Don Arden

Arden was born Harry Levy on 4 January 1926, into a Jewish family in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, the son of Sarah "Sally" (née Black, later Urbanowitz) and Lazarus Levy, a factory machinist. Arden began his show-business career when he was 13 years old as a singer and stand-up comic after (allegedly) briefly attending the Royal College of Music. In 1944, he changed his name from Harry Levy to Don Arden. Arden also appeared as a guest with the Black and White Minstrels. In 1954, he became a showbiz agent, after realising it would be more profitable. He began his career organising Hebrew folk song contests, For a short period of time in the early 1960s, he worked with the British singer Elkie Brooks at the start of her career. During 1964, Arden moved into beat group pop management with The Nashville Teens, who secured chart hits with "Tobacco Road", "Google Eye" and "Find My Way Back Home". According to Johnny Rogan's book Starmakers & Svengalis, the group's earnings from those hits was £3,513. When group member John Hawken confronted Arden about some confusion over monies to be collected, his manager told him: "I have the strength of ten men in these hands" and threatened to throw him from an office window. In 1965, Arden met aspiring rock band Small Faces in his office in Carnaby Street. Half an hour later, he had signed them up. Arden was immediately struck by the potential of Small Faces: "I thought at that time, on the first hearing, I thought it was the best band in the world". Kenney Jones, Small Faces' drummer, said: "He was kind of a Jewish teddy bear I suppose. You liked him immediately because he was enthusiastic and he talked about what he could do and what he couldn't do and whenever he said – 'I'll do this, I'll do that' – he did and it came true." The band's debut single, "Whatcha Gonna Do About It", was ushered into the hit parade by "chart-fixing", Arden denied it was cheating: "I had a saying, you can't polish a turd. In other words, if the record's no good to begin with it still won't be any good after you've wasted your time and money getting it played". == Business methods ==

In 1966, Arden and a squad of "minders" turned up at impresario Robert Stigwood's office to "teach him a lesson" for daring to discuss a change of management with Small Faces, The band were never entirely convinced that Arden had paid them everything he owed them. Kenney Jones has mixed memories of the band's stormy relationship with Arden: Arden tried to rekindle his former glories as a family entertainer by releasing a single of his own in 1967: "Sunrise, Sunset", from the musical Fiddler on the Roof, but it failed to chart. He returned to music management in 1968 when he signed The Move. He struck gold when two groups formed by ex-Move members, ELO and Wizzard (1972), started having international hits: Wizzard with "See My Baby Jive" and "Angel Fingers" (1973), and ELO with "10538 Overture" (1972) and "Roll Over Beethoven" (1973). With later albums like Out of the Blue (1977) and Discovery (1979), ELO became a prominent act. In 1973, Arden took over management of singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul. In the following year, she provided the first hit on his new Jet label, "No Honestly", which was also the theme tune to a hit ITV comedy, No, Honestly. By 1976, Arden was embroiled in a lawsuit with the distraught singer over what she claimed was late payment of money owed to her. De Paul commented: She eventually reached a settlement with Arden in 1978. Arden managed Black Sabbath for many years. In 1974 he arranged for the band to appear in the first California Jam festival. Ozzy Osborne stated later in an interview with Musician magazine: In time Arden also brought his son David and daughter Sharon into the business, intending to build an Arden showbiz dynasty. == Estrangement from Sharon Osbourne and legal problems ==

In 1979, one of Arden's successes, Black Sabbath, sacked their vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. Sharon began a relationship with Osbourne, and took over his management from her father. She was pregnant at the time and lost the child. Sharon eventually married Osbourne and had no contact with her father for 20 years. Arden had acquired shares in RadioTracks by buying out Chandler without the knowledge of the other directors. In 1986, Arden was arrested for kidnapping and torturing a Jet records accountant named Harshad Patel, who Arden believed had been embezzling money. Arden's son, known legally as 'David Levy', appeared at the Old Bailey in 1986 for his role in the matter. The incident occurred at the offices at 35 Portland Place. Convicted, Levy spent several months in an open prison. Arden, tried separately on related charges, was acquitted. The drawn-out dispute meant Arden was unable to attend to business, and legal costs proved a fatal strain on Jet Records, which collapsed. Portland Recording Studios were considerably in arrears with rent to the Prudential, which owned the building at Portland Place, close to the BBC's Broadcasting House. Eventually, the Prudential evicted Jet Records. From 1986 to the mid-1990s, Arden shuttled between his homes in Beverly Hills, California and Parkside in Wimbledon, London. == Reconciliation with Sharon Osbourne and final years ==

In 2001 Sharon Osbourne told The Guardian: "The best lesson I ever had was watching him fuck his business up. He taught me everything not to do. My father's never even seen any of my three kids and, as far as I'm concerned, he never will." He was buried in Agecroft Jewish Cemetery on Langley Road in Pendlebury, Salford, on 25 July. On 29 October 2007, a memorial headstone was unveiled at Agecroft by his sister Eileen (Somers), daughter Sharon Osbourne, grandson Jack Osbourne and nephew and niece Danny Somers and Cathy Cowan. One line on the inscription reads: "His beautiful voice will sing in our hearts forever. Shalom". Later in the morning a plaque was unveiled at Higher Crumpsall Synagogue, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, with the addition of the words "It all started here" with a line of musical notes. That refers to the time when Arden, then Harry Levy, sang in the synagogue choir as a very young man.- == Carnaby Street plaque ==

On 8 September 2007, a commemorative plaque dedicated to Don Arden and Small Faces was unveiled at 52–55 Carnaby Street, London, Arden's former offices. Kenney Jones, ex-drummer of Small Faces, said: "To honour the Small Faces after all these years is a terrific achievement. I only wish that Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane and the late Don Arden were here to enjoy this moment with me". == References ==