Blog

Longevity has its pluses and minuses

February 1st, 2022 by Kenneth Abrahams

This past week, I suffered from a touch of melancholy. It started with a simple email from longtime friend, and concert middle agent, Dave Stevens, which read “call me.” There was no witty banter in the email, no comments about my age, or sarcastic remark about me liking his wife better than him (which is in fact true), just “call me.” Fearing bad news, I responded immediately. It was, in fact, bad news. Harris Goldberg, his boss, and a longtime mentor of mine had passed away. It was no secret that Harris had been in declining health for several years, but it was still shocking to hear.

As a college student many years ago, I had been a client of Concert Ideas, the company that Harris founded and presided over until his death. We worked with Tom in his office and not Harris directly, but his contacts and connections served us well. As the chair of our Social Committee in college, we wanted to do a big concert, which is not easy for a school of 1,600 students. We called Tom to see what was out there. They had a great show on tour with Bonnie Raitt. It was the No Nukes Tour with her and the John Hall band, and they were playing smaller venues. Unfortunately, our date fell one day after the tour was scheduled to end. Harris got on the phone and convinced the manager and the agent to extend it one more day. As you can imagine, the show was a huge success. It sold out in a matter of hours, and we had students and people from the community sneaking into the auditorium the night of.

Over the years, I got to know Harris quite well. As a volunteer with the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA), I was a frequent recipient of phone calls and emails about what the association could do differently or better. We did not always agree but he always made me, and the organization as a whole, look at what we did and how we did it. In fact, there were more than a few things that changed over the years because of his input. Harris was also very loyal to his friends and clients. Years ago, when we started our Ross Fahey Golf Tournament, several people reached out to Harris and year after year he made a substantial donation to the cause. We would never have raised the money we did without his support.

His passing brought me back a few years when Joey Edmonds passed away. Joey was a giant in the industry, especially for college comedians. He had a larger than life personality but was never too busy to help new agents. I was one of those that sought his counsel frequently. He was an irrepressible soul who was frequently seen at conferences roller blading outside the hotel or the convention center. He was one of those people that would always say “get outside at these things, you need to walk around and breathe fresh air not just the recycled air in these buildings.” Regardless of how cold it is in the location we may be at, I take that advice to this day.

I consider myself very lucky to have made some amazing friends and have had some truly wonderful people help guide me on this journey that I am still on. It is sad not to see Ken Bedini, M. Kevin Fahey, Susette Redwine, Myra Morgan, Chris Geiger, and Christine Stork, to name a few, at conferences but I am truly a better professional and, more importantly, a better person having gotten to know and work with them. Whether at golf tournaments or social events, it is still great to see some of these folks. Their impact is still felt today in the people they have put into the field that carry on their legacy.

So, I started with the minuses, but longevity has a ton of perks as well. Somebody asked me the other day what the profession and our business was like when we started. That seems like a lifetime ago and in all actuality, it was. We relied very heavily on Polaroid and their products. That is how I know the lyric “shake it like a Polaroid picture” actually can make the photo blurry. We also offered far fewer programs back then:  Old Fashioned Photos, Photo Buttons, Spin Art Frisbees, Carnival Photos, and something called Famous Faces where you stood next to life size cutouts of famous people. Now with the use of digital photography, heat presses and a wide range of different printers, we offer a much wider range of photo items and products that we can put pictures on. Changing technology has been fun as well as rewarding to watch and be a part of.

Perhaps the best parts of being around for so long are the events we have been a part of, the people that we have met, and seeing the growth that so many of them have shown. We have been a part of a number of weddings where one or both parties had worked with us as students and later asked us to be a part of one of the most special days of their lives. Never will I forget being asked to take pictures at the 100th birthday party for the grandmother of a long-time client and friend. Everyone at the event loved the Red Sox themed photos, what a fun day that was. A number of our clients, both college and corporate, started out working with us when they were students and have maintained those relationships as they move through their careers as Directors, HR managers, Deans, and Vice Presidents. It gives me great joy to celebrate their successes and support them any way that I can.

There are so many people that I have met along my journey that I have had the privilege of watching grow and blossom. Some that are now doing amazing things for the current generation of students as well as others to come. Others are doing amazing things at their institutions, corporations, not for profits and organizations that they volunteer with. This week has been tough, but as I stand back and view it from a distance, I have been lucky. It has been a long journey but one that is by no means over.

About the author

For those that don’t know it, Ken Abrahams does have a soft side. As a psychic once told him “you have a hard exterior but a mushy interior.” He is grateful for the wisdom that others have passed on to him.

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