Irving B. Green (also known as Irvin B. Green) (February 6, 1916 – July 1, 2006Palm Springs Cemetery District, "Interments of Interest"
/ref>) was an American record industry executive, and founder and president of

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...

Biography

Green was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, the son of Sylvia (née Langler) and Albert "Al" Green, the founder of

National Records National Records was a record label that was started in New York City by Albert Green in 1945 and lasted until early 1951. Big Joe Turner was signed at the beginning and remained until 1947. Billy Eckstine was also a big seller for the label as w ...

. His father was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. He was instrumental in promoting

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

artists such as Sarah Vaughan,

Dinah Washington Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s songs". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performe ...

and the

Platters The Platters was an American vocal group formed in 1952. They are one of the most successful vocal groups of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound bridges the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the new burgeoning genre. The ac ...

. In 1945, he founded Mercury Records, in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, along with Berle Adams and

Arthur Talmadge Arthur Talmadge (1913 – May 25, 2006) was the American co-founder of Mercury Records. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Talmadge was a former President of United Artists Records, Executive Vice President at Mercury Records, and former President and foun ...

, and helped turn the independent outfit into a major label. In 1962, Green sold Mercury to Consolidated Electronics Industries Corporation (Conelco) an American affiliate of Dutch electronics giant

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

of the Netherlands but he remained Mercury Records' President. Green continued to run Mercury for five years after selling the company. In 1964, Mercury Records became the first major record label to have a black high-level executive, when Green hired the trumpeter

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

as vice president. After leaving Mercury, he became a successful real estate developer in

Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land ...

and built over 18,000 homes in southern Iran with real-estate developer Bill Levitt.

Personal life

Green died on July 1, 2006 at the

Desert Regional Medical Center Torney General Hospital was a US Army Hospital in Palm Springs, California, in Riverside County used during World War II. Parts of Torney General Hospital are now the Desert Regional Medical Center. In November 1945 Torney General Hospital was ...

in Palm Springs, California. He was survived by his wife Pamela and two daughters, Roberta Green Hunt and Kelli Green Ross. Services were held at Temple Isaiah in Palm Springs. He is buried in

Desert Memorial Park Desert Memorial Park is a cemetery in Cathedral City, California, United States, near Palm Springs. Opening in 1956 and receiving its first interment in 1957,The Palm Springs Cemetery District itself was covers 504 square miles, including Palm Spr ...

Cathedral City, California Cathedral City, colloquially known as "Cat City", is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. Situated between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, the city has the second larg ...

References

External links

* 1916 births 2006 deaths Burials at Desert Memorial Park Businesspeople from Chicago Record producers from New York (state) American people of Jewish descent People from Brooklyn 20th-century American businesspeople {{US-music-bio-stub