Bill Graham (promoter)
| Bill Graham | |
|---|---|
Bill Graham, circa 1990
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| Born |
Wulf Wolodia Grajonca January 8, 1931 Berlin, Germany |
| Died | October 25, 1991 (aged 60) Near Vallejo, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Uncle Bobo |
| Occupation | Businessman, musical impresario |
| Years active | 1960s–1991; his death |
| Spouse(s) | Bonnie MacLean (divorced; 1 child) |
Bill Graham (born Wulf Wolodia Grajonca; January 8, 1931 – October 25, 1991) was a German-American impresario and rock concert promoter from the 1960s until his death in 1991 in a helicopter crash. On July 4, 1939 he was sent from Germany to France to escape the Holocaust. At age 10 he settled in a foster home in the Bronx, New York. Graham graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School and from City College with a business degree.
In the early 1960s, he moved to San Francisco, and, in 1965, began to manage the San Francisco Mime Troupe. He had teamed up with local Haight Ashbury promoter Chet Helms and Family Dog, and their network of contacts, to organize a benefit concert, then promoted several free concerts. This eventually turned into a profitable full-time career and he assembled a talented staff. Graham had a profound influence around the world, sponsoring the musical renaissance of the '60s from the epicenter, San Francisco. Chet Helms then Bill Graham made famous the Fillmore and Winterland Arena; these turned out to be a proving grounds for rock bands and acts of the San Francisco Bay area including the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin, who were first managed, and in some cases developed, by Chet Helms.
Graham was born in Berlin, the youngest child and only son of lower middle-class parents, Frieda (née Sass) and Jacob "Yankel" Grajonca, who had emigrated from Russia before the rise of Nazism. His father died two days after his son's birth.
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