Bobb Goldsteinn
Encyclopedia
Bobb Goldsteinn is an American
showman, songwriter, and artist. As a pop pioneer, he wrote The Village Stompers
' international hit "Washington Square
" and produced The GoldeBriars
, Curt Boettcher
's original Sunshine Pop
singing group.
and Temple University
. He began writing songs while still in junior high school and continued through college. In 1958, he won an audition to write songs and sketches at the Tamiment Playhouse in the Pocono Mountains of Eastern Pennsylvania
.
At Tamiment, his sketch-writing partner was Woody Allen
and his songwriting partner was Billy Goldenberg
. Midway through the summer season of 1958, Goldsteinn discovered that his songs were being especially well-received and decided to work as a solo songwriter after Tamiment. He moved to New York City
shortly thereafter and became an assistant to Burt Shevelove
.
A social encounter with songwriter John Gluck Jr. in 1959 led to Bobb’s introduction to the legendary Brill Building
, then the heart of America’s Tin Pan Alley
, where Goldsteinn and Gluck soon began peddling their tunes. They had little success and Bobb decided to move back to Philadelphia to concentrate on mastering the craft of theatre songwriting. Within a year, he had created a body of original material and recorded a revue of topical sketches and songs called "Present Tense" (with songs by Goldsteinn and sketches by Woody Allen
). At the same time, Bob Sour (the President of BMI
) and Allan Becker (the head of BMI's music theatre department) heard of Goldsteinn's work and invited him back to New York to join the first class of writers at the innovative BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop
.
After returning to New York in 1960, Bobb continued working with John Gluck and the duo was discovered by Jerry Leiber of Leiber and Stoller Music. Goldsteinn and Gluck were signed on as staff writers, just as Ellie Greenwich
was a while later (who had also met Leiber through John Gluck). Unfortunately, only one record from that period bears Goldsteinn's name: “The Other Girls” – the ‘B’ side of Jay and the Americans
’ first 45 single, backed with “Tonight” from “West Side Story
.”
, jazz
and Dixieland
and represented the first hyphenated arrangement in pop music. "Washington Square," as recorded by the Village Stompers, became a chart-topper across the world in 1963 and 1964, reaching No. 2 in the United States
and holding the No. 1 spot on the Japan
ese charts for six months. In Japan, the recording sold over 800,000 copies and earned a Gold Record from the Recording Industry Association of Japan
by June 1964; it held the record for best-selling album and single until it was surpassed by Michael Jackson
's Thriller
19 years later. In 1964, the song was nominated for two Grammy Awards - Best Instrumental Arrangement and Best Instrumental Theme.
In the following years, the song would be recorded by The Ames Brothers, the Kirby Stone Four
, Percy Faith
, Lawrence Welk
, Kenny Ball
, Spike Jones
, James Last
, Andre Kostelanetz
, Kai Winding
, The Ventures
, and The Dukes of Dixieland (among many others).
In late 1964, Goldsteinn started managing, producing and co-writing for the GoldeBriars. Among his most significant lyrical contributions were "Sea of Tears," which he co-wrote with Curt Boettcher
, "June Bride Baby" with Beverly Ross, and "Tell it to the Wind" with Jeff Barry
.
studio, Bob created an environmental visual jukebox that illustrated music by surrounding the spectator with manually-synchronized light effects, slides, films, moving screens, and curtains of light under mirror balls that kept the room in spin. Word soon spread about the show’s pioneering style (Life
magazine referred to the parties as "the seedbed of new sound and light concept," Women's Wear Daily proclaimed that "'Lightworks' may well replace the discotheque, movies, TV, and everything else!", and the New York Herald Tribune explained that "Bob Goldstein has managed to put into workable form something that lots of people have been reaching for... The problem for a long time has been to appeal to more than one of the senses at the same time") and the presentation became a continual happening, held both in New York City and in Southampton
, Long Island
at L’Oursin. In 1966, Albert Goldman
profiled Goldsteinn in New York Magazine, and said of his experience at L'Oursin: "After tuning my senses to the stunning melange of sights and sounds coming from every direction, I made a snap decision to stay there the rest of my life." Lightworks even inspired the term "multimedia
" — a word coined by Goldsteinn to describe the technical nature of his entertainment and popularized by articles in Variety
, Newsday
, and other publications.
