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Legendary Concert Promoter Sid Bernstein Dies at 95

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The life of iconic
The life of iconic
Sid Bernstein – the concert promoter who became a genuine legend by bringing The Beatles to America at the beginning of their career, as well as promoting numerous other major rock and popular music artists – died this past week in Manhattan’s Lenox Hill Hospital at age 95. Bernstein’s daughter, Casey Deutsch, said her father passed away in his sleep of natural causes.

Born in August of 1918, Sid Bernstein was adopted by Yiddish-speaking Russian immigrants who called him Simcha. In 1943 he signed up in the U.S. Army and participated in World War I I’s Battle of the Bulge. While still serving as a soldier in France after the war, the young Bernstein already set the foundation for his career as an impresario by operating a nightclub for American soldiers. Back in New York, he continued building his entertainment-oriented career by running singles weekends in the Catskills and weekly dances at a Bronx nightclub.

Bernstein became an important figure in the world of live concerts over the course of the 1950’s and early 1960’s, promoting shows by such noted performers as Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Tony Bennett, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Ruth Brown and Tito Puente. He also worked with Duke Ellington and Ray Charles. During this period, Bernstein also began presenting concerts in the burgeoning rock n’ roll and soul music scene by such artists as James Brown and other rhythm-and-blues performers at the Paramount Theater. Moreover, he promoted such pop hitmakers as Dion, Bobby Darin, Chubby Checker, The Drifters and Bo Diddley.

As he would often recount in later years, Bernstein enrolled in a course on Western civilization in 1963 at Manhattan’s New School, which required him to read a British newspaper each week. The concert promoter repeatedly noticed stories about a new popular music group – known as The Beatles – that was causing a huge sensation in England.

“So here I am reading little stories about this group from Liverpool that is causing a lot of ‘hysteria.’ By the end of the course, I was so Beatle-ized by what I read, even though I did not hear a note, I said, ‘gotta get ‘em.’” he elaborated in a 2001 interview. Unable to get the agency he was working for to approve the idea, Bernstein on his own contacted Beatles manager Brian Epstein in Liverpool and – after much resistance – finally persuaded Epstein to let him book the group for the following year for two shows at New York’s Carnegie Hall. The timing turned out to be perfect – as February 1964 approached, The Beatles had a top hit in the United States (“I Want to Hold Your Hand”) and “Beatlemania” had taken hold here, so the two shows fully sold out.

Bernstein continued his successful affiliation with the group in 1965, booking them into New York’s Shea Stadium, where they played to complete pandemonium from more than 55,000 screaming fans. This became rock music’s first major stadium show, and it set box office records at the time. During the 1970’s, he maintained communication with the individual members of The Beatles, and attempted on several occasions to get them to reunite as a group for either substantial payment or for charity purposes. Despite his most persistent efforts, Bernstein was never able to convince all of the members to agree to such a concert reunion.

The promoter with a golden touch was also responsible for bringing many other newly popular British acts to the United States, including The Rolling Stones, Herman’s Hermits, The Dave Clark Five, The Kinks, The Animals and The Moody Blues. Additionally, he cemented his reputation in the world of rock n’ roll by managing the Young Rascals and singer-songwriter Laura Nyro, as well as presenting concerts by Jimi Hendrix, Sly & The Family Stone, Fleetwood Mac, ABBA, Lenny Kravitz and a number of other major artists. The tireless promoter was also the driving force behind one of the earliest rock benefit shows, the 1970 Winter Festival for Peace.

Bernstein made a bit of a splash in the mid-1970’s by bringing the Bay City Rollers, a popular British teen-pop group, to America. Although they had a number of sizable hits here, they never became “the new Beatles” as the concert promoter may have hoped.

In a nod to his Jewish heritage, Bernstein also brought a number of Israeli singers to the U.S. in 1964, including Shoshana Damari and Yaffa Yarkoni.

Personally setting the record straight on the details of his colorful career,  Bernstein wrote a memoir, “Not Just the Beatles …,” with Arthur Aaron in 2000; it was republished two years later as “It’s Sid Bernstein Calling.” He was also the subject of a 2010 documentary, “Sid Bernstein Presents ….”

Bernstein was married for 40 years to Geraldine Gale. She survives him, along with their sons Adam, Etienne, Beau and Dylan; daughters Casey Bernstein Deutsch and Denise Bernstein; and six grandchildren.

“My secret to success,” Bernstein once wrote on his website, “is that I’ve always loved good music and people. The players in the promotion business today are, by and large, not in it for the art anymore. It’s all about how many bucks can you make on a concert. That’s permissible. I mean, we are in a capitalistic society. But I feel a lot of the art thing is lost. It shouldn’t just be about money. It should be about loving what you do.”

Still active in his later years, Bernstein started a Twitter account at age 90. “Twitterland!” he enthused in one post. “Let’s all have a productive week. I have a few very interesting projects in the works and I’ll reveal them very soon.”

 

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