Word: geffen
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...appearances were relevant, no one would suspect that the David Geffen Co. is a show-business powerhouse. It functions in a homey, two-story structure tucked between Sunset Strip's office buildings and Beverly Hills' mansions. Its owner and chief executive, the boyish Geffen, 45, often dresses for work in blue denim, wears a two-day beard and avoids any restaurant that requires a tie. Yet in an industry dominated by such giants as MCA and Gulf & Western, the Geffen Co. has become a serious contender, a factory of hits. Started in 1981 with just three employees, it pulled...
...Geffen is already a mini-conglomerate, making its mark in three entertainment fields: music, movies and Broadway. On Geffen Records, the debut album by rockers Guns N' Roses was ranked No. 4 on last week's Billboard chart. The Geffen film division scored this year's sleeper hit, the comic ghost story Beetlejuice; Geffen Theater co-produced M. Butterfly, the 1988 Tony Award winner for best play...
...with the taste for success is a college dropout who lives by his well-cultivated wits. A connoisseur of hard rock and fine art, Geffen invests in performers and producers he trusts and usually gives them the freedom to follow their own instincts. "I see myself as a baby doctor. The product's not mine actually, but I've assisted in the process...
Born in Brooklyn to Russian immigrants, Geffen showed no taste for academics. At New Utrecht High School, where his senior yearbook predicted he would be a dentist, Geffen finished in the bottom tenth of his class. But he was inspired by business, an interest nurtured partly by his mother's proprietorship of a bra-and-corset shop. After dropping out of two colleges, he padded his resume with a fake degree from UCLA and landed a job as a mail- room clerk at the William Morris talent agency. (He still faults the company for requiring that credential...
...Geffen started his own label, Asylum, in 1970 and became the leading purveyor of the California Sound. Among his artists: Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne. After selling Asylum to Warner Bros. in 1972 and running it for three years, Geffen spent an unsatisfying year as vice chairman of Warner's movie division. "I had to deal with bureaucracy and politics. It just didn't work," he explains...