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The desires of American
citizens aged between 12 years and twenty have always been a financial
windfall for someone. But then there's the guy who gets it the minute he
sees it and gets busy about it...
I recently quizzed Jimmie Maddin on marketing
Beatles posters at the Teenage Fair: "I knew this thing was gonna be
big. Listen, I spotted them on TV (Ed Sullivan) and I knew it that
night.."
"Al Burton was the key man" says Maddin. "I'll
give you a little background on it.. Al produced teen shows for
television when it was first coming in large, but this was Easter
vacation, April 1965. He was the genius that started that teen-TV
programming trend. He had a guy named Joby Baker - a face like Jerry Lee
Lewis - but he was 15. I liked Joby. He did all the script gags. Al
later owned the 'Oscar Levant Show' (Gershwin's pianist) and still
produces today, but he was big with teens at the time I'm speaking of."
"I was helping him put together TV shows. We had
the 'Miss Teen USA' program and many others of course, but I can't
remember them all. Al and I were good friends, plus being business
associates. He put on the first Teen Fair. Later, he moved into the
entire Hollywood Palladium property - the outside parking lot and all."
I was just starting to look into selling rock n
roll promotional items and I had a concept. I went to see Al and we had
lunch at Musso-Frank's. I told him I had an idea that would make his
fair world famous. I then spoke to Frank Robinson (promoter of the
Vegematic) and another successful business friend, Eddie Dumas. We would
invest in the marketing of music memorabilia. The three of us formed a
partnership..I didn't have the money to finance all that shit you know.
I called a guy at SELTAEB in London who ran the Beatle marketing
organization. I became their official distributor for the world. I paid
SELTAEB royalties, it was better than owning it. SELTAEB referred me to
posters printed at Dow Chemical in San Francisco."
"Now that I had an operation in place, I
proceeded to make up 10,000 stills. I called Dow and asked them how many
posters they had on the floor. The man said several thousand. I said
save them all for me - but please ship 1,000 today. This was during the
day on Friday, the first scheduled night of the fair. Frank Robinson
provided fulfillment advice, Dow air-shipped them and we picked them up
at the airport 2 hours later."
"This was 1965. Outside were the tented booths
and Sonny & Cher headlined inside with 'I Got You Babe.' I knew Sonny
for years as a record promoter, and now he really had a hit. The fair
took over the property for the whole weekend..The Teenage Fair was
slated to start Friday night at 6pm, closing at midnight and run daily
through Sunday. They had a Miss Teen California contest and various
booths and activities. Sonny and Cher played with younger bands - but it
was bedlam from the opening Friday, all Saturday and Sunday"
"They lined up around the block to buy these
Beatles posters and photographs that we had - for the entire fair. The
entire time it was packed with Beatles fans. Jammed packed. It started
on time at 6pm Friday night. By 7pm I called Dow back and said 'I gotta
have 3,000 Beatles posters by tomorrow - they all sold out.' We had set
up a tent booth - Marv Fischer was my barker. They mobbed us at the
table. Jostling and shouting, the press showed up at my booth with
cameras and lights to capture the phenomenon. Then we ran out of
everything right away. You have no idea, it went berserk - it was
fucking bedlam. The lines went around the block all weekend. I had four
guys selling the things. I was calling every thirty minutes - 'air ship
me some more.' Later that night, we went to Musso-Frank exhausted. We
couldn't believe it I was exhausted. I still am, thinking about it.."
"After the fair, SELTAEB put me in touch with all of the OEMs
manufacturing Beatles merchandise. I bought Beatle Glasses, Wigs, Boots,
everything. Items like clocks, watches..I had about 300 items. I rented
an office at El Centro and Vine in Hollywood. It was our Beatles HQ."
"That's when I recorded and released my 'Beatle
Wig Party'." "I called it England Invades the USA, because I immediately
brought in the same kind of stuff for Herman's Hermits, Dave Clark 5,
the Rolling Stones, Donovan, and a little later on for the Yardbirds,
Led Zeppelin, Mott The Hoople.. Then I had US groups - Sonny & Cher,
Paul Revere and the Raiders, the Monkeys, the Doors, all the Elvis fan
clubs. In one advertisement I had a big picture - 'Elvis VS. the Beatles
- pick your favorite.'"
"Then we went on top 40 radio. We were on every
top 40 station in the country, and we were taking in $50,000 a day. The
guy that owned DIG magazine - one of the first teen-zines - he produced
the Beatle Fun Kit. It was a big color Life magazine size publication.
We sold 500,000 at a buck apiece. I just kept going on with the thing -
it lasted 20 years. You have to admit - I'm a hell of a promoter. I had
3 warehouses full of stuff. This helped develop Beatle Mania on the west
coast. It was fierce and fast after that.."
More to Come.... Read Volume #8 |
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Record Convention News is a bi-monthly magazine for
record collectors and other interested folks. An advertising vehicle for
record stores and related businesses, it is now in it's eighth year.
It's FREE at record shops and collector conventions. A subscription
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