Bill Graham revolutionized the music industry by providing a forum for the explosion of artistic expression in rock and roll during the 1960s. A teetotaling prime mover of the psychedelic movement, Graham used his shrewd business acumen to present music to the world, making it profitable and self-sustaining. In the process, Graham drew attention to this brilliant period of cultural revolution and focused its creative energy into a performance ethic that has become the standard for live stage presentation.

Bill Graham

Born Wolfgang Grajonca January 8, 1931, in Berlin, Graham was the only son in a large Russian-Jewish family. He was sent away to school to escape the Hitler Youth movement, and later, when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, Bill and his younger sister were transported to France as deportation to labor camps became inevitable. Graham developed few memories of his family, having spent his formative years...