast 99% Invisible devoted an episode to the R.E.M longbox, noting "R.E.M.’s Out of Time is the most politically significant album in the history of the United States. Because of its packaging."
In 1993, Gold helped Warner Bros. Records establish the first online presence for a major record label, with dedicated Warner areas on AOL and CompuServe, and later the first website for a record company. Gold was instrumental in the Warner/Elektra/Atlantic labels decision to sell cd's without the much maligned longbox, leading to an industry-wide phase-out.
Gold was promoted to executive vice president/general manager of Warner Bros. Records in 1995, and left in 1998 in a management shakeup.
Author.
In 2012 Gold's book "101 Essential Rock Records: The Golden Age of Vinyl, From The Beatles to the Sex Pistols," was issued by Gingko Press; it was one of eight books selected by Rolling Stone as "The year's best reading material".
In 2016 Gold's book "Total Chaos: The Story of The Stooges/As Told by Iggy Pop," was issued by Third Man Books, a division of Jack White's Third Man Records. It was chosen by Rough Trade as one of their ‘Books of the Year’, and earned rave reviews in Esquire, Mojo, Noisey, and many other publications.
Gold's book, "Sittin' In: Jazz Clubs of the 1940's and 1950's," was issued in November 2020 by Harper Collins. Including interviews with Quincy Jones and Sonny Rollins, it was featured in the year-end wrap-ups of the best music books by the "Wall Street Journal", "The Daily Beast", "The Atlanta Journal Constitution", All Music Guide, and "The Los Angeles Times", which called it "vivid and beautiful".
Music Historian.
Gold was profiled by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the five top collectors of music memorabilia and named by Billboard as a "leading expert on rare lp's". He was profiled in 2014 by the website Dust & Grooves.
Gold has served as a curatorial consultant to museum exhibitions including the Experience Music Project's Bob Dylan's American Journey: 1955-1966, and Beatlemania! He archived the papers of legendary music executive Mo Ostin for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; and those of A&M Records co-founders Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss for the University of California Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.) special collections library.
Gold was an appraiser on VH1's "Rock Collectors", and is profiled in the books "Vinyl Junkies" by Brett Milano, "Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction To Its Own Past" by Simon Reynolds, "Why Vinyl Matters" by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike (Jennifer Otter Bickerdike: Why Vinyl Matters, ACC Editions, 2017, pp. 208-213), and "Iggy Pop & The Stooges: One Night at The Whisky 1970," by Ed Caraeff (Ed Caraeff: Iggy Pop & The Stooges: One Night at The Whiskey 1970, ACC Art Books, 2017, pp 113-117).
Gold has worked on archival and reissue album projects for artists including Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, The Velvet Underground, The Stooges and Gram Parsons. His discovery of previously undocumented live and studio outtake tapes has led to major label releases, including the Bob Dylan album In Concert—Brandeis University 1963.
Gold has appeared in music documentary films including the 1975 David Bowie BBC documentary "Cracked Actor," the 2004 Prince BBC documentary "Prince's Millions," the 2016 R.E.M. NRK documentary "History of the Hit Song",and the 2020 film "Music, Money and Madness...Jimi Hendrix in Maui."
In 2013 Gold hosted a panel discussion and multimedia presentation on the vinyl record revival at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.
In 2019, Longreads ran an article about Gold titled "How Jeff Gold Saved Rare Iggy Pop & The Stooges Recordings From the Dump."
Gold operates the music memorabilia website Recordmecca where he also blogs about topics of interest to collectors.
Gold is a well known Bob Dylan expert. In 2012 he appeared on PBS’ History Detectives (2012, Episode 1), authenticating previously unknown Bob Dylan handwritten manuscripts. His 2014 discovery of 149 previously unknown Bob Dylan acetate records received extensive media attention including articles in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. In 2016, Gold and colleague Laura Woolley appraised The Bob Dylan Archive, now housed at the University of Tulsa.
Non-Profits.
Gold is a major donor to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's library and archives, which houses The Jeff Gold Collection.
Gold formerly served as co-chairman of the youth voter registration organization Rock The Vote, which presented him (with his wife Jody Uttal) their Founder's Award in 1997.


Bill Gibson (music producer)

Bill Gibson (born September 8, 1955) is an American music producer.