Goldsteinn's multimedia work was recognized as an important influence on art, cinema, advertising, fashion, and retail display. The first commercial application of the concept was designed and produced by Goldsteinn himself at Henri Bendel
's in New York in 1966. For that year’s Christmas season, Goldsteinn designed a first-floor display based on the “Christmas on the Thames” scene in Virginia Woolf
’s Orlando: A Biography
. The Lightworks-inspired set included 70,000 hand-painted bulbs that “dimmed up and dimmed down to the groovy beat of records played by a full-time dee-jay” and was called a “courageous” departure from the traditional Christmas Trees and Santa Clauses of holiday decorations by The World Journal Tribune. Lester Gaba
, a renowned retail display designer and a partner of Vincente Minnelli
, raved about the “Chriscotheque” at Bendel’s – calling it “the nouvelle spell of Christmas 1966”. Finally, Goldsteinn's identity as an important influence on the art world in general was solidified by his inclusion in Fluxus
founder, George Maciunas
's "Expanded Arts Diagram" as an "Expanded Cinema" pioneer in 1989.http://www.discogs.com/Various-Fluxus-Anthology/release/477682.
The "Lightworks" name was appropriated by Helena Rubenstein to brand a new line of youthful cosmetics. While the line featured a handful of products that were imagined and created without Goldsteinn's input, the Rubenstein Company allowed him to produce a radio commercial that was an audio counterpart of the psychedelic posters announcing the contemporary rock bills at various venues around the country. The radio spot featured spoken copy delivered over a singer and a music track, written by Bob Kessler. This simultaneous combination of copy and song had never been done before. Bobb hired Ellie Greenwich
to do the singing, and selected Jim Morrison
as the announcer. Unfortunately, the ad agency that handled the line had never heard of either Morrison or The Doors
, and they nixed him.
In the fall of 1968, Goldsteinn returned to songwriting and crafted the lyrics for "Canterbury Road" to a melody by Curt Boettcher and friends. The song was written for pop singer Lou Christie
and while it was not formally released, Roy Hallee made a copy of the mix and took it to Paul Simon
; a few months later, "Bridge over Troubled Water
" appeared. All master tape copies of "Canterbury Road" disappeared until 1990-1991, when an in-flight audiotape was found in a Dutch
flea market
. The song was finally released on a Lou Christie import album called Glory River in 1992.
Between 1969 and 1972, Goldsteinn collaborated with Andy Warhol
on a number of projects. First, he wrote the title track to Warhol’s movie Lonesome Cowboys, a track that is now known to be the first disco arrangement in music history. Goldsteinn also conceived the cover of The Rolling Stones
’ Sticky Fingers
album, originally designed to be the cover of the Lonesome Cowboys LP. This record was to contain a dozen new compositions, all ‘inspired’ by the title song, but the label went under before the project could be completed and released. Finally, Goldsteinn ran the Lightworks equipment as the mise en scene in the opening scene of Warhol’s film Trash. Stripper Jeri Miller attempts to fellate
the star, Joe Dallesandro
, as Goldsteinn's screens, curtains of lights and mirror balls play in the background.
In 1972, Goldsteinn created a Lightworks retrospective entitled "The Strange Festival" that featured all of his sequences arranged into a narrative form, illustrating the central chapters of the French
classic Le Grand Meaulnes
. Ernest Leogrande, writing for the New York Daily News
, reported that "for two hours, curtains of lights move back and forth, screens roll up and down, mirrored balls revolve overhead, images appear and fade, blending into one another, music plays and there is both beauty and humor with a Goldstein concert of his own songs at the end."
. He studied music, photography, and law, and graduated with an Associates degree from Los Angeles City College
in 1982. While at Pierce, he studied music theory with the prolific composer, Rowan Taylor and was one of the winners of Radio KWST LA Soundtrack Record Competition with the song "San Fernando Valley Valerie" In 1980, Goldsteinn went to Naropa University
in Boulder
, Colorado
to study Buddhism.
