Goldmine:
So you became a staff producer for Red Bird. What was it like working
there?
"Shadow"
Morton: At first, until the contracts were drawn, they put me on as
a P.R. man and I hung around George Goldner. One day, right after I
started working, George said to me, "Do you know how to drive? Ever
been to Detroit?" I had three hours to run home, get some clothes and
take off. Quick. I drove him in this big, beautiful Lincoln to Detroit.
He was a wonderful passenger, he had such great stories about the business.
He was telling me inside stuff. (smiles)... We take a room in this nice
hotel. And he gets into bed with a book. You had to see this man...he's
got the blankets pulled up over him, he's got a glass of booze in one
hand, the book in the other...and he says to me, "Why are you pacing?"
I said. "I didn't know I was pacing!" Then he says, "I know what it
is! You've never been to Detroit." So he laughs (and he had this wonderful
laughter) and gets up out of bed and hands me $300.00. He hands me the
keys to the car. He says, "Go out. Have a good time. See Detroit."
Whew.
Four days later, about ten o'clock in the morning, (laughs) I stagger
back through the door. He's standing in front of the mirror fixing his
tie which usually took twenty to thirty minutes (laughs). He's fixing
and fixing and fixing his tie, he glances at me and goes back to the
mirror and fixes his tie...and he whistles a little bit. (He had a thing
about his tie being perfect and he always fussed over it.) I sit down
on the bed. I haven't shaved, showered, nothing in four days. He's ignoring
me. Finally, I just can't take it anymore so I said, "I think that if
you knew where I was, you wouldn't be so upset." He smiles at me and
says, "I know where you were." I was surprised. I said, "You do?" He
says, "Yeah. On the first night out of here, you went to The Pussy Cat
Club and you ended up with the barmaid...who took you to a whorehouse.
And you've been servicing all six whores for the last four days!" I
was speechless for a long time. Finally, I said, "So how come you know
that and you're still mad at me?" He said, "I've never seen anybody
enter and exit the music business as quick as you did!" (laughs) And
he laughed, too. (laughs) I said, "George, wait! I couldn't pass that
up!" (laughs) He laughed, too. He was a wonderful person.
Goldmine:
Tell me more about George Goldner. What was he like?
"Shadow"
Morton: George was an incredibly generous man. I loved him...everybody
loved George. There was never a bad word...Now there's the man they
should make a movie about. He did more for the foundation of rock than
anyone. He had both sides of the coin; he was a creative man and a business
man. When they started pulling people into the hearings about payola,
it was George Goldner who got upset and started hollering, "Do not prosecute
them. This was all my idea! I invented this!" He saw it as business.
He didn't see it as something illegal. That's how business was done.
It's still done the same way. Maybe they call it something different
and maybe the methods have changed but it's the same thing still going
on.
| Goldmine:
The payola scandals of the 50's were ugly. Just thinking of the
fate of Alan Freed saddens me... |
|
"Shadow"
Morton: ah...Freed was the first really strong rock jock but I think
a lot of people give him too much credit. As I understand the story,
it was Goldner who cultivated Alan Freed. Goldner had Freed staying
at his house in Scarsdale and used to wake him up every morning by giving
him six ounces of vodka. It was Goldner who got everything done. In
fact, there was a joke that went around that said that Alan Freed was
too drunk to conceive of it, he must have turned to George Goldner who
said, "Call it Rock'n'Roll!" Alan Freed was big jock but he was no Symphony
Sid.
Goldmine:
Let's talk about "Leader Of The Pack." I always felt that Mary Weiss,
the lead singer of the Shangri-Las, sang that song as if she knew "The
Leader."
"Shadow"
Morton: No. She had her fantasy of who it would be. You've got to remember
those girls came out of Cambria Heights, Queens. And, you know, up until
about five years ago, I had no reason to listen to those records and
I never did and I still don't. I listened then and I was stunned. 'Cause
I can remember spending hour after hour on those vocals...how to say
something, what it was about...I was more a director than I was a producer.
I still consider myself that. And I listen today and...I lucked out!
Four girls, out of Cambria Heights, who fell into my lap from the get-go,
and I never realized how much talent I had on my hands. Mary and the
others had the ability to make my stories believable. I don't know too
many actresses out there who could do it. If you took them off the screen
and told them, "By word alone, convince people," they'd fail. the Shangri-Las
were capable of pulling that off.
Goldmine:
"Leader of The Pack" is a rock standard now. I wonder how you can relate
to that...
"Shadow"
Morton: Someone told me that "Leader..." is the number one selling record
of all time because it's been put into so many oldies albums, and soundtracks...
Goldmine:
They include that song in camp pageants...
"Shadow"
Morton: (laughs) Wait! Let me tell you something. I saw it done that
way, at a junior high. It was a stage presentation out in California.
I went because (sighs)...I wasn't involved in music at the time...What
I saw...I was taken by this. I said to my friend, "Where do they come
to do this song...way out here in California!" And he calmly turned
to me and said, "Hell, they're doing this all over the world!" And I
still could not conceive of that. It still did not sink in. I wrote
that song! (laughs)...(laughs harder)
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The interview originally appeared in Goldmine Magazine,
July, 12, 1991,
Volume
17, Number14, Issue 286
©
Richard Arfin 1987 Revised
2004 All
Rights Reserved
