166: Shep Gordon

In 1969, SHEP GORDON founded Alive Enterprises, a personal management company and over the years, Gordon and Alive have been responsible for managing the careers of Alice Cooper, Groucho Marx, Raquel Welch, Anne Murray, Ben Vereen, Teddy Pendergrass, Stephanie Mills, Blondie, Manhattan Transfer, Burton Cummings, Yvonne Elliman, Midnight Star, George Clinton, Luther Vandross, Rick James, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Kenny Loggins, Gipsy Kings , the Pointer Sisters, and many more, who have sold a total of over 100 million albums worldwide.  Gordon and Alive set many precedents in the music industry including the first television production of an album (Alice Cooper’s “Welcome to My Nightmare”), the first long form rock video produced for home release (Blondie’s “Eat to the Beat”), and one of the first concert television series (“Rock and Roll Tonight”), all of which inspired a new generation of music video and theatrical rock concert productions.  In the mid 70’s, Alive ventured into the movie business where its first production Ridley Scott’s “The Duellists”  won the Best Debut Film award at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival.  After several studio productions, including “Roadie” and “Endangered Species,” Gordon co-founded with Chris Blackwell and Island Records, Island Alive and Alive Films, for the production of independent feature films. Their commitment to artistic freedom attracted influential filmmakers and has been responsible for the production and/or distribution of the Academy Award-winning “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” Academy Award-nominated “Betty Blue,” “Marlene” and “El Norte,” Lindsay Anderson’s “The Whales of August,” Alan Rudolph’s “Choose Me” and “The Moderns,” John Carpenter’s “Prince of Darkness,” “They Live and Village of the Damned,” Wes Craven’s “People Under the Stairs,” Sam Shepard’s “Silent Tongue,” as well as 40 other movies. In 1975, Alive expanded into the restaurant industry with the opening of its first restaurant, Carlos ’n Charlies, which became a Hollywood institution for 20 years and then in the late 1980’s, Alive partnered with Robert DeNiro to open Tribeca Grill in New York City.  Alive’s restaurant business is still active having opened approximately 40 restaurants thus far, the most current being a founding partnership in Jean-Georges’ Spice Market in New York City. In the ‘90’s, Gordon’s started focusing on food as entertainment and chefs as entertainers, founding Alive Culinary Resources, which was designed to bridge the gap between the public and the world’s most sought-after chefs.  From its inception, his client roster read like a who’s who of the culinary world, including legendary French Chef Roger Vergé, Alice Waters, Wolfgang Puck, Charlie Trotter, Emeril Lagasse, Dean Fearing, Nobu, Todd English, Charlie Palmer, Larry Forgione, Paul Prudhomme, Jimmy Schmidt, Stephen Pyles, Robert del Grande, Daniel Boulud, Michel Richard, and 100 more of today’s most famous chefs.   Gordon was inducted into the Hawaii Culinary Hall of Fame and has also won numerous other industry awards, including being named one of the 100 most influential people in Rolling Stone magazine.  Anthony Bourdain/ECCO will be releasing his newest book – “They Call Me Supermensch: A Backstage Pass To The Amazing World Of Film, Food, and Rock ’N’ Roll” in September of 2016. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.