Original Publication, Newsweek December 20, 1976
MAUREEN ORTH with JANET HUCK in Los Angeles
He treads softly in Guccis and wields one of the toughest fists in show business. “I’m not doing this for effect,” he insists, lighting a huge cigar, Jerry Weintraub, John Denver’s manager, can’t stand the Rockies: “I’m not exactly the outdoor four-wheel-drive type.” He much prefers the brown Rolls-Royce that Denver gave him as a token of esteem, and he’s been known to wave before a visitor a Denver royalty check made out for $3 million.
Others who have benefited from Weintraub’s showbiz savvy have reason to be grateful. “‘Nashville’ [of which he was executive producer] never would have been made without him,” marvels the film’s director, Robert Altman. “He left all the artistic decisions to me but when I needed him he was there.” To another of his superstar clients, Neil Diamond, “Jerry is P.T. Barnum, Mike Todd and Sol Hurok all put together.” “He could get your grandmother a record deal,” says Jack Daley, Denver’s first manager.
Using his success with John Denver as his springboard, Weintraub, 39, has quietly amassed an empire that reaches into almost every area of show business. He has masterminded the whirling career of skating champion Dorothy Hamill. His company, Management III, also handles the Carpenters, Gordon Lightfoot and Phoebe Snow. He is currently producing five TV specials for ABC – nearly one-third of the network’s entertainment specials this season. Having made a splashy film debut with “Nashville,” he has three other films in various stages of production. A partner in Concerts West, one of the nation’s largest concert-production and -promotion companies, he packages tours for some of the heaviest acts in rock – the Eagles, Eric Clapton and Chicago. He and Denver are joint owners of a record company, Windsong, and a film production company. He personally books Led Zeppelin, Elvis Plesley and Frank Sinatra, and he thought up the Sinatra-Denver combination.
“I’m into Americans and entertainment,” says Weintraub. “Whenever people aren’t working I want to entertain them or sell them something.” What he sells is schmaltz aimed to hit every psychic button in America. On the recent Dorothy Hamill TV special, he had her skating with both Gene Kelly and a moppet who looked like Shirley Temple. It was followed the next hour by a Denver special that featured Denver fishing in a boat with Joanne Woodward dressed as Scarlett O’Hara and attacked by Bruce, the shark from “Jaws.” “The only thing missing,” said one viewer, “was Mickey Mouse eating a Big Mac.” “I can feel the pulse of the people,” Weintraub explains.
Brooklyn-born and Bronx-bred, Weintraub came from a family of salesmen. As a kid theatrical agent he married an act he managed, singer Jane Morgan, who was more famous than he and more than several years his senior. He learned much of his trade from Col. Tom Parker, Elvis Presley’s legendary manager. “When he started out,” says one record executive, “Jerry was an aggressive, greedy, pushy, grabby person. When you shook hands with him you’d count your rings, but he exuded an aura of know-it-all that carries weight with artists.” That weight now takes the form of five homes and a yacht.
Weintraub is still controversial. Critics charge that he pays little attention to his lesser-known acts and that he runs roughshod over local promoters when he brings the superstars into their territories. “He comes into town like an eagle,” says Bill Graham, his nearest competitor in rock promotion, “scoops up the money and leaves. He tells his acts, ‘For a piece of your action I can eliminate certain promoters and agents.’ He’s more a powerful broker than a producer.” Says one rock producer, “There must be a lot of people who owe him debts and favors on all levels of this society.”
Weintraub certainly knows how to use power. When ABC was cool to a Carpenters special, he sweetened the deal by throwing Denver in as guest star. The Carpenters got their TV show. “Few rock managers have experience with TV,” says Jewish cowboy singer Kinky Friedman, who’s hired his own “personal” manager to complement Weintraub’s “total” management of him. “When I need him he’ll be there to make me a deal. Weintraub, who claims he requires only three hours’ sleep each night, starts dealing before dawn from his Beverly Hills mansion, beginning with calls to Europe and working his way back from New York to the Midwest and to California. Perhaps the most succinct acknowledgment of his talent comes from a fellow supersalesman. Werner Erhard, Denver’s favorite guru, has sent Jerry Weintraub an honorary diploma from est. It reads: “You got it. You don’t need it.”
This article is typed from the original material. Please excuse any errors that have escaped final proofreading.
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