During this time, Goldsteinn participated in a number of small projects as a favor to friends and acquaintances (including a brief co-venture with the pioneering gay adult magazine publisher Don Embinder), but he was making a concerted effort to stay out of the entertainment business and intended to do so until he felt ready to return.
under his tenure.http://broadwayworld.com/bwidb/sections/theatres/index.php?var=5814
During his first year back in New York, Goldsteinn was also heavily involved in the production of the 1st benefit for Bailey House, a hospice for homeless people with AIDS. “That’s What Friends Are For” at the fabled Village Gate was an all-star evening of cabaret
featuring two dozen stars, including Larry Kert
, Julie Wilson
, Margaret Whiting
and Jack Wrangler
.
the first movie directed by James Lapine. However, the company roared back immediately when Goldsteinn promoted "The Strippers' Hall of Fame" -- a sensational reunion event featuring a collection of elderly ecdysiasts which prompted TV crews from around the world to descend en masse upon a dilapidated motel in the Antelope Valley
, between Los Angeles and Las Vegas
.
gOLDbURT Media was dissolved in 1993 due to financial and personal hardships that befell the company. That year, Goldsteinn was asked by Albert Brenner
's daughter, Faye, to manage and stage an all-female a cappella
group called The Joy of Six. The group made its first stage appearance in front of an audience at The Harmony Sweepstakes Southern California Regionals and won First Prize. The group was offered thousands of dollars in bookings, but the women decided that they did not want to spend their lives on the road and disbanded after the San Francisco Finals were held a month later.
In 1995, Goldsteinn completed two high-profile art projects in quick succession. First, he designed the print teaser for "David Lynch
Presents CRUMB
," a documentary about Robert Crumb
, for which Goldsteinn was nominated for a Hollywood Reporter "Key Art Award". Then, in 1996, he created what he considers to be his graphic masterwork: "The 'Hollywood Boulevard
' Street Sign". The billboard, unveiled by Robert Downey Sr.
the night of the Hollywood Christmas Parade, is presented in a landscape format, where the words "Hollywood" and "Boulevard" are placed atop one another to spell out the word "OLD" with the letters that they share in common (a subcutaneous nod to the history of a street that rivals Broadway in legend).
at his brother's house, but he decided to stay, as he had been embraced by the city's anarchist community. The anarchists provided him with a room in a "homestead" on 9th Street in Alphabet City
-- one of the squats that provided the model for the musical, "Rent
." In appreciation, Goldsteinn co-founded and co-curated a group art-show at their community center, ABC No Rio. The Village Voice described 1998's "The IDES of March" as a production of "60 artists on four floors, filling the building with fresh art from New York, Brooklyn, Boston, and California."http://www.abcnorio.org/
In 1997, during his time at the homestead, Goldsteinn had a chance encounter with Albert Marcus, who would later become his best friend, business partner, and collaborator. Together, the two have started Take-Home Tunes, The Adaption Agency and The Roger Edens Foundation. In 2007, Goldsteinn and Marcus became the producers of the 32 year-old Beekman Place holiday tradition, Irving Berlin
’s ‘White Christmassing.’http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/23/arts/music/23berl.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1 For the 2008 edition of the event, The Foundation commissioned an original song to celebrate the evening entitled “We:HYMN ‘White Christmas.’” The song was imagined as a companion piece to "White Christmas" to stand in for its original verse intro.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
showman, songwriter, and artist. As a pop pioneer, he wrote The Village Stompers
The Village Stompers
The Village Stompers was a U.S. dixieland music group with the hit "Washington Square" in 1963. The band was known for its instrumental pieces....
' international hit "Washington Square
Washington Square (song)
"Washington Square" is the title of a popular instrumental from 1963 by the New York City-based jazz group The Village Stompers.Named after the famous park in New York City, "Washington Square" became a hit single in November 1963, when it peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The...
" and produced The GoldeBriars
The GoldeBriars
The Goldebriars were an early 1960s folk quartet, which is most notable for including a young Curt Boettcher as a guitarist and vocalist. The group also included two sisters, Dotti and Sheri Holmberg, with Ron Neilson, as lead guitarist and banjo player...
, Curt Boettcher
Curt Boettcher
Curt Boettcher was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer from Wisconsin. His career spanned 1964 to 1983...
's original Sunshine Pop
Sunshine pop
Sunshine pop is a subgenre of pop music originating in the United States, mainly the state of California, in the mid-1960s. Sunshine pop, by nature, is cheerful and upbeat music which is characterised by warm sounds, prominent vocal harmonies, as well as sophisticated productions...
singing group.
