Ronnie Lane R.I.P. [CLIPS: SMALL FACES + PETE TOWNSHEND + MEHER BABA + WIVES MOURN Ronnie Lane's Passing]

An excerpt of a TV special from England on the great Ronnie Lane.
Thanks to Eel Pie, Meher Baba film Archive MEFA and Pete Townshend

Don Arden's Hello Hollywood: World's Largest Stage Show

In 1978, the largest show ever produced on-stage came to Reno and the world. Don Arden's Hello Hollywood, Hello featured a landing 737 jet, a massive earthquake, three-story waterfall, levitating space dome complete with aliens and an eerily beautiful Space Queen, not to mention a cast of 150 singers and dancers on a massive 1 acre sized stage! Hello Hollywood, Hello ran for nearly 13 years. It was seen by more than six million people. During its run, more than 600 different entertainers appeared in the show and featured such celebrity headliners as Carol Channing, Susanne Summers, Carol Lawrence and many more! Over seven million dollars was spent on the scenery and the 1,273 costumes. The producer, Don Arden, was considered the king of all show spectaculars. The dancers were hand-picked by Miss Bluebell herself Margaret Kelly - the grand dame of showgirls who first met Don Arden at the Lido in Paris.
The amazing sets were constructed off location, primarily in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. They were then re-assembled in Reno. It was a large operation with carpenters and assistants hired for weeks of assembly work.The San Francisco earthquake struck the grand stage nightly. The skyline was created out of boards and hinges, and to the accompaniment of fireworks, smoke and plenty of screams from the cast, the skyline trembled and fell — simulating the earthquake of 1906.
Also figuring prominently in the show was a Donn Arden staple, the grand staircase! There singers descended night after night, crooning love songs to the elaborately coifed showgirls.

ANDREW LOOG OLDHMAM + DON ARDEN + SMALL FACES: (Tell Me) Have You Ever Seen Me [IN STUDIO INTERVIEW] + Sharon Osbourne

Andrew Loog Oldham and Don Arden [interviewed]
Small Faces [IBC studio, recording]
(Tell Me) Have You Ever Seen Me

24 July 2007

Sharon Osbourne is today mourning the death of her father, known throughout the music world as 'The Al Capone of Pop'.

Don Arden, a pop manager known for his notoriously tough reputation that turned him into one of the most successful managers of his generation, died on Saturday at the age of 81.

Sharon Osbourne and her father Don Arden

He has been familiar to most modern day audiences as the father of TV star Sharon.

However, he is also known for building the careers of 1960s and 70s rock bands such as the Small Faces, Electric Light Orchestra and Black Sabbath - who were led by Sharon's husband Ozzy Osbourne.

Rock band manager Don Arden was known as the Al Capone of Pop

His reputation as one of the toughest men in the business put to shame most of the hell-raising antics of the acts that he managed.

Most famously he was the man who terrorised fellow manger Robert Stigwood by dangling him out of a fourth floor window for daring to steal one of his acts.

The incident soon became part of showbusiness legend, with Arden even speculating that it would be immortalised of his gravestone.

He clearly enjoyed playing up to his legend as a tough operator, even being known to stub his lighted cigar into the forehead of another rival, Clifford Davis.

Arden appeared to be proud of his unorthodox tactics, declaring happily on one occasion that "the people I scare are going to have to look over their shoulders for the rest of their lives".

However, he never enjoyed quite the same level of respect with his daughter Sharon. He filed a $1million law suit against her after she tried to break the recording contract of her husband Ozzy Osbourne, whom Arden continued to manage after Black Sabbath.

The pair only spoke for the first time in 20 years when they were reunited in 2001, when Arden enjoyed a walk-on role in Sharon's reality TV show, The Osbournes.

Arden, born Harry Levy in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, in 1926 was the son of a raincoat maker. His father, Lazarus was said to have wanted his son to join him in the profession.

However, Arden had always targeted a career in showbusiness as he grew up, and turned to management in the mid 1950s after failing to succeed as a comedian.

Before his death he moved between his homes in Beverly Hills and Surrey.

His wife predeceased him and he is survived by a son in addition to his daughter Sharon.

Harry "The Hipster" Gibson [SOUNDIE]

A cool little soundie with Harry "The Hipster" Gibson and some Lindy Hop'n hep cats in zoot suits!