ALAN EICHLER, born on this date, has been a longtime publicist, talent manager and producer, representing plays by Terrence McNally, Tom Eyen, Charles Ludlam, Paul Zindel, and many others, as well as such musicals as “Hello, Dolly!”, “George M!”, “Barnum,” and “Seven Brides For Seven Brothers.”
His management and publicity clients have included Patti Page, Anita O’Day, Yma Sumac, Johnnie Ray, Maxene Andrews of the Andrews Sisters, Nellie Lutcher, Hadda Brooks, Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker, Corky Hale, Monica Lewis, and Ella Mae Morse. He also had long associations with Carol Channing, Maxine Sullivan, and Eartha Kitt. He co-produced the original productions of Tom Eyen’s “Women Behind Bars” and Geraldine Fitzgerald’s “Streetsongs” and is executive producer of the Jeffrey Schwarz documentary, “Boulevard!–A Hollywood Story” and Mark Saltarelli’s “Studio One Forever.”
Born in Elmhurst, Queens, New York, United States, Eichler began his career in the mailroom as an apprentice to publicist Lee Solters in 1963, and worked his way up to account executive at Solters’ firm Solters, O’Rourke and Sabinson. Following admission to the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers union in 1969, he worked as publicist on productions of Hello, Dolly!, George M! and Hair. He also promoted several major off-Broadway hits including Paul Zindel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, the Elaine May-Terrence McNally double-bill “Adaptation/Next” with James Coco, Harold Pinter’s The Tea Party and The Basement, the long-running rock musical Your Own Thing, Andre Gregory’s experimental adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, and Tom Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound.
Eichler shifted his focus to music and helped establish several jazz clubs and cabarets including the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Cinegrill, the Oak Room at Perino’s, the Westwood Marquis and the Vine St. Bar and Grill, where he also helped produce a series of live albums featuring Nina Simone, Joe Williams, Marlena Shaw, Etta James, Maxine Sullivan, Annie Ross, and LaVern Baker. In 1986, he produced all-star benefit shows at the Vine Street Bar and Grill that raised money to obtain a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Billie Holiday.
In 2020, he co-produced a stage revival of Women Behind Bars at the Ricardo Montalban Theatre in Hollywood, which was also filmed and streamed on Broadway HD. He is currently executive producer of a documentary film, Boulevard!, about Gloria Swanson’s failed attempt to turn Sunset Boulevard into a musical. In addition, he is executor producer of the forthcoming film Studio One Forever, about the famous Hollywood dance club of the 1970s and 80s. He has also compiled and annotated several CDs for Fresh Sound Records, Sepia Records, Real Gone Music, and Jasmine Records, by such artists as Sophie Tucker, Patti Page, Jill Corey, Peggy King, Roberta Sherwood, Louis Prima, Lily Ann Carol, Ketty Lester, Joanie Sommers, Lola Dee, De Castro Sisters, Margie Rayburn, Betty Johnson, Ann Miller, Blossom Seeley, June Richmond, Janette Davis, and Judy Canova.
He currently lives in Southern California.