Early years
Bobb Goldsteinn was born in Philadelphia, where he attended Overbrook High SchoolOverbrook High School (Philadelphia)
Overbrook High School is an inner-city, public, four-year secondary school in the Overbrook section of West Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.-School:...
and Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
. He began writing songs while still in junior high school and continued through college. In 1958, he won an audition to write songs and sketches at the Tamiment Playhouse in the Pocono Mountains of Eastern Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
.
At Tamiment, his sketch-writing partner was Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
and his songwriting partner was Billy Goldenberg
Billy Goldenberg
William Leon "Billy" Goldenberg is an American composer most known for his work on television and film....
. Midway through the summer season of 1958, Goldsteinn discovered that his songs were being especially well-received and decided to work as a solo songwriter after Tamiment. He moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
shortly thereafter and became an assistant to Burt Shevelove
Burt Shevelove
Burt Shevelove was an American musical theater playwright, lyricist, librettist, and director. Born in Newark, New Jersey, he graduated from Brown University and Yale . At Brown in 1935, he acted in the first ever Brownbrokers musical titled Something Bruin...
.
A social encounter with songwriter John Gluck Jr. in 1959 led to Bobb’s introduction to the legendary Brill Building
Brill Building
The Brill Building is an office building located at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood...
, then the heart of America’s Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
, where Goldsteinn and Gluck soon began peddling their tunes. They had little success and Bobb decided to move back to Philadelphia to concentrate on mastering the craft of theatre songwriting. Within a year, he had created a body of original material and recorded a revue of topical sketches and songs called "Present Tense" (with songs by Goldsteinn and sketches by Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
). At the same time, Bob Sour (the President of BMI
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
) and Allan Becker (the head of BMI's music theatre department) heard of Goldsteinn's work and invited him back to New York to join the first class of writers at the innovative BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop
BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop
The BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop is a workshop in New York for musical theatre composers, lyricists and librettists.-History:The BMI Workshop was founded in 1961 by Lehman Engel and the performing rights organization BMI ....
.
After returning to New York in 1960, Bobb continued working with John Gluck and the duo was discovered by Jerry Leiber of Leiber and Stoller Music. Goldsteinn and Gluck were signed on as staff writers, just as Ellie Greenwich
Ellie Greenwich
Eleanor Louise "Ellie" Greenwich was an American pop music singer, songwriter, and record producer. She wrote or co-wrote "Be My Baby", "Christmas ", "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Leader of the Pack", "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", and "River Deep, Mountain High", among many others...
was a while later (who had also met Leiber through John Gluck). Unfortunately, only one record from that period bears Goldsteinn's name: “The Other Girls” – the ‘B’ side of Jay and the Americans
Jay and the Americans
Jay and the Americans was a pop music group popular in the 1960s. Their initial lineup consisted of John "Jay" Traynor, Howard Kane , Kenny Vance and Sandy Deanne , though their greatest success on the charts came after Traynor had been replaced as lead singer by Jay Black.-Early years:They were...
’ first 45 single, backed with “Tonight” from “West Side Story
West Side Story
West Side Story is an American musical with a script by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreographed by Jerome Robbins...
.”
"Washington Square"
In 1962, Goldsteinn took a song called "India," which he had written as a high school student, and renamed it "Washington Square." He created a distinctive arrangement for the tune called "folk-dixie," an instrumental style that synthesized folkFolk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and Dixieland
Dixieland
Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.Well-known jazz standard songs from the...
and represented the first hyphenated arrangement in pop music. "Washington Square," as recorded by the Village Stompers, became a chart-topper across the world in 1963 and 1964, reaching No. 2 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and holding the No. 1 spot on the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese charts for six months. In Japan, the recording sold over 800,000 copies and earned a Gold Record from the Recording Industry Association of Japan
Recording Industry Association of Japan
The Recording Industry Association of Japan is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved the music industry...
by June 1964; it held the record for best-selling album and single until it was surpassed by Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
's Thriller
Thriller (album)
Thriller is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records as the follow-up to Jackson's critically and commercially successful 1979 album Off the Wall...
19 years later. In 1964, the song was nominated for two Grammy Awards - Best Instrumental Arrangement and Best Instrumental Theme.
In the following years, the song would be recorded by The Ames Brothers, the Kirby Stone Four
Kirby Stone Four
The Kirby Stone Four were an American vocal ensemble popular in the 1950s and early 1960s.Kirby Stone founded the group in the years after World War II and began playing clubs in the New York area. They won slots on local television, including The Ed Sullivan Show, and soon after signed to Columbia...
