Lew Grade facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
The Lord Grade
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1997 artistic portrait by The Earl of Snowdon.
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| Born |
Lev Winogradsky
25 December 1906 Tokmak, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire
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| Died | 13 December 1998 (aged 91) London, England
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| Resting place | Liberal Jewish Cemetery, Willesden, London |
| Nationality | Russian (1906–1912) British (1912–1998) |
| Other names |
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| Education | Rochelle Street Elementary School |
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| Years active | 1926–1998 |
| Spouse(s) |
Kathleen Moody
(m. 1942) |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Bernard Delfont (brother) Leslie Grade (brother) Michael Grade (nephew) |
Lew Grade, also known as Baron Grade, was a very important person in the world of television and entertainment. He was born Lev Winogradsky in Russia on December 25, 1906. Later, he became a British citizen.
Lew Grade was a media proprietor, which means he owned and managed many media companies. He was also an impresario, someone who organizes and finances concerts, plays, or operas. He started his career as a dancer and then became a talent agent, helping other performers find work.
In 1954, Lew Grade became interested in television. He started a company called ITC Entertainment. This company helped distribute TV shows, especially to the American market. He had great success with shows like The Adventures of Robin Hood, Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds, Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner, and Jim Henson's The Muppet Show.
Later, Lew Grade also invested in making movies. However, some of his movies didn't do well at the box office. This caused him to lose control of his company, ITC, and eventually led to changes at ATV, another TV company he was involved with.
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Early Life and Family
Lew Grade was born in a place called Tokmak, which is now part of Ukraine. His family's last name was Winogradsky. In 1912, when he was five years old, his Jewish family moved from Russia to London, England. They settled in an area called Shoreditch.
Lew's father, Isaak, worked pressing trousers. Lew and his two younger brothers, Bernard (who later became Bernard Delfont) and Leslie, went to Rochelle Street Elementary School. Many students at this school spoke Yiddish, a language spoken by many Jewish people.
Starting His Career
When Lew was 15, he started working as an agent for a clothing company. Soon after, he started his own business. In 1926, he won a big dancing competition at the Royal Albert Hall, becoming the Charleston Champion of the World. Even Fred Astaire, a famous dancer, was one of the judges!
After this, Lew became a professional dancer. He used the name Louis Grad, which later changed to Lew Grade because of a typing error by a reporter that he liked. In 1931, he was signed as a dancer by Joe Collins, who was the father of famous actors Jackie and Joan Collins.
Becoming a Talent Agent
Around 1934, Lew Grade partnered with Joe Collins to become a talent agent. This meant they helped performers find jobs and manage their careers. Some of their first clients were the harmonica player Larry Adler and the jazz group Quintette du Hot Club de France.
When World War II started in 1939, Lew helped organize entertainment for soldiers. He even joined the British Army. However, he had to leave after two years because of a knee problem that had also ended his dancing career.
In 1945, Lew started a new partnership with his brother Leslie. Their company, Lew and Leslie Grade Ltd., became very successful. They traveled to the United States and made connections with famous stars like Bob Hope and Judy Garland. These stars performed in Britain for the first time thanks to the Grade brothers. By 1948, they were the main people booking artists for the famous London Palladium theatre. Their agency became the most successful in the UK. In 1967, a big company called EMI bought their business.
Lew Grade's Media Career
Early Days in Television: 1954–1962
In 1954, Lew Grade learned about a new opportunity: the creation of a commercial television network called ITV. He put together a group of people, including other entertainment leaders, to form a company called the Incorporated Television Company (ITC).
ITC's first attempt to get a TV license was turned down. But Lew Grade's group then joined forces with another company to create Associated Television (ATV). This new company successfully got a license to broadcast.
Lew Grade loved variety shows, and one of ATV's biggest successes was Sunday Night at the London Palladium. This show was very popular in Britain. He also supported more serious programs, like when Sir Kenneth Clark talked about art history on TV in 1958.
Meanwhile, ITC, which became a part of ATV in 1957, started making shows that became popular around the world. One of the first was The Adventures of Robin Hood. ATV also started a music publishing company called ATV Music and later bought a record company called Pye Records.
Expanding Television Success: 1962–1968
Lew Grade became the managing director of ATV in 1962. He soon decided that the Midlands region of England needed its own daily TV show, similar to Coronation Street. This led to the creation of Crossroads in 1964, which became very popular.
ITC continued to have many successful TV series that were sold internationally. Some of these included The Saint, which was sold to over 80 countries, and two shows starring Patrick McGoohan: Danger Man and The Prisoner. Many of Grade's shows used American actors, but those with all-British casts, like The Saint, were often more successful in the United States.
In 1962, a company called AP Films, co-founded by Gerry Anderson, became part of ITC. AP Films made popular children's shows using special puppets called "Supermarionation". These included Thunderbirds (1965–1966) