Roy Radin

Roy Radin (13 November 1949 – 10 June 1983) was a show business promoter who packaged vaudeville shows in the 1970s and early 1980s. He was probably best known for his attempts to help finance the film The Cotton Club, and as the subsequent victim of a murder-for-hire at age 33. The trial in which four people were sentenced related to Radin's killing became known as "The Cotton Club Murder." The story of Radin's murder became the subject of a book, Bad Company: Drugs, Hollywood and the Cotton Club Murder.

Radin was the son of Broadway promoter Al Radin, who owned a speakeasy and promoted Broadway shows in the 1920s and 1930s. Roy Radin was a high-school dropout who joined the Clyde Beatty Circus at the age of 16 doing publicity work. A year later, Radin signed George Jessel and J. Fred Muggs as part of his first traveling show. Radin continued to put together vaudeville shows and became a millionaire before the age of 20. Shows were packaged with Roy Radin's name getting first billing (e.g., The Roy Radin Vaudeville Revue, The Roy Radin Variety Show, Roy Radin's Vaudeville '77). The shows featured comedy acts including George Gobel, Frank Gorshin, Jack Carter, Jackie Vernon, Milton Berle, Jessel, and The Roy Radin Orchestra. Berle and Jessel were among the regular masters of ceremonies. Throughout the 1970s, Radin's company Roy Radin Enterprises, had multiple shows running at the same time. The tours were creatively financed, always showing as sold out but sometimes sparsely attended. Tickets were often sold as benefits for handicapped children, police officers, fire fighters or local causes. Advertisements by local communities were purchased in the souvenir magazine distributed at the venue. The financing was investigated by New York state Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz in 1975 after he found that only 27% of the funds were going to one of the attributed charities.

Radin expanded his shows to concentrate not only on comedy revues but also musical acts largely consisting of fading 1950s and 1960s performers. The performances were often in poorly equipped high school auditoriums and gymnasiums requiring lengthy bus rides. Musical performers included The Drifters, Eddie Fisher, The Serendipity Singers, The Shirelles, and Danny and the Juniors. Comedians had a love-hate relationship with the tours, with Radin routinely the butt of the jokes. Reflecting on one tour, George Gobel told Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, "Roy Radin knows as much about show business as a pig knows about church on Sunday."

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