He is president of Northwest Music and Recording and has spent the last 30+ years writing, recording, producing, and teaching music. He is the author of books and videos about audio recording and live sound; his writings contain simple straightforward explanations of audio concepts and applications. Gibson attended Green River College, Western Washington University, and The Evergreen State College and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Evergreen in Composition and Arranging. From 1978–1981 he was an instructor at Green River College in Auburn, Washington. He approaches technical considerations from a musical vantage point, which tends to make his explanations of sound and audio concepts easy-to-understand for musicians.
Along with his performing and sound operating experience around the country, performing everything from jazz to pop in large and small venues, and as an accomplished musician, Bill also has a vast catalog of albums that he has produced and/or engineered in studios between Seattle, Los Angeles, and Nashville.
Gibson started playing drums and guitar when he was nine years old. He performed in various bands, including The Dukes, Dick and the Dutchmasters, The Sons of Liberty, Strawberry Jam, Midnight Magic, Collage, Rival, Kevin Katz, and Larry Collins.
In addition to being an instructor for Berklee Online and acting as technical director or performer for various groups, Gibson:
Musical productions include albums for Tony Moore, Keith Anderson and Larry Collins.
Bibliography.
Book and video titles by Bill Gibson include:


Michael Goldstone

Michael Goldstone is an American music industry executive and owner of Mom + Pop Music.
He began his career at MCA Records, where he worked in marketing and artist development before moving into A&R. Segueing to PolyGram, he signed Mother Love Bone and, after the death of lead singer Andrew Wood, signed the remaining members to Epic Records. This band became Pearl Jam. Also while at Epic, “Goldie” signed Rage Against the Machine and many others such as BRAD and Shudder to Think, who previously released their music on Discord. He was also responsible for the release of the Soundtrack to the movie Singles, directed by Cameron Crowe.
In 1996, he joined DreamWorks Records as a partner, where he was instrumental in building the company's A&R, marketing and promotion departments. Goldstone signed Buckcherry and The All-American Rejects, to the label which both went on to Platinum success. At DreamWorks, he was also responsible for such artists as Citizen Cope and Long Beach Dub All Stars. In 2003, Goldie moved to Sire Records where he re-launched the label with Chairman, Seymour Stein. While at Sire, his signings included Regina Spektor, Tegan and Sara, Against Me!, HIM, The Spill Canvas and The Veronicas.
In May 2008, Goldie left Sire to launch indie label Mom + Pop Music Company together with Peter Mensch and Cliff Burnstein of Q Prime management. As Chairman at Mom + Pop, the label has released records from the following artists: Sleigh Bells, Andrew Bird, Ingrid Michaelson (via Cabin 24), Tokyo Police Club, Joshua Radin, The Freelance Whales (with Frenchkiss), Neon Indian. In 2013, the label released albums from Flume, FIDLAR, Poliça, Lucius, Hunters, and Sleigh Bells. Mom + Pop's most recent releases include albums from Ingrid Michaelson, Wild Cub, Courtney Barnett, Parquet Courts (with WYR), Cloud Nothings (with Carpark Records), Tokyo Police Club, and Kindness. Goldstone also manages American rock band Cage The Elephant alongside Peter Mensch and Cliff Burnstein.


David Hurles

David Randolph Hurles (born September 12, 1944, Cincinnati) is a gay pornographer, whose one-man company, run from a private mailbox, was called Old Reliable Tape and Picture Company. His work, produced primarily in the 1970s and 1980s, falls into three categories: photographs, audio tapes, and videotapes. Hurles' models were typically ex-cons, hustlers, drifters, and lowlifes.
Early years.
In the 1960s, Hurles appeared in movies and magazines, with Guild Press, Washington D.C., for whom he was also a photographer.
In 1975, already filming in Super-8 format used by his mentor and longtime friend Bob Mizer of Athletic Model Guild, he met and became a great friend of Jack Fritscher, editor of "Drummer" magazine, who described David as "my longtime pal and housemate". The character Solly Blue in Fritscher's novel "Some Dance to Remember" has much in common with Hurles., but while they share "archetypal coincidental adventures", Fritscher has denied that Blue is based on Hurles.
