David Geffen (born 1943) has emerged as one of the wealthiest individuals in rock music through his combined talents as a manager, label owner, and film producer.

Beginnings

David Geffen's father, Abraham Geffen, was only three years old in 1906 when his Jewish family packed their few belongings and left their home in Vilna, Russia, for America. Many years later, in 1930, a marriageable "Abe" Geffen would again cross the Atlantic, having decided to use his hard-earned savings to see the world. Taking leave of his job as a Western Union telegrapher, he made his way first to Europe and later to Palestine, where he met a pretty seamstress by the name of Batya Volovskaya.

Volovskaya had been born in a small village in the Ukraine in 1907. Her father was a wealthy Jewish landowner. Her mother ran a small pharmacy and cosmetology business. When she was thirteen, Volovskaya's parents sent her...