Bill Graham (promoter)

Bill Graham ( born Wolodia Grajonca called Wolfgang Grajonca; born January 8, 1931 in Berlin, † October 25, 1991 in Vallejo, California ) was an influential since the 1960s impresario. During the Holocaust, he became an orphan, he was adopted by an American family later.

He was the youngest son of a Jewish family that had emigrated from Russia. Graham's father died two days after Graham's birth. Graham's mother was him and his younger sister - Graham had five sisters - Store in a Berlin orphanage sent him and other Jewish children in exchange for Christian orphans to France. Graham's older sisters stayed with their mother. After the occupation of France Graham fled together with other Jewish youth from the country - a flight that most did not survive, including Graham's younger sister Tolla. Graham's mother was killed in Riga.

As a concert organizer Graham operational later the Fillmore West and Winterland, both in San Francisco and the Fillmore East in New York. Among his most famous events was The Last Waltz, the farewell concert of The Band, held on 25 November 1976 Winterland.

He also marketed psychedelic posters from artists like Wes Wilson and Rick Griffin. Occasionally, Graham appeared as an actor in appearance, as in the film Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola.

Bill Graham died in 1991 in a helicopter crash along with his partner Mellis gold and the pilots after returning from a " Huey Lewis & the News" concert in Grahams Shoreline Amphitheater in Concord ( California). During a storm, the helicopter collided with a pylon on Highway 37 near Vallejo, California and crashed.

In his honor one weeks later, a memorial concert was held in Golden Gate Park. There, among others, played the Grateful Dead and John Fogerty. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ( Nonperformers ) 1992.

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