Hurles has written of San Francisco at the time: "Perhaps you had to be there...the 70's, San Francisco, the blossoming and peak of the gay sexual culture. It was a rare time; everything, it seemed, was perfect. So perfect, in fact, that those of us there could not have possibly imagined it might ever be otherwise!" Jim Stewart describes his encounter with Hurles, the neighborhood they both lived in, and the birth of the name Old Reliable in the first chapter of his "Folsom Street Blues".
His first published pictures appeared in "Drummer", 21 (January 1978); no other magazine would touch them. He also shot
many covers and centerfolds for Fritscher's zine "Man2Man Quarterly" (1980-1982), whose mailing address was Hurles' San Francisco apartment. Subsequently, Hurles' photos have appeared in dozens of gay magazines. He moved to Los Angeles shortly.
Old Reliable.
In 1990, Hurles issued a catalog of his Old Reliable material, a guide to nearly 500 men and the hundreds of original Old Reliable Video Tapes, as well as the audio cassettes and photos in which the men appear (56 pp.). In 1995, a second volume was published, taking up where the first one left off, also "a guide to nearly 500 men" (64 pp.).
Models were recruited among ex-convicts and addicts. As put by admirer John Waters, "David likes psychos. Nude ones. Money-hungry drug addicts with big dicks. Rage-filled robbers without rubbers. And of course, convicts." Many of them were dangerous—he wanted them to be, that was a key part of their attractiveness for him—but part of David's skill, which no one since has duplicated, was being able to manage them so that they would perform as instructed and not attack him. However, Hurles also said: "There have been several thousand models. When they are not in prison, or very married, it has been my practice to stay in touch with many of them, often over decades. They are my friends." On another occasion he said that one of the hardest parts of his job was not getting caught up in the miserable lives of his models.
Although he did not publicize it, sometimes Hurles' models were more mainstream gay pornographic actors. Scott O'Hara made a tape for him, as did Peter O'Brien.
Photographs.
Hurles chose to downplay technical fireworks with his camera in order to focus on the emotional pyrotechnics of his models. His models, picked up on the street or sent to him by referral, would come to his apartment, get naked, and masturbate. Usually they were shot solo, and with an erection; the amount paid depended on "the size of your dick and whether you could get it up in front of the camera." They were distinguished by "attitude" - straight, in your face, angry, contemptuous of fags, dangerous, smoking cigars, giving the finger, flexing their biceps. "Rough trade is too tame a word", was the description of John Calendo. Getting robbed by his models, or having his equipment stolen, he viewed as part of the cost of doing business. His photographs may most easily be consulted in two collections: "Speeding", in black and white, then in color "Outcast", and to a lesser extent in "The Big Penis Book".
Hurles printed his pictures in his own darkroom, and filled all orders single-handedly.
834 of Hurles' photos are reproduced on tribe.net. A large number are posted on vintageoldreliable.blogspot.com and also in the Yahoo! Group Old Reliable Trailer Park. There are no permission statements posted with any of these photos, and presumably David receives no compensation from this use of his pictures.
Hurles' pictures are used, with permission, as illustrations in two collections of Boyd McDonald's "Straight to Hell: The New York Review of Cocksucking" material: "Meat" and "Skin". Hurles described McDonald as "the kindest person," who "gave me such encouragement."
Audio tapes (cassettes).
Besides paying for modeling, Hurles paid many of his models to talk, while alone in a room with the door closed, into an ordinary cassette recorder, typically on how they would like to mistreat fags. In many cases he would go on to record a second audio tape in which he sexually serviced the models. Behind the bravado and aggression of the models there sometimes come through haunting overtones of the fact that they are losers in life and they know it. There also comes through, at times, their bewildered, demasculinized admiration of Hurles' enthusiasm for sex, for being the bottom, paying to give them fellatio, paying them to masturbate, buying their (gay sex) orgasms, which feel disturbingly good, although they see themselves as straight. Other models, however, are not threatened at all; they find it enjoyable to exploit Hurles for cash and sex, and "a hole's a hole". Some of the models were openly bisexual or gay, but David preferred straight models.
He released over four hundred of these tapes of verbal sexual abuse. He has "always felt his audiotapes were his finest achievement." Five CDs of selected recordings have been released by Bijou Video.
Videotapes.