, Percy Faith
Percy Faith
Percy Faith was a Canadian-born American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited with creating the "easy listening" or "mood music" format which became staples of American popular music in the 1950s and...
, Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk was an American musician, accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1955 to 1982...
, Kenny Ball
Kenny Ball
Kenny Ball is an English jazz musician, best known as the lead trumpet player in Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen.-Career:...
, Spike Jones
Spike Jones
Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, performed a drunken, hiccuping verse for 1942's "Clink! Clink! Another Drink"...
, James Last
James Last
James Last is a German composer and big band leader. His "happy music" made his numerous albums best-sellers in Germany and the United Kingdom. His composition, "Happy Heart", became an international success in interpretations by Andy Williams and Petula Clark...
, Andre Kostelanetz
Andre Kostelanetz
André Kostelanetz was a popular orchestral music conductor and arranger, one of the pioneers of easy listening music.-Biography:...
, Kai Winding
Kai Winding
Kai Chresten Winding was a popular Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is well known for a successful collaboration with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson.-Biography:...
, The Ventures
The Ventures
The Ventures is an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington. Founded by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, the group in its various incarnations has had an enduring impact on the development of music worldwide. With over 100 million records sold, the group is the best-selling...
, and The Dukes of Dixieland (among many others).
In late 1964, Goldsteinn started managing, producing and co-writing for the GoldeBriars. Among his most significant lyrical contributions were "Sea of Tears," which he co-wrote with Curt Boettcher
Curt Boettcher
Curt Boettcher was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer from Wisconsin. His career spanned 1964 to 1983...
, "June Bride Baby" with Beverly Ross, and "Tell it to the Wind" with Jeff Barry
Jeff Barry
Jeff Barry is an American pop music songwriter, singer, and record producer.-Early career:...
.
"Lightworks" and Multimedia
In 1965, when the GoldeBriars disbanded, Goldsteinn turned his attention to further developing the field of "colour music." That year, he hosted a Christmas party for his friends, which he called "Bob Goldstein’s Lightworks." In his Greenwich VillageGreenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
studio, Bob created an environmental visual jukebox that illustrated music by surrounding the spectator with manually-synchronized light effects, slides, films, moving screens, and curtains of light under mirror balls that kept the room in spin. Word soon spread about the show’s pioneering style (Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazine referred to the parties as "the seedbed of new sound and light concept," Women's Wear Daily proclaimed that "'Lightworks' may well replace the discotheque, movies, TV, and everything else!", and the New York Herald Tribune explained that "Bob Goldstein has managed to put into workable form something that lots of people have been reaching for... The problem for a long time has been to appeal to more than one of the senses at the same time") and the presentation became a continual happening, held both in New York City and in Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
at L’Oursin. In 1966, Albert Goldman
Albert Goldman
Albert Harry Goldman was an American professor and author.Born in Dormont, Pennsylvania, Albert Goldman wrote about the culture and personalities of the American music industry both in books and as a contributor to magazines...
profiled Goldsteinn in New York Magazine, and said of his experience at L'Oursin: "After tuning my senses to the stunning melange of sights and sounds coming from every direction, I made a snap decision to stay there the rest of my life." Lightworks even inspired the term "multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
" — a word coined by Goldsteinn to describe the technical nature of his entertainment and popularized by articles in Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
, and other publications.
Goldsteinn's multimedia work was recognized as an important influence on art, cinema, advertising, fashion, and retail display. The first commercial application of the concept was designed and produced by Goldsteinn himself at Henri Bendel
Henri Bendel
Henri Bendel is an American upscale women's specialty store based in New York City that sells fashion accessories, cosmetics and fragrances, gifts and gourmet foods...
's in New York in 1966. For that year’s Christmas season, Goldsteinn designed a first-floor display based on the “Christmas on the Thames” scene in Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
’s Orlando: A Biography
Orlando: A Biography
Orlando: A Biography is an influential novel by Virginia Woolf, first published on 11 October 1928. A semi-biographical novel based in part on the life of Woolf's lover Vita Sackville-West, it is generally considered one of Woolf's most accessible novels...
