Michael Gershman (October 11, 1939 – January 4, 2000) was an American writer, publicist, and music producer.
Biography
Gershman was born in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. After graduating from
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
, Gershman worked briefly as a newspaper reporter before joining the Dorothy Ross Agency in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. There, he served as a
press agent
In marketing, publicity is the public visibility or awareness for any product, service, person or organization (company, charity, etc.). It may also refer to the movement of information from its source to the general public, often (but not always) ...
for comedians
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
,
Dick Cavett
Richard Alva Cavett (; born November 19, 1936) is an American television personality and former talk show host. He appeared regularly on nationally broadcast television in the United States for five decades, from the 1960s through the 2000s.
In ...
, and
Joan Rivers
Joan Alexandra Molinsky (June 8, 1933 – September 4, 2014), known professionally as Joan Rivers, was an American comedian, actress, producer, writer and television host. She was noted for her blunt, often controversial comedic persona—heavi ...
.
In the late 1960s, he moved to California to focus on clients in the music business. Among his clients were
the Doors
The Doors were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential ro ...
,
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. Formed in 1965, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to ac ...
,
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He has had ten No. 1 singles on the Hot 100 and Adul ...
,
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
, and
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, havi ...
. He left the business to manage and produce the band
Looking Glass
A mirror or looking glass is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...
. Among the songs he worked on was the 1972 single
Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)
"Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" is a 1972 song by American pop rock band Looking Glass from their debut album, '' Looking Glass''. It was written by Looking Glass lead guitarist and co-vocalist Elliot Lurie.
The single reached number one on both ...
, which reached number one on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart.
Gershman would later return to work as a
publicist
A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a company, a brand, or public figure – especially a celebrity – or for a work such as a book, film, or album. Publicists are public relations specialists who ...
, representing musicians like
Mel Torme
Mel, Mels or MEL may refer to:
Biology
* Mouse erythroleukemia cell line (MEL)
* National Herbarium of Victoria, a herbarium with the Index Herbariorum code MEL
People
* Mel (given name), the abbreviated version of several given names (including ...
and
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He rose to fame in the 1970s as a songwriter and the co-lead singer of funk band the Commodores; writing and recordi ...
. He moved back to the east coast in the 1980s and became a prolific
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
writer authoring 16 books on the subject.
His 1993 book, ''Diamonds: The Evolution of the Ballpark'', received the
CASEY Award
The Casey Award has been given to the best baseball book of the year since 1983. The award was begun by Mike Shannon and W.J. Harrison, editors and co-founders of ''Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine''.
Casey Award recipients
*1983 – Er ...
.
With John Thorn, he formed the
book packaging
Book packaging (or book producing) is a publishing activity in which a publishing company outsources the myriad tasks involved in putting together a book—writing, researching, editing, illustrating, and even printing—to an outside company calle ...
company called Baseball Ink, and produced the groundbreaking reference work "Total Baseball", which would eventually become the official encyclopedia of
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
. Thorn and Gershman went on to found
Total Sports Publishing {{refimprove, date=July 2009
Total Sports Publishing refers to a book publishing company based in Kingston, New York, that operated from 1998 to 2002. Prominent author John Thorn served as the division's publisher throughout its existence.
Total ...
.
Personal life
In 1969, he divorced his first wife
Barbara Corday
Barbara Corday (born October 15, 1944) is an American television executive, writer and producer known for co-creating the television series ''Cagney & Lacey''.
Early life and education
Corday was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York Ci ...
; they had one daughter, Evan.
[People: "Cagney & Lacey Creators Barbara Corday and Barney Rosenzweig Mix Cops, Controversy and Marriage" by Jane Hall]
November 25, 1985
In 1975, he married his second wife,
Suzy Kalter.
November 16, 1975 His widow, who died on July 25, 2012 from brain cancer at age 64, was a journalist and the author of the ''Born to Shop'' book series.
Gershman died at his home in Westport, Connecticut
Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, along the Long Island Sound within Connecticut's Gold Coast. It is northeast of New York City. The town had a population of 27,141 according to the 2020 U.S. Census.
History
...
in 2000, following a battle with lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...
.
Further reading
* '' Light My Fire: My Life with the Doors'', by Ray Manzarek
Raymond Daniel Manzarek Jr. (né Manczarek; February 12, 1939 – May 20, 2013) was an American keyboardist. He is best known as a member of the Doors, co-founding the band with singer and lyricist Jim Morrison in 1965.
Manzarek was induct ...
, Berkeley Publishing Group,
* ''No One Here Gets Out Alive
''No One Here Gets Out Alive'' (1980) was the first biography about Jim Morrison, lead singer and lyricist of the L.A. rock band the Doors. Its title is taken from the Doors song "Five to One", and the book is divided into three sections: ''The B ...
'', by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman
Daniel Stephen Sugerman (October 11, 1954 – January 5, 2005) was the second manager of the Los Angeles-based rock band the Doors. He wrote several books about Jim Morrison and the Doors, including ''No One Here Gets Out Alive'' (co-authored with ...
, Warner Books,
References
External sources
Obituary from the Hollywood Reporter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gershman, Michael
1939 births
2000 deaths
Writers from Brooklyn
Deaths from cancer in Connecticut
Deaths from lung cancer
20th-century American non-fiction writers
Sportswriters from New York (state)