Ron Polte

Ronald Thomas Polte (April 24, 1932 – September 14, 2016) was an American manager in the California Bay Area rock and roll scene. He was well known as the manager of the psychedelic music groups, The Ace of Cups quintet, one of the earliest all-female groups, the renowned Quicksilver Messenger Service, which featured a host of major talents, and briefly, the Sons of Champlin.

Early life Polte was born on the impoverished South Side of Chicago, one of nine children. He had a rough childhood, but after his teen years, during which he had experienced difficulties with the law, he turned his life around.

Career With his friend from his teens, producer, and guitarist Nick Gravenites, Polte, a keyboardist and successful songwriter, migrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where the Beat Generation had long flourished but was evolving into the hippie culture. After band manager Ambrose Hollingworth became a paraplegic as a result of injuries sustained in a 1967 car crash near Muir Beach, California, At West Pole, with his brother Frank, Polte also for a short time managed the Sons of Champlin. Polte was noted for recognizing talent. After hearing Jim McPherson playing guitar, he said, "He charmed me in 15 minutes,” Polte remembered, "He was accomplished, like a terrific magician. I was completely taken with him. Through the encounter, Polte helped him land a spot with John Cipollina's new band, Copperhead.

During Polte's time as manager, Quicksilver's lineup included guitarists Cippolina, Gary Duncan, David Freiberg (also bass) and Dino Valenti. All but Cipollina also sang. Nicky Hopkins and Mark Naftalin played keyboards and Greg Elmore played drums. Polte also founded the booking agency West Pole, which handled Bay Area groups such as Big Brother, with whom Janis Joplin sang, and the Sons of Champlin.

Polte was noted for his business acumen which in 1967 enabled him to land, with Capitol Records, one of the first major recording contracts for any San Francisco headliner band. Thanks to pressures brought by residents of the Richmond and Sunset Districts which bordered the park, fearing of the influx of concertgoers, but also because of a surfeit of political correctness, coming from some of those ostensibly more concerned about the supposed exploitation of participants, the production was canceled, in its final stages of preparation. On August 12, 1969, Polte resigned from the San Francisco Music Council, ten days before the first day of the planned but canceled three-day festival.

Personal Polte lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for most of the last six decades of his life, and for the final decades, in Mill Valley, California. He was survived by his wife of 20 years, Sally Robert, his daughters Pamela Polte of Sutter Creek, California in Amador County, and Patti Ann Lindecker of Chicago; two sons, Thomas Polte of Chicago and Jeremy Polte of Dunsmuir, California in Siskiyou County, and his two sisters, Marilyn McMinn and Nancy Brunanchon of Pine Grove, California in Amador County.