. The Lightworks-inspired set included 70,000 hand-painted bulbs that “dimmed up and dimmed down to the groovy beat of records played by a full-time dee-jay” and was called a “courageous” departure from the traditional Christmas Trees and Santa Clauses of holiday decorations by The World Journal Tribune. Lester Gaba
Lester Gaba
Lester Gaba was an American sculptor, writer and retail display designer.- Early life :Born in Hannibal, Missouri. His parents owned a general store, but Gaba took no interest in the shop. He spent most of the time on his own, drawing. At the age of 10, he participated at a soap sculpture contest...
, a renowned retail display designer and a partner of Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...
, raved about the “Chriscotheque” at Bendel’s – calling it “the nouvelle spell of Christmas 1966”. Finally, Goldsteinn's identity as an important influence on the art world in general was solidified by his inclusion in Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
founder, George Maciunas
George Maciunas
George Maciunas was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He was a founding member of Fluxus, an international community of artists, architects, composers, and designers...
's "Expanded Arts Diagram" as an "Expanded Cinema" pioneer in 1989.http://www.discogs.com/Various-Fluxus-Anthology/release/477682.
The "Lightworks" name was appropriated by Helena Rubenstein to brand a new line of youthful cosmetics. While the line featured a handful of products that were imagined and created without Goldsteinn's input, the Rubenstein Company allowed him to produce a radio commercial that was an audio counterpart of the psychedelic posters announcing the contemporary rock bills at various venues around the country. The radio spot featured spoken copy delivered over a singer and a music track, written by Bob Kessler. This simultaneous combination of copy and song had never been done before. Bobb hired Ellie Greenwich
Ellie Greenwich
Eleanor Louise "Ellie" Greenwich was an American pop music singer, songwriter, and record producer. She wrote or co-wrote "Be My Baby", "Christmas ", "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Leader of the Pack", "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", and "River Deep, Mountain High", among many others...
to do the singing, and selected Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American musician, singer, and poet, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band The Doors...
as the announcer. Unfortunately, the ad agency that handled the line had never heard of either Morrison or The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
, and they nixed him.
In the fall of 1968, Goldsteinn returned to songwriting and crafted the lyrics for "Canterbury Road" to a melody by Curt Boettcher and friends. The song was written for pop singer Lou Christie
Lou Christie
Luigi Alfredo Giovanni Sacco , known professionally as Lou Christie, is an American singer-songwriter best known for three separate strings of pop hits in the 1960s , including his 1966 smash, "Lightnin' Strikes" and his incredible 3 octave vocal range.-Biography:Sacco was born in Glenwillard,...
and while it was not formally released, Roy Hallee made a copy of the mix and took it to Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
; a few months later, "Bridge over Troubled Water
Bridge over Troubled Water
Bridge Over Troubled Water is the fifth and final studio album by Simon & Garfunkel. Released on January 26, 1970 on both Quadraphonic and Stereo formats, it reached No. 1 on Billboard Music Charts pop albums list...
" appeared. All master tape copies of "Canterbury Road" disappeared until 1990-1991, when an in-flight audiotape was found in a Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
flea market
Flea market
A flea market or swap meet is a type of bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered. It may be indoors, such as in a warehouse or school gymnasium; or it may be outdoors, such as in a field or under a tent...
. The song was finally released on a Lou Christie import album called Glory River in 1992.
Between 1969 and 1972, Goldsteinn collaborated with Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
on a number of projects. First, he wrote the title track to Warhol’s movie Lonesome Cowboys, a track that is now known to be the first disco arrangement in music history. Goldsteinn also conceived the cover of The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
’ Sticky Fingers
Sticky Fingers
-Personnel:The Rolling Stones*Mick Jagger – lead vocals, acoustic guitar on "Dead Flowers", electric guitar on "Sway", percussion*Keith Richards – electric guitar, six & twelve string acoustic guitar, backing vocals...
album, originally designed to be the cover of the Lonesome Cowboys LP. This record was to contain a dozen new compositions, all ‘inspired’ by the title song, but the label went under before the project could be completed and released. Finally, Goldsteinn ran the Lightworks equipment as the mise en scene in the opening scene of Warhol’s film Trash. Stripper Jeri Miller attempts to fellate
Fellatio
Fellatio is an act of oral stimulation of a male's penis by a sexual partner. It involves the stimulation of the penis by the use of the mouth, tongue, or throat. The person who performs fellatio can be referred to as the giving partner, and the other person is the receiving partner...
the star, Joe Dallesandro
Joe Dallesandro
Joseph Angelo D'Allesandro , better known as Joe Dallesandro, is an American actor, and Warhol superstar. Although he never became a mainstream film star, Dallesandro is generally considered to be the most famous male sex symbol of American underground films of the 20th century, as well as a sex...
