Sid Bernstein

Sidney Bernstein (August 12, 1918 – August 21, 2013) was an American music promoter, talent manager, and author. Bernstein changed the American music scene in the 1960s by bringing the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, the Moody Blues, and the Kinks to America. He was the first impresario to organize rock concerts at sports stadiums.

Life and career

Bernstein was born in New York City in 1918 and was adopted by a Russian Jewish family. He studied journalism at Columbia University before working in a ballroom and joining the US Army in 1943. During World War II, he was stationed in Britain with the 602nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Gun Battalion of the United States Army. After the end of the war he returned to New York and became the manager of mambo musician Esy Morales, as well as acting as a booking agent. He started work for the General Artists Corporation (GAC), and by the early 1960s was working as a booking agent for pop stars such as Dion and Chubby Checker. An Anglophile, he contacted Beatles manager Brian Epstein in early 1963 after reading about the group in several British newspapers. Persuading Epstein that they could be successful in the US, he booked Carnegie Hall for their first appearance without informing the venue of their style of music and never hearing a note of their music.

Bernstein also brought British bands including the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, the Moody Blues, and the Kinks to America. James Brown said that Bernstein "was in the forefront of race relations" by booking African-American musicians during the 1960s. He was the first to stage a rock show at Madison Square Garden.

In January 2006, TNT optioned Sid Bernstein's memoirs as told to Arthur Aaron to develop a two-hour television biographical film titled The Beatles in America. The project reportedly received a personal go-ahead from Paul McCartney, with Larry Block and Craig Sabin attached as writers, though the film ultimately remained unproduced.

Bernstein died on August 21, 2013, in Manhattan, nine days after his 95th birthday. He was survived by his wife Geraldine Gale; and their four sons, two daughters and seven grandchildren. Books Bernstein wrote or coauthored several books:

It's Sid Bernstein Calling (Jonathan David Publishers) Not Just the Beatles ... (Jacques & Flusster Publishing)

Musical works At age 93, Bernstein released his first album as a singer. Sid Bernstein Presents... is a collection of some of his favorite songs, and was released on February 14, 2012, on compact disk and as a digital download.

Documentary Bernstein is also the subject of Sid Bernstein Presents..., a documentary film by Jason Ressler that detailed his career and life. The film made its world premiere at the DocNZ film festival in Auckland, New Zealand in February 2010.