With the arrival of home video recording equipment around 1980, David began creating videotapes, eventually releasing over 300 of them. Most were solos, but some were boxing or wrestling among two of his models. Four volumes of "The Best of Old Reliable," plus Tape 43 (Five Days with Phil) and 51 (I, Rick), are available from Ray Dragon Video. The same two, plus four additional DVD's transferred from Old Reliable tapes, are available from Bijou Video: 32 (Hairy Guys), 38 (Arkansas Luggage), 56 (Basic Black #5), and 82 (Boxing 1) Others are available as video-on-demand from Bijou Video; besides the ones just mentioned, these are 25 (Perfect Me), 47 (Men Worth Watching), 49 (Sizzling Solos), 154 (Innocence Explains Nothing), 211 (Ace Is The Place), 269 (Just As They Are), and 277 (Some Old Friends). The first page of a Bijou catalog from 2004, listing 326 no-longer-available VHS tapes and cassette tapes, has been archived. Another former catalog has been archived on the Wayback Machine. Some of his videos are available (2018) at http://raydragonvideo.com.
Writing.
Hurles has published three well-written, thoughtful reviews of gay books on Amazon: of the 1990 edition of Fritscher's "Some Dance to Remember", of the 1994 edition of John Rechy's "City of Night", and of gay porn star Scott O'Hara's "Autopornography: A Memoir of Life in the Lust Lane" (1994).
Hurles and Fritscher co-authored an interview with "Scott Smith", an ex-con from Soledad Prison.
Hurles wrote an introduction: "A Thousand Light Years Ago: "Drummer"", to "Gay San Francisco: Eyewitness "Drummer", Volume 1. A Memoir of the Sex, Art, Salon, Pop Culture War, and Gay History of Drummer Magazine.
Hurles' memoirs, drafted in 1992 as "No Title Necessary: A Few Notes, Comments, and Observations", have not been published.
From 1999 to 2005 Hurles added items to a revealing "Wish List" on amazon.com
Later years.
A "wrestling accident" in 1990 led to the gradual loss of eyesight in one eye, a disaster for a photographer. Shortly thereafter, the arrival of pornography on the Internet destroyed most of the market for Hurles' material, at the same time that AIDS (and drugs) killed many models and potential models. "I know where a great many of them [my models] are. Six feet under". His company folded, and he lived on welfare and food stamps. In 2008 he had a massive stroke, and currently "is the most popular resident of a state-funded nursing home in East Hollywood". He is conscious and can communicate. Pictures of him from 2009 through 2011 can be found on his Facebook page.
Influence.
John Waters declared himself influenced by Hurles, and dedicated to him part of a chapter in his "Role Models", stating that "The wonderful, beautiful, scary life of David Hurles has been an inspiration to my inner filth for years". According to him, "David Hurles's photographs forever scarred some gay men's ability to be attracted to another average gay men. Without these pioneering Old Reliable photographs, homoeroticism in the art world couldn't have existed. Robert Mapplethorpe was a pussy. Mr. Hurles is the real thing.” With Dian Hanson, John Waters curated an exhibition of David Hurles' photos, "Outsider Porn: The Photos of David Hurles," at the Marianne Boesky gallery in New York, June 4–25, 2010. Another exhibit, "Straight to Hell Presents: In Cock We Trust", was presented in 2008 at the Berlin art gallery Exile.
Sex-positive feminist Susie Bright has also declared herself a fan of Hurles.
His friend Dian Hanson, who manages his financial affairs and the Old Reliable archive, described him as an "intelligent, funny, mild mannered guy who studied his models the way I’d studied my readers all the years I worked making men’s magazines. David is a true intellectual, a psychological hobbyist, and even more interesting as a person than he is as a photographer. He says we’re “simpatico”, and that seems the best description for the way we clicked immediately, sharing a taste in men and in exploring the intricacies of human psychology and sexual attraction.”
Archival material.
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California, has VHS videotapes of a nine-part interview conducted from August 18 to December 29, 1998, and 6 compact audiocassette tapes of what appears to be a four-part interview conducted on January 12, 1999. The collection also contains two compilation CD-ROMs, copyright 1998, of Old Reliable photographs: "As Seen from the Rear ... the Butt CD!" and "Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar!" The interviews were conducted by Pat Allen, with the assistance of Bill Wyman.