The concert era for my father, Abe Saffron, started in 1947 when he opened the Australia's first Hollywood style nightclub, The Roosevelt. It became the place to go in Sydney, with spectacular production shows featuring famous singers, entertainers and showgirls. People magazine named The Roosevelt the #1 nightclub in the Southern Hemisphere.
In the early fifties my father met Lee Gordon, a young, self proclaimed American promoter, who stated that he would soon move to Australia and change the face of the entertainment industry in the country. In 1954, he again met up with my father, and they formed a 50/50 partnership whereas Lee would secure the acts and dad would provide the financing and necessary police and political connections.
Except for a few restricted visits during World War II, none of the top names in American Jazz and popular music had ever toured Australia, largely because of Australia's punitive taxation laws and racist restrictions that had been imposed by the Australian Musicians' Union in the early 1930's.
The Sydney Stadium, a 10,000 seat arena was the perfect venue for the launch of International concert tours in Australia, and Lee Gordon's style, ego and limitless enthusiasm was set to transform the staid Australian music scene.
Original Playbills
Original Artists Photos
Two of Lee's first acts to visit Australia were Johnnie Ray and Louis Armstrong in 1954, followed in 1955 by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Bob Hope and Abbott and Costello.
The first two years of their relationship were mixed, with Lee's inability to hold on to cash and excessive gambling, drinking and drugs interfering with business. However Lee needed my father's cash, political and union connections and my father enjoyed mingling with famous International stars. Lee's connections were unparalleled, having extremely close ties to Las Vegas, Frank Sinatra and the "Rat Pack".
In the years that followed, they toured over 200 International stars including Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Bill Haley and the Comets, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Fabian, Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, The Everly Brothers, Sal Mineo, Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis Jr. In addition to these acts they launched the Rock and Roll careers of Australian superstars Johnny O'Keefe and Col Joye. During this time, my father opened a 1000 capacity beer garden at his Raffles hotel in Perth where numerous Australian acts launched their careers including Billy Thorpe and AC/DC.
Lee, in an effort to change his lifestyle and settle down, married, Arlene Topfer in January,1962 in Acapulco, Mexico. His good friend Frank Sinatra was best man, and my father attended the wedding with one of his many female companions.
Lee's quiet days were short lived; near bankruptcy he brought to Australia, America's controversial entertainer, Lenny Bruce. The tour did not get past the opening night when Bruce was arrested for foul and obscene behavior and deported from the country.
Sinking into oblivion, Lee was arrested on drug charges in June 1963. With very little money, he escaped to England where he died in a hotel in London of a reported coronary occlusion. Elvis Presley and Colonel Tom Parker paid for his funeral.
My father continued on in the concert business through the end of the 1960's, touring Ike and Tina Turner, British Jigsaw, Mat Monroe, Donovan and several others. I assisted him with many of these acts. However without Lee Gordon it was never the same. Like my father he was an Australian legend.