Paul Catalana

Paul R. Catalana

Rock Promoter Category

By Jud Cost, 2007
Savvy enough to book red-hot young pop juggernauts like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Herman’s Hermits and the Dave Clark 5 during the 1964-65 height of the British Invasion, Paul Catalana was the man calling all the shots from his San Jose office, just as Bill Graham was beginning to establish his own empire in San Francisco. Catalana filled the Cow Palace with screaming legions of fans for the Beatles’ Bay Area appearances on August 19, 1964 and August 31,1965, and then presented the Stones, the Hermits and the DC 5 at the San Jose Civic Auditorium.

Cash in the Beatles – San Jose Style

Catalana first got the taste for entertainment when he opened the El Rancho Drive-In Theatre in 1950, a storied facility dubbed “the world’s finest” by the local press for its exotic game room and kiddie rides. The Tropicaire Twin-Vue would soon follow, presenting first-run silver-screen blockbusters like Ben Hur. Catalana also brought the 1955 heavyweight title fight between champion Rocky Marciano and light heavyweight title-holder Archie Moore into San Jose Civic Auditorium via closed circuit television, then in its infancy.

Induction of Paul Catalana into San Jose Rocks Hall of Fame 2007. L-R unknown, Dan Orloff, Lynn Catalana, Chip LoBue.

But Catalana is best known in San Jose for bringing an eye-popping array of talent to the Safari Room (1962 – 1968), a bustling club he conceived, designed and managed that adjoined an East San Jose bowling alley, Plaza Lanes, owned by his good friend and business associate, Victor LoBue.

I had some great accompanists, but this guy (Larry Vuckovich) is like radar. I want him for the next Monterey Jazz Festival.”Mel Torme, speaking to Jimmy Lyons at the Safari Room engagement in San Jose, 1963″

Located at the corner of Story and White Roads, the Safari Room welcomed a veritable Who’s Who of pop music and jazz through its doors. Wayne Newton, Della Reese, Nancy Wilson, Jack Jones, The Righteous Brothers, Pearl Bailey, Sophie Tucker, Louie Prima, Duke Ellington, Mel Torme, The Supremes, Perez Prado, Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto, Roger Miller, Sarah Vaughan, Frankie Laine, Anita O’Day and Trini Lopez all played the Safari Room. Don Baskin and Bob Gonzalez of the Syndicate of Sound fondly recall the night they and their girlfriends were Catalana’s special guests for a meet and greet after the Everly Brothers’ Safari Room show. When Catalana used some of his Beatles profits in 1965 to open a French restaurant on First Street in downtown San Jose called Les Poupees, he booked the hungry, young Syndicate of Sound to play the bistro. Catalana’s promotional barometer proved dead accurate once again when the Syndicate stormed the national charts in 1966 with “Little Girl.”

Former Promoter Recalls Booking the Beatles

December 4, 2001, The Desert Sun

Former promoter recalls booking the Beatles and then there was one Beatles promoter.

There used to be several music men with Beatles ties in this desert. The late Col. Tom Parker, who was idolized by Beatles manager Brian Epstein, lived in Palm Springs from the ’60s to the ’80s. He set up a meeting between the Beatles and his boy, Elvis Presley, at Elvis’ Bel Air home in August 1965. Parker’s protege, Greg McDonald, was there and he told me the Beatles were awed by Elvis. But George Harrison got bored, went outside and smoked a joint.

Greg moved to Florida last year and now he’s working with Lou Peariman, founder of ‘N Sync and the Back Street Boys. He passed through town last month showing off “my new boy band.”

Buck Stapleton, the executive director of the never-got-off-the-ground National Big Band & Jazz Hall of Fame in PS, helped promote the Beatles in concert that summer in L.A. He was in charge of West Coast promotions for the Beatles’ label, Capitol Records, so he drove the Beatles to the Hollywood Bowl, amid screaming fans, for their legendary concert there.

Buck and his wife, singer Beryl Davis, moved back to the San Fernando this year.

