Larry Parnes
Laurence Maurice Parnes (3 September 1929 – 4 August 1989) was a British pop manager and impresario. He was the first major British rock manager, and his stable of singers included many of the most successful British rock and roll singers of the late 1950s and early 1960s.[2]
Parnes' reputation was later damaged by testimony from many of the artists he managed in the late fifties and early sixties who alleged they were exploited.
Early years[edit]
Parnes was born to a Jewish family[3] in Willesden, London, England.[2] After leaving school he began work in a clothing store, and by the age of 18 ran a women's clothing shop in Romford, Essex. He then bought a share in a bar in Romilly Street, Soho. He agreed to invest in a touring play, The House of Shame, which became both successful and notorious in 1954 after its publicist, John Kennedy, persuaded two actresses to stand outside the theatre dressed as prostitutes.
Theatre and other interests[edit]
Parnes remained an influential impresario even after the rise of the Beatles and other groups had eclipsed those in his stable.[3][b] However, his attitude and approach rapidly became old-fashioned. In 1967 he announced that he was going to devote himself to the theatre, and in 1968 put on Fortune and Men's Eyes, a play about homosexuality in a Canadian prison, but it lost money. He bought a lease of the Cambridge Theatre in 1972, where during his tenure the first UK production of Chicago played. During the 1970s he ran the business affairs of the Olympic ice skater John Curry,[2] and presented two stage productions with him at the Cambridge Theatre and at the London Palladium. He also persuaded actress Joan Collins to perform her first West End play, The Last of Mrs Cheyney, at his theatre in 1976.
Parnes was a horse racing fan, and owned racehorses, including Cambridge Gold, named after his involvement in the Cambridge Theatre and John Curry. He had a penthouse property in South Kensington,[7] and country mansions in Send, Surrey, and Icklesham, East Sussex.