Lee Gordon (promoter) - Australian Career

Australian Career

Gordon arrived in Sydney in September 1953. He stayed for a time at a private hotel in Darling Point before moving into a rented harbourside penthouse in the prestigious eastern suburb of Point Piper, where he remained until he left Australia for the last time in 1962.

Gordon's first Australian business venture was a marketing business utilising the latest American techniques such as telephone quizzes, competitions and discount coupons on to lure customers into a Sydney furniture and electrical appliances retailer, Royal Art Furnishings. His deal with the company gave him a percentage of the increased business, and his marketing tactics proved so successful that the company sold thousands of appliances, earning a considerable sum in a short time.

From the springboard of his initial marketing success, Gordon then established himself as a music concert promoter in Australia. Backed by his recent earnings and tapping his connections in the American music business, he founded a promotions company to bring out leading American music artists. He was keen to minimise his tax liability—Australian tax law in those days charged a double rate on performers who worked in both Australia and the United States—so he hired a skilled accountant, Alan Heffernan, who went on to become his permanent accountant and general manager, as well becoming a close friend and confidante. Heffernan played a major role in Gordon's subsequent success and he helped to keep the company going through the mysterious period in 1958 when Gordon disappeared for almost a year.

In 1954 Australian taxation law was amended, ending the punitive double taxation levied on artists who worked in both Australia and the USA. As soon as the change took effect, Gordon terminated his work with Royal Art Furnishings to concentrate on building his concert promotions business.

His new company, which traded as The Big Show Pty Ltd, opened an office at 151 Bayswater Rd in Rushcutter's Bay and in January 1955 he hired book-keeper and future promoter Max Moore as his assistant. Six months later Moore was elevated to the position of tour manager, and he coordinated most of the Big Show tours. The other Big Show staff at this time were Alan Heffernan (general manager), Perla Honeyman (publicity officer), Clive Mahon (assistant to Lee Gordon), Colleen McCrindle (Gordon's secretary) and receptionist Moira Delray.

Gordon negotiated a deal with venue owners Stadiums Ltd for the use of their venues in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and arranged the hire of Centennial Hall in Adelaide and suitable venues in other major cities. Stadiums Ltd was a famous Australian company that had been purchased in 1916 by colourful Melbourne business identity John Wren, whose life and career was the inspiration for John West, the central character in Frank Hardy's controversial novel Power Without Glory.

Stadiums Ltd owned large venues in most Australian capital cities, including the Sydney Stadium, Melbourne Festival Hall and Brisbane Festival Hall. Through the first half of 20th century these halls hosted many major Australian boxing and wrestling matches, since their "in-the-round" arenas were at the time the largest indoor venues in Australia's three biggest cities. Thanks to the deal struck by Gordon, these Stadiums Ltd venues - especially the Sydney Stadium - became indelibly associated with the "Big Show" tours of the 1950s.

With the Stadiums deal arranged—at a cost of AU£500 per session—Gordon refitted the Sydney Stadium, designing Australia's first rotating stage, which was installed on top of the old fight ring in the centre of the arena.

Gordon's first major concert tour, staged in July 1954, was an all-star 'package' tour featuring jazz legends Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Rich and Artie Shaw, with comedian Jerry Colonna. It played at the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane Stadiums, but Gordon lost heavily on the venture.

Undeterred by this failure, Gordon went ahead with a tour by popular American singer Johnnie Ray in August 1954. A week after tickets went on sale, receipts were so poor that Gordon faced ruin—according to Max Moore, visits by overseas acts were so rare at that time that many people thought these early tour promotions were hoaxes. In an effort to save the tour, Gordon launched a promotional blitz — he had four million leaflets printed, which entitled the holder to a free extra ticket for every ticket sold, and then arranged for these "twofer" leaflets to be dropped from planes over Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The tactic helped to turn sales around and the tour was a sell-out success.

In late 1954 Gordon next tour starred The Andrews Sisters and Billy Daniels; although only two of the three Andrews sisters (Maxene and LaVern) were available for the tour, it was a success.

Johnnie Ray's second Australian tour in 1955 was a landmark in the history of Australian entertainment. Ray's emotionally charged performances electrified local audiences, who had not seen anything like it before. As writer Damian Johnstone notes, the success demonstrated that Australian audiences were willing to pay high prices to see American entertainers, and it kick-started the demand for large scale tours by international acts. Although he was not a rock'n'roll performer and his popularity in the USA had waned, Ray's distinctive style was an important bridge between the mainstream popular music of the '40s and early '50s and the emerging rock'n'roll genre. He also had a great influence on Australia's first homegrown rock'n'roll star, Johnny O'Keefe, who in fact began his career as a Johnny Ray impersonator.

Ray's second Australian tour was even bigger than the first—he was mobbed by 10,000 fans at Sydney Airport and he set an Australian record for ticket sales that was not broken until the arrival of The Beatles in 1964. Max Moore claims that Gordon tried to whip up the audience by hiring a local tailor to stitch together a custom-made coat for Ray with 'breakaway' sleeves, and then paying young girls to pull them off when he reached into the audience during his performance. Johnny O'Keefe saw Ray perform live several times on this tour and studied his idol carefully.

Although the second Johnnie Ray tour was highly successful, several of Gordon's subsequent promotions—including a tour featuring singer Frankie Laine and comedy duo Abbott & Costello—were box-office flops. Inveterate gamblers who spent much of their free time playing poker with Australian radio star Jack Davey, Abbott and Costello are said to have lost the equivalent of their entire tour fee, so they instructed Gordon to send their cheque to Davey, but because Big Show Pty Ltd was broke, it bounced and no-one was paid.

An ill-fated tour 1955 by American Roller Derby teams failed to draw the expected crowds and Gordon took another huge financial loss. Ironically, Gordon again proved to be ahead of its time with this attraction, which became very popular in the late 1960s when rebadged as The Roller Game.

Gordon bounced back with several successful tours during 1956, including visits by the Louis Armstrong All-Stars (supported by Gary Crosby), Nat King Cole, Calypso king Harry Belafonte and the "Record Star Parade", which featured Don Cornell, Stan Freberg, Joe "Fingers" Carr, Buddy Rich and a dance duo called The Nilsson Twins.

Thinking that he had found a winning formula, Gordon booked a similar tour for 1957, featuring Lionel Hampton, Stan Kenton and vocalists Cathy Carr and Guy Mitchell, but his attempt to repeat the success of the Record Star Parade proved to be another financial disaster.