, as Goldsteinn's screens, curtains of lights and mirror balls play in the background.
In 1972, Goldsteinn created a Lightworks retrospective entitled "The Strange Festival" that featured all of his sequences arranged into a narrative form, illustrating the central chapters of the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
classic Le Grand Meaulnes
Le Grand Meaulnes
Le Grand Meaulnes is the only novel by French author Alain-Fournier. Fifteen-year-old François Seurel narrates the story of his relationship with seventeen-year-old Augustin Meaulnes as Meaulnes searches for his lost love. Impulsive, reckless and heroic, Meaulnes embodies the romantic ideal, the...
. Ernest Leogrande, writing for the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
, reported that "for two hours, curtains of lights move back and forth, screens roll up and down, mirrored balls revolve overhead, images appear and fade, blending into one another, music plays and there is both beauty and humor with a Goldstein concert of his own songs at the end."
California Schooling
In 1974, Goldsteinn left for California in order to continue his education at Los Angeles Pierce CollegeLos Angeles Pierce College
Los Angeles Pierce College, also known as Pierce College, Pierce, is a community college that serves more than 23,000 students in the northern Chalk Hills of Woodland Hills, a community within the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California.The college began with 70 students...
. He studied music, photography, and law, and graduated with an Associates degree from Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College, known as LACC, is a public community college in the East Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard...
in 1982. While at Pierce, he studied music theory with the prolific composer, Rowan Taylor and was one of the winners of Radio KWST LA Soundtrack Record Competition with the song "San Fernando Valley Valerie" In 1980, Goldsteinn went to Naropa University
Naropa University
Naropa University is a private American liberal arts university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher and Oxford University scholar Chögyam Trungpa, it is named for the eleventh-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda.Naropa describes itself as...
in Boulder
Boulder
In geology, a boulder is a rock with grain size of usually no less than 256 mm diameter. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive....
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
to study Buddhism.
During this time, Goldsteinn participated in a number of small projects as a favor to friends and acquaintances (including a brief co-venture with the pioneering gay adult magazine publisher Don Embinder), but he was making a concerted effort to stay out of the entertainment business and intended to do so until he felt ready to return.
Return to Entertainment
In 1987, Goldsteinn was summoned back to New York for family reasons and, at the suggestion of Johnson Burtt, a future business partner, decided to re-enter the industry. That year, he was invited to join the Board of Directors at Theatre Off Park, which produced shows like "Mademoiselle Colombe" starring Tammy GrimesTammy Grimes
-Early life:Grimes was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, the daughter of Eola Willard , a naturalist and spiritualist, and Nicholas Luther Grimes, an innkeeper, country-club manager, and farmer. She attended high school at the then-all girls school, Beaver Country Day School, in Chestnut Hill,...
under his tenure.http://broadwayworld.com/bwidb/sections/theatres/index.php?var=5814
During his first year back in New York, Goldsteinn was also heavily involved in the production of the 1st benefit for Bailey House, a hospice for homeless people with AIDS. “That’s What Friends Are For” at the fabled Village Gate was an all-star evening of cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
featuring two dozen stars, including Larry Kert
Larry Kert
Larry Kert was an American actor, singer, and dancer. He is best known for creating the role of Tony in the original Broadway version of West Side Story.-Early life:...
, Julie Wilson
Julie Wilson
Julie Wilson is an American singer and actress.Born in Omaha, Nebraska and first finding a musical outlet with local musical group Hank's Hepcats, Wilson headed to New York City during World War II and found work in two of Manhattan's leading nightclubs, the Latin Quarter and the Copacabana...
, Margaret Whiting
Margaret Whiting
Margaret Whiting was a singer of American popular music and country music who first made her reputation during the 1940s and 1950s.-Youth:...
and Jack Wrangler
Jack Wrangler
Jack Wrangler was an American actor of gay and straight adult film, theatrical producer, and director. Open about his homosexuality and adult film work throughout his career, Wrangler was considered an icon of the gay-liberation movement.In 2008, a feature-length documentary film, Wrangler:...
