Harold Leventhal

Manufacturer and promoter Harold Leventhal was the star-maker who all galvanized the U.S. folk revival of the first 1960s, especially presenting a Bob Dylan in his initial major concert-hall functionality. Delivered May 24, 1919 in Ellenville, NY, Leventhal grew up in NY City’s Decrease East Aspect. He started his music profession in the past due 1930s being a tune promoter for composer Irving Berlin and became a fixture on Manhattan’s nightclub circuit as he pitched brand-new materials to vocalists including Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee. During Globe Battle II, Leventhal offered using the U.S. Military Signal Corps, even though stationed in India, he befriended Jawaharlal Nehru. Through Nehru, Leventhal received an market with Mahatma Gandhi. The knowledge profoundly formed Leventhal’s feeling of interpersonal outrage and throughout his profession he represented performers at odds using the position quo. Following the battle, he came back to NEW YORK and accepted employment along with his brother’s girdle developing firm. He however moonlighted like a promoter for folkies including Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly, and in 1951, he decided to manage the Weavers. When Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist witch-hunts pressured the Weavers to dissolve the next year, Leventhal continued to be their steadfast supporter, actually after Congress revoked his passport. In 1955, he booked Carnegie Hall for any Weavers reunion display; he told each one of the users another three had currently agreed to the program to assure their assistance. The performance continues to be a landmark event in the annals of American folk music and it influenced the professions of dozen next-generation performers. Furthermore to folk, Leventhal was an ardent supporter of globe music. He created the debut NY performances by famous brands Jacques Brel, Miriam Makeba, Nana Mouskouri and Ravi Shankar, and in addition embraced jazz by showcasing the present day Jazz Quartet among others. But his many long lasting contribution to American music continues to be Bob Dylan’s Apr 12, 1963 appearance at New York’s City Hall, the vocalist/songwriter’s 1st metropolitan concert overall performance. The set of functions under Leventhal’s representation also included such giants as Joan Baez, Johnny Money, Harry Belafonte, Phil Ochs, Judy Collins, and Peter, Paul & Mary. He was the executor of Woody Guthrie’s property and also employed the icon’s kid, Arlo, as an workplace guy. In 1969, Leventhal created Arlo’s film musical Alice’s Cafe, as well as for over three years oversaw the singer’s annual Carnegie Hall vacation concert. Leventhal also created the 1976 Woody Guthrie biopic Bound for Glory in addition to Wasn’t A Time, which docs the Weavers’ much-acclaimed 1980 reunion. He gained a Grammy for his creation focus on the 1989 LP Folkways: A Eyesight Shared–A Tribute to Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly, which same year gained an Emmy for the tv screen film WE WILL Overcome. In 2002 Leventhal received the Folk Alliance Life time Achievement Prize and was the main topic of his very own all-star Carnegie Hall tribute in 2003, the foundation from the documentary feature Isn’t This a period!. He also was broadly known as the motivation for Irving Steinbloom, the imaginary folk impresario whose loss of life and following memorial concert sparks Christopher Guest’s severe folk satire A Mighty Blowing wind. Leventhal died Oct 4, 2005 at age 86.