Steve Schankman was working in the Walgreens pharmacy in the ’60s while his grade-school buddy Irv Zuckerman sold shoes - until they hatched a plan that would make them millionaires.
They began booking bands, beginning with Schankman’s own Impacts Soul Revue, under the banner Contemporary Productions, which would make Schankman and Zuckerman not only concert-producing kings of St. Louis but of the Midwest.
Schankman celebrates 40 years of the company with “Produced by Contemporary” (Alive Productions, $39.95). He and former longtime Post-Dispatch writer Dick Richmond (Schankman and Zuckerman split nearly a decade ago) put together the 256-page pictorial/coffee-table book.
Schankman says “Produced by Contemporary” came about because he had to come up with a special way to mark those 40 years. “We knew we were going to throw a party, but what else could we do? People were saying to write a book.
“The book gives St. Louis a picture of what was going on here. … It gives people a chance to think back over those 40 years,” Schankman says.
Those 40 years make quite a storied history of concerts and special events.
Some of those highlights include Pope John Paul II’s historic 1999 visit, a 1978 surprise concert by the Rolling Stones at the Kiel Opera House, the building of Riverport Amphitheater and a collaboration with Joe Edwards and Pat Hagin that led to the opening of the Pageant.
That history also includes the riot that made international headlines in 1991, when mayhem erupted at a Guns N’ Roses concert at Riverport. The chapter devoted to it in the book is titled “The Riot Heard Around the World.”
Schankman says his favorite events were ones in which he was able to book his violinist father, the late Leon Schankman, who played in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra for more than 30 years. He’d book his father for the orchestra of concerts such as the Moody Blues or Natalie Cole. The younger Schankman, a trumpet player with the Fabulous Motown Review, often played in the brass section.
Superjam ‘76, U2 at Busch Stadium, Bruce Springsteen at the Fox, Sammy Hagar at the Side Door, Herbie Hancock at Westport Playhouse and Maynard Ferguson at Finale Music and Dining were other acts close to his heart.
He says the most challenging was the pope’s visit. The event went well, but it was a prime example of logistics overload.
Contemporary entered another phase when SFX Entertainment purchased the company for between $90 million and $100 million in 1997. Clear Channel Entertainment then bought SFX, at which time Zuckerman retired to Beverly Hills. Schankman stayed on for a while but wasn’t happy.
Schankman resurrected Contemporary, producing and booking events and venues, including Live on the Levee and Fair St. Louis, Variety Club telethons and the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center.
The book signing for “Produced by Contemporary” is 2-4 p.m. Saturday at Borders in Brentwood, 314-918-8189.
The opening reception of a related exhibit, “Jazz, Rock and Soul: 40 Years of Music in St. Louis 1968-2008,” is 5-7 p.m. today at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The exhibit runs through Feb. 7.