.
California, Again
By 1990, Goldsteinn became dissatisfied with work in New York and decided to return once again to California. In Los Angeles, he began an entertainment company, gOLDbURTT Media, with his former neighbor, Johnson Burtt. The company was initially confronted with failure, when it was removed from a commission to orchestrate the domestic release of ImpromptuImpromptu
An impromptu is a free-form musical composition with the character of an ex tempore improvisation as if prompted by the spirit of the moment, usually for a solo instrument, such as piano...
the first movie directed by James Lapine. However, the company roared back immediately when Goldsteinn promoted "The Strippers' Hall of Fame" -- a sensational reunion event featuring a collection of elderly ecdysiasts which prompted TV crews from around the world to descend en masse upon a dilapidated motel in the Antelope Valley
Antelope Valley
The Antelope Valley in California, United States, is located in northern Los Angeles County and the southeastern portion of Kern County, California, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert...
, between Los Angeles and Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
.
gOLDbURT Media was dissolved in 1993 due to financial and personal hardships that befell the company. That year, Goldsteinn was asked by Albert Brenner
Albert Brenner
Albert Brenner is an American production designer and art director. He has been nominated for five Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction.-Selected filmography:...
's daughter, Faye, to manage and stage an all-female a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
group called The Joy of Six. The group made its first stage appearance in front of an audience at The Harmony Sweepstakes Southern California Regionals and won First Prize. The group was offered thousands of dollars in bookings, but the women decided that they did not want to spend their lives on the road and disbanded after the San Francisco Finals were held a month later.
In 1995, Goldsteinn completed two high-profile art projects in quick succession. First, he designed the print teaser for "David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
Presents CRUMB
Crumb
Crumb may refer to:* Crumb , 1994 documentary* Crumb, the component of bread inside the crust* CRUMB – Curatorial Resource for Upstart Media Bliss, a research institute* Crumb...
," a documentary about Robert Crumb
Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
, for which Goldsteinn was nominated for a Hollywood Reporter "Key Art Award". Then, in 1996, he created what he considers to be his graphic masterwork: "The 'Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard
-Revitalization:In recent years successful efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001...
' Street Sign". The billboard, unveiled by Robert Downey Sr.
Robert Downey Sr.
Robert John Downey, Sr. is an American actor, writer, and film director, and the father of actor Robert Downey, Jr...
the night of the Hollywood Christmas Parade, is presented in a landscape format, where the words "Hollywood" and "Boulevard" are placed atop one another to spell out the word "OLD" with the letters that they share in common (a subcutaneous nod to the history of a street that rivals Broadway in legend).
New York, Again
In 1997, Goldsteinn was invited back to New York for a Passover SederPassover Seder
The Passover Seder is a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted on the evenings of the 14th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, and on the 15th by traditionally observant Jews living outside Israel. This corresponds to late March or April in...
at his brother's house, but he decided to stay, as he had been embraced by the city's anarchist community. The anarchists provided him with a room in a "homestead" on 9th Street in Alphabet City
Alphabet City, Manhattan
Alphabet City is a neighborhood located within the Lower East Side and East Village in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is also known as Loisaida, a Spanglish adaptation of 'Lower East Side'. Its name comes from Avenues A, B, C, and D, the only avenues in Manhattan to have single-letter...
-- one of the squats that provided the model for the musical, "Rent
Rent (musical)
Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
." In appreciation, Goldsteinn co-founded and co-curated a group art-show at their community center, ABC No Rio. The Village Voice described 1998's "The IDES of March" as a production of "60 artists on four floors, filling the building with fresh art from New York, Brooklyn, Boston, and California."http://www.abcnorio.org/
In 1997, during his time at the homestead, Goldsteinn had a chance encounter with Albert Marcus, who would later become his best friend, business partner, and collaborator. Together, the two have started Take-Home Tunes, The Adaption Agency and The Roger Edens Foundation. In 2007, Goldsteinn and Marcus became the producers of the 32 year-old Beekman Place holiday tradition, Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
’s ‘White Christmassing.’http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/23/arts/music/23berl.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1 For the 2008 edition of the event, The Foundation commissioned an original song to celebrate the evening entitled “We:HYMN ‘White Christmas.’” The song was imagined as a companion piece to "White Christmas" to stand in for its original verse intro.