Sam Gesser, Montreal impressario,78
La N
Impresario Sam Gesser dies at 78
Alan Hustak , The Gazette
Published: Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Sam Gesser, the Montreal impresario whose career in show business spanned
almost six decades, died of cancer Tuesday morning at the Montreal General.
He was 78.
Once described by Harry Belafonte as the best impresario in North America,
Gesser brought some of the biggest names in show business to Montreal
including Janis Joplin, Nana Mouskouri, the Peking Opera and touring
Broadway musicals like The King and I.
Gesser once compared his job to "playing dice in Las Vegas. Aside from a few
tested favourites," he was fond of saying "There are no sure bets at the box
office."
Sam Gesser, the son of Polish immigrant parents, was born in Montreal, Jan
7, 1930 . He grew up on St. Urbain St. and studied at Baron Byng High
School. He spent the first ten years of his professional life working as a
graphic artist. From the time he was 14 years old, however, he had as a
hobby, taped indigenous Canadian folk music on a battered tape recorder.
By 1951 he had compiled a large enough collection to start his own record
label, Allied Records, in order to market his collection of folk songs
commercially. He also had his own radio program about folk music on CFCF and
on the CBC.
In 1953 he booked his first stage act, Pete Seeger, and made $200. The
following year he started a folk dance troupe, Les Feux Follets.
Gesser was official booking agent for the Canadian Pavilion at the Expo 67
World Fair in Montreal where he presented 400 artists. Three years later he
did the same thing for Canada at the World Fair in Osaka, Japan.
Gesser produced the 1984 musical version of Mordecai Richler's The
Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz that had its world premier at the Citadel
Theatre in Edmonton. He was also a playwright in his own right. Eight years
ago he produced his own show, Fineman's Dictionary, a comedy starring
Fyvush Finkel.
Gesser received the Order of Canada in 1993 for "contributing to Canada's
cultural fabric."
He is survived by a son and a daughter from his first marriage to Sarah Lee
Lewis which ended in divorce after 12 years, and by his second wife, Ruth
Huber, whom he married in 1974. He was predeceased by a daughter.
The funeral will be private, but a memorial service is being planned.