I just went to the Mike Seeger site and found it fascinating for a number of reasons, not the least of which was seeing that he is represented by Folklore Productions.

Back in Connecticut, when a group of us were putting on concerts in the late Fifties and early Sixties, it was Folklore Productions that I dealt with almost exclusively and Folklore Productions was Manny Greenhill. I was a kid, a college student, and Manny was a good businessman so I suspect we often didn't get the deal from him that more experienced negotiators would have worked out but we did put on good concerts with Odetta Felious, Pete Seeger, Theodore Bikel and a number of others. Pete Seeger was Manny's biggest draw and he once "forced" us to take a young singer he was pushing, to hire her for a concert, if we wanted Pete Seeger. Since it only cost fifty dollars, we figured we could sell the hundred tickets we needed to cover the cost and promotion. You've probably guessed that the singer was Joan Baez. Within a couple of years we were begging him to let us hire her and her concert fee had gone from 2 figures to four.

I never knew about Manny's political activism. I learned about it on the link from Mike Seeger's site to the Folklore home page. I think if I had known, I would have admired him for what he stood for but I only knew him as a manager who tried to do the best he could for his artists and for his ten percent.

The only hint I had that he was unusual was when I needed to reach Pete Seeger for something. It was years later when I was working for PBS. I called Manny and asked, pleaded, to be able to speak to Seeger directly. He trusted me enough to break his and Seeger's rule that outsiders should not be able to call into the house. He gave me the Seeger's home phone number in New York but he made me promise that when I was done I would destroy my record of the number. I reached Pete Seeger, got what I needed (whatever that was) and threw away the phone number, the only time as a journalist I have ever destroyed a contact number (I still have home phone numbers for Henry Cabot Lodge and General Westmoreland!).

The saddest thing about an obituary is that you often learn things about a person that you didn't know and what I read about Manny Greenhill a few minutes ago was just that, an obituary containing memorable and striking achievements, many that involved risk taking and courage. Now I am sorry that I never had a chance to learn that side of him but I do thank you, Billy, for helping me to complete another circle.

Sourdough