Word: geffen
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...band, which has two featured singers and seven rambunctious musicians besides Don and his compadre David Was, has a distinctive, daffy humor, a rhythmic sense that is honed until it gleams and a stiff spine about matters of conscience. Once badgered by market-wary Geffen Records, as Don puts it, to "get rid of the black guys," Was (Not Was) hung tough. Same as they did when told by another company there would be no band pictures, "because we don't want black radio to see they're white, and we don't want white radio to see they...
Then came a traumatic change in his life. Geffen developed a bladder tumor, which doctors removed and declared to be malignant. Believing that stress had contributed to the cancer, Geffen, then 33, decided to change his priorities. Canceling his subscriptions to Variety and Billboard, he began teaching business courses at Yale and UCLA, collecting art and investing in real estate. After four years in his new life, he consulted cancer specialists for a second opinion and found that the first diagnosis had been incorrect: he was fine...
...Geffen wasted no time moving back into show business. In 1981 he started Geffen Records under an arrangement in which Warner Communications financed the fledgling company and distributed its products. As Geffen launched his second career, his colleagues noticed a difference. Says Mo Ostin, chairman of Warner Bros. Records: "David is still incredibly tough and ambitious, but he softened considerably after the cancer scare. He's far more concerned about people than in his previous incarnation." Before long, Geffen signed up the likes of Elton John, Peter Gabriel and John Lennon and Yoko Ono. He branched into theatrical ventures...
...Geffen's entertainment mill is still working overtime. To buttress his roster of established stars (among them: Don Henley and Jimmy Page), he is breaking in such new musical talent as Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians and the Australian ingenue Kylie Minogue. Geffen has three films under way, including Men Don't Leave, starring Jessica Lange. His next Broadway candidate is Miss Saigon, a musical by the composers of Les Miserables...
...Geffen, whose romantic partners have included Marlo Thomas and Cher, now leads a privileged single life. (His estimated net worth, according to Forbes magazine: $240 million.) In his gallery-like apartment on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, the walls are covered with the works of David Hockney, Jasper Johns and other modern masters. From his Malibu beach house, he skims the Pacific in a 20-ft. speedboat. Like most self-made men, however, Geffen is consumed by his work. "My greatest fear is getting bored," he explains. "I'm always taking notes on the imaginary yellow scratch pad in my mind...