Now there appears to be only Paul Catalana, a Rancho Mirage resident who booked the Beatles at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in 1964 and ’65. He claims his August ’64 concert with the Beatles was their first in America, despite the books that say they performed at the Washington Coliseum and Carnegie Hall in New York in February 1964.

Catalana, 78, owned the Safari Room, a 600-seat cabaret in San Jose that featured acts from the Righteous Brothers to Wayne Newton to Sophie Tucker in the early ’60s. After the Beatles appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in February 1964, their booking firm, GAC, offered promoters opportunities to book the Beatles for just $25,000. Catalana took the rights to San Francisco, but said Epstein didn’t make it easy for him.

Epstein wouldn’t let the Beatles play stadiums on that tour, so Catalana had to book them into the Cow Palace, a 1 6,000-seat arena that was often used for animal shows. Taking a page from Parker’s strategy to ensure sell-outs, Epstein insisted tickets be just 83, $5 and 87. They sold out in 24 hours and the concert grossed $ 1 00,000, tops in California that year, Catalana said.

The Fab Four and Catalana stayed on the same floor at the San Francisco Hilton. They asked him to show them the city, but with so many screaming fans, they instead snuck out late at night. Catalana said they actually played in Chinatown.

Catalana doesn’t know how good they were at the Cow Palace.

“You couldn’t hear a damn thing with all the kids screaming,” he said. “But they started something at that concert. The kids would throw jelly beans at the stage. Why? I don’t know. But the Beatles were upset. Epstein let me know.”

Catalana, who booked the Rolling Stones later that year, gave up booking in 1970. He’s had a home at Indian Wells Country Club since 1962 and he moved to RM 10 years ago.

But he has fond memories of the Beatles, especially of George and Paul McCartney.

George was the most quick-witted, he said. Catalana introduced him to the local sheriff, who was a Beatles fan, and George replied, “All we know is the sheriff of Sherwood Forest.” John Lennon was outspoken, Ringo Starr was cute and Paul, said Catalana, was the classy one.

THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS

By: Peggy Phillips, Oakland Tribune August 24, 1965

A year ago this month, I took in that wild, wild Beatle concert over at the Cow Palace. On the program that night was a pair of Righteous Brothers. In the anxiety of waiting for the “Beatles; to make an appearance, no one paid much attention to them. A year later, the picture has changed dramatically. The Righteous Brothers are now one of the7 hottest items on the night club circuit and in all probability will break attendance records during their current stint at Paul Catalan’s Safari Room in San Jose.

Catalana has a keen eye for talent. He’s also aware that many performers with appeal to an audience of young adults have come had a thousand details hitting him that night, as local promoter for the Beatles, the Righteous Brothers didn’t escape his eye. In fact, if you want to see any of the Hew performers in this area, you’ll have to go to the Safari Room. Other club owners do not seem to be aware of new performers like Roger Miller, Johnny Rivers, Wee Five, the Righteous Brothers and Leslie Pore are around. They are introducing new audiences to night clubbing.

But back to the Righteous Brothers, Bill Medley and Bob Hatfield. They hit it big with their recording ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” It sold close to two million copies, so they were well on the way to a bright future. Both hail from Southern California where they met while playing small clubs and coffee houses in Orange County. Both led small combos and quickly discovered a rapport which was to lead to the formation of the Righteous Brothers.

Medley and Hatfield sing exciting music. It’s music which is rooted deep in the Negro tradition while at the same time a fusion of many things. I found traces of. boogie woogie, gospel, – blues and country-western. Both sing with great feeling. They didn’t just hit on the name Righteous Brothers by any accident. The name was given to them by Negro coffee house patrons in Orange County.

Hatfield and Medley prefer working night clubs, for they feel that they can develop more solidly. At present, they are by no means a polished act, but that will come with time. All the elements are there, and I feel these lads know what to do with them. They travel with their own band which does an excellent job of backing, with fine arrangements by Bill Baker and Billy King, members of the band.

“A year ago, they were paid around $350 dollars for that Beatle concert. Before they leave San Jose, Catalana will pay them upwards of $15,000 for their 10-day stint. He’ll pay it with a smile, too.”