Impresario and Philosopher King

Review by Mike Gange

Another Day in Show Biz:
One Producer’s Journey
Pierre Cossette
ECW Press $19.95 CAN. 237 pages

When the Grammy Awards are presented,  the stars in attendance could include everybody from the rock band Aerosmith to country crooners like Dwight Yokum. As diverse and demanding as those entertainers might be, all of them would politely defer to a nearly 80 year-old former Canadian from the province of Quebec, who has helped increase their collective visibility and popularity. Pierre Cossette has produced the Grammy Award Show on television since 1969, even investing $125,000 of his own money in the early years to ensure it got onto network television. The Grammy Award Show now brings in millions in advertising dollars but more importantly to the musicians, Pierre Cossette has given them the kind of public exposure they could never buy.

As an impresario with an impressive track record, Cossette has taken life’s lessons to heart. Born in the working class town of Valleyfield, Quebec, Cossette moved to Pasadena, California with his family in 1928, when he was five years old. During his childhood, his father pumped gasoline while his mother ran a small apartment house. Using tenacious determination and every advantage fate might bring him, Cossette went from working-class poor to owning a mansion in Malibu, as he eventually became one of the major producers in the entertainment field. His well written memoir Another Day in Show Business: One Producer’s Journey is inspiring and humourous.

Upon graduating from U.S.C. under the G.I. Bill, Pierre Cossette landed a job as a booking agent for MCA, working with bands like Harry James and His Orchestra and entertainers like Jack Benny, (Dean) Martin and (Jerry) Lewis and Spike Jones to promote their concert dates on the college circuit. Soon he was booking major talent into the hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe. While most of his experiences were positive, Cossette relates how on one occasion, he got the casino bosses to book Harry Belefonte, who was then a rising star. Cossette picked up the then young singer at the airport and delivered him to the front door of the hotel, only to have Belefonte tell him he could only enter through the side doors, because he was black.

After booking Las Vegas casinos for MCA, Cossette went out on his own, founding Dunhill Records (which he sold to ABC in 1966), then producing a variety of weekly TV shows and specials. He even had a foray into Broadway, where he produced "The Will Rogers Follies." Pierre Cossette may have had his share of ups and downs, but in this book he accentuates the successes and human kindness he has found rather than business deals gone wrong.

Cossette is not just another Stage-door Johnny, having fun while hanging out with the stars. He admits he is a bit star struck, but certainly knows how to make the stars shine a little brighter. Repeatedly, he shows how he lives the old adage: success is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. Maybe what the entertainers appreciate about him is the  hard workbehind his genius.

Mike Gange teaches media studies and journalism at Fredericton High.