Norman Weiss was an executive at General Artists Corp., a talent agency, which booked some of the biggest musical groups in the 1960s, including The Beatles for their first tour of America, including their appearance on

The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television program, television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in Septembe ...

. Weiss had started a theatrical agency, with partner Roy Gerber, 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 ...

in the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

1940s. The pair sold their agency to

Music Corporation of America MCA Inc. (originally an initialism for Music Corporation of America) was an American media conglomerate founded in 1924. Originally a talent agency with artists in the music business as clients, the company became a major force in the film ind ...

(MCA) in 1953, joining that firm as agents. In the early 1960s, they pair moved to General Artists Corp., where Weiss worked with

Brian Epstein Brian Samuel Epstein (; 19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967) was a British music entrepreneur who managed the Beatles from 1962 until his death in 1967. Epstein was born into a family of successful retailers in Liverpool, who put him i ...

, The Beatles' manager, to arranging the band's first American tour, which included The Beatles famous appearances on

. Other

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

personalities of the 1960s represented by Weiss included

The Turtles ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

(in which Weiss's agency is noted as "a despicable record company that sued them for millions of dollars') and Tom Jones, where his influence on Jones's success in America is generally ignored entirely. Nevertheless, Weiss was a force in popular music in the 1960s while at General Artists Corp, although his influence is not generally well understood by the public, it is still remembered by industry insiders, even today.

References

External links

Beatles History listed by Year

The Turtles Official Web Site

Tom Jones Official Web Site

National Association of Radio Industry (2004) Speech
American entertainment industry businesspeople {{US-business-bio-stub