The Man Who Carried Cash. Julie Chadwick

      Saul Holiff stands with early rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Bill Haley, whom he promoted extensively in the late 1950s. London, Ontario, 1957.

      The crowd was near capacity, but after the cost of promotion, posters, and rent of the arena, Saul made a grand total of $54. Undaunted, he pressed on, and by early August he hosted a dance marathon at the Lucan Arena with the Everly Brothers — who were currently enjoying the success of their song “Bye Bye Love.” The first marathon in the district for thirty-five years, the catch was that this one would feature four bands that played only rock ’n’ roll music, Saul told columnist Dick Newman. Judged by a panel, first prize was a new hi-fi recording set, and the venue featured a glass-enclosed mezzanine floor and modern air-cooling system that consisted of huge blocks of ice set in front of blower fans.18

      Later that month Saul went on to promote a double bill with pop singer Jimmie Rodgers and a sixteen-year-old Canadian teen idol named Paul Anka. The son of an Ottawa restaurant owner, Anka was riding the wave of his monster hit “Diana,” penned when his friend Diane Ayoub asked him to write a song about her while they were at a high school party in Toronto. Saul felt certain about this show, and about Anka himself, who in his mind was destined to be another George Jessel.

      Billed as a “rock ’n’ roll costume ball,” the show’s advance ticket sales included a draw for one lucky girl to have dinner with Anka and then dance with him at the arena. Despite the robust advertisements and Anka’s popularity, the show flopped. Clearly learning on the job, Saul continued to lose money on his promotions most of the time, and if he made anything at all, it was usually less than a hundred dollars.19

      Despite this he remained convinced there was money to be made; he just needed to figure out how. And though he was personally more partial to the horns and strings of jazz and classical music, the challenge of promotion itself appealed to him more than selling clothing. He would soon learn that there were also other nuances, aside from the finances, such as the finicky and unpredictable nature of artists.

      Edgy and zany, musician Little Richard caught Saul’s attention with a string of hits he released through the 1950s, like “Tutti Frutti” and “Long Tall Sally,” so he phoned his manager and booked him for two dates in December. Two months before the shows, Little Richard’s management in New York phoned back to inform Saul that though the contract had been signed, these dates — and all others he had scheduled on his tour — were cancelled. While on a record-breaking tour in Australia, Little Richard had experienced an epiphany after a ball of fire soared overhead as he played at a stadium in Sydney. It was the launch of the Russians’ Sputnik 1, but already exasperated with the pressures of touring and the need for spiritual regeneration, Richard took it as a sign. Abruptly, he decided to leave his rock ’n’ roll lifestyle, change his ways, and become a preacher.20

      “I have a great favour to ask. This afternoon, Gale Agencies in New York phoned to tell me that two dates that were signed and sealed for Little Richard and his orchestra in London and Kitchener on December 20th and 21st, plus all of his other bookings, have been cancelled. It appears that besides needing psychiatric treatment, Little Richard has become a monk,” Saul wrote to Everly Brothers manager Wesley H. Rose. “I had made extensive arrangements for these dates, such as the securing of highly desirable auditoriums in both Kitchener and London and have now been left holding the bag. I know that Don and Phil are not booked for these dates and would appreciate having them appear for me at that time.”21

      The Brothers were unable to fill the shows, as they wanted to be home for Christmas, but despite these setbacks, Saul persisted. The following year, he expanded to nearby cities and bought three dates for Alan Freed’s ABC-TV summer series The Big Beat, a show featuring Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, and Jerry Lee Lewis. It was a smash, and the venue was packed to the rafters with more than four thousand wild, sweaty teenagers. By the summer of 1958, Saul promoted his first tour with the Everly Brothers and booked them for eight dates across Ontario and Quebec. Saul drove the boys to each city himself, during which he caught a glimpse of their notoriously acrimonious relationship and watched in the rear-view mirror as they fought bitterly “like cats and dogs” in the back seat the entire time.22

      More dates followed with some of the most prominent names in rock: the Ink Spots, Sam Cooke, Frankie Avalon, Duane Eddy, Bobby Helms, Kitty Wells, Brenda Lee, Marty Robbins, Buck Owens, Hank Snow, Jim Reeves, Ferlin Husky, Faron Young, and Carl Perkins of “Blue Suede Shoes” fame. When rock ’n’ roll acts first began their crossover into Canada, they frequently travelled as package shows, primarily because many of them had only a few songs in their entire repertoire. As such, it wasn’t unheard of to have up to fifteen performers in a two-hour show.