Miriam Bienstock

Miriam Bienstock (née Kahan, later Abramson, January 4, 1923 – March 21, 2015) was an American record company executive who was influential in the early days of Atlantic Records, becoming the company's vice president in 1958. She later became a theatrical producer.

Life and career Miriam Kahan was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants Sylvia Brahinsky (from Nizhyn) and Abraham Kahan (from Kyiv). Her mother was a younger sister of the Yiddish poet Mani Leib "Louis" Brahinsky.

She studied at Erasmus Hall High School and Brooklyn College. After taking piano lessons she developed an interest in jazz, and in 1945 married record producer Herb Abramson. In 1947, Abramson joined with Ahmet Ertegun to form Atlantic Records, and Miriam took charge of the fledgling company's finances and production, handling payments to musicians and negotiating distribution deals. She also claimed to have acted as Ruth Brown's manager for a while. As the company flourished with such artists as Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, the Coasters, and the Drifters, she expanded her role as the company's business manager, Although some musicians were critical of the level of royalties they received through her, she said: "We didn't try to cheat anybody, and what we did was normal practice at the time. We paid the royalties, and if they had problems, we'd give them money."

She left Atlantic in the early 1960s, selling her stake in the company to Ertegun and others. She then started theatre work, producing the musical Elvis in London in 1977, using music mostly controlled by her husband Freddy Bienstock's publishing company. She also produced a play, Strider, that ran on Broadway in 1979-1980 and invested in the 2014 musical Beautiful, based on the work of Carole King.

Death She died at her home in Manhattan in 2015, at the age of 92. Both of her husbands predeceased her; she left a son, Robert Bienstock, and a daughter, Caroline Bienstock.