Ken Greengrass (born Irwin Greengrass; June 22, 1926 – April 10, 2014) was an American

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

and

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television show, television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television net ...

, perhaps best known as a manager of such musical performers as

Eydie Gormé Eydie Gormé ( ; born Edith Gormezano; August 16, 1928 – August 10, 2013) was an American singer who had hits on the pop and Latin pop charts. She sang solo and in the duo Steve and Eydie with her husband, Steve Lawrence, on albums and telev ...

and Steve Lawrence, Art Garfunkel and Florence Henderson.

Early life

Born in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, son of Al and Anne he had one brother, Floyd. He graduated high school from the

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in mu ...

Career

Greengrass began his career in the entertainment industry as a professional trumpet player, and his knowledge of music led to a career managing artists and producing many of their albums, garnering dozens of gold records. Greengrass started in the music industry by playing trumpet in a band in which Eydie Gorme was the lead singer and Steve. Shortly thereafter, he became her Manager and helped direct her career and scores of others including Steve Lawrence,

Diahann Carroll Diahann Carroll (; born Carol Diann Johnson; July 17, 1935 – October 4, 2019) was an American actress, singer, model, and activist. She rose to prominence in some of the earliest major studio films to feature black casts, including ''Car ...

, Vlad De Briansky, Florence Henderson, John Pizzarelli, Townes Van Zandt, The Highwaymen (folk band) and Bob McGrath (of Sesame Street). In the 1970s, Greengrass became an executive producer of television shows for all three major television networks. Greengrass was nominated for several Emmy Awards and won for NBC's “How the Beatles Changed the World.” Other award-winning programs included “A Piece of Cake,” “C’mon Saturday” and primetime special “My Father the Circus King,” which marked the first time an outside producer was permitted to film the Ringling Brothers circus family at work. In 2001, Greengrass produced a two-hour special for the Travel Channel, “The Secrets of San Simeon,” starring Patti Hearst. Greengrass executive produced the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

special “C’est la vie,” starring

and

Maurice Chevalier Maurice Auguste Chevalier (; 12 September 1888 – 1 January 1972) was a French singer, actor and entertainer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including " Livin' In The Sunlight", " Valentine", "Louise", " Mimi", and "Thank Hea ...

, and the ABC Afterschool Specials “The Unforgivable Secret” and “Sometimes I Don’t Love My Mother.” Greengrass packaged and produced ''

America Alive! ''America Alive!'' was an American television talk-variety program created by Woody Fraser. The show had a brief run on NBC, which aired it as part of its weekday daytime programming schedule from July 24, 1978, until January 4, 1979. Overview ...

'' a live, one-hour weekly strip on NBC that was a forerunner of the current magazine format television shows. Greengrass was executive producer of the Easter Seals and the Cerebral Palsy Foundation Telethons for many years, helping to raise millions of dollars for those charities. He was a member of the

New York Friars Club The Friars Club is a private club in New York City. Famous for its risqué roasts, the club's membership is composed mostly of comedians and other celebrities. Founded in 1904, it is located at 57 East 55th Street, between Park Avenue and Madi ...

for more than 55 years and served on its board of directors. He was chairman-producer of the New York Friars Club Celebrity “Roast” and in early 1998 conceived the idea of broadcasting the Friars Roast as a television special.

Personal life

He married his wife, Gerry Olin Greengrass, on December 10, 1961. Greengrass had two children Adam and Jonathan, and two grandchildren Benjamin and Aden.

Death

Greengrass died of a brief illness on April 10, 2014 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 ...

surrounded by his family. He was 87.

References

http://ippc2.orst.edu/coopl/sched1/clncombined/1972-01-22_Greengrass_Enterprices_Page-0020.pdf

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Greengrass, Ken 1926 births 2014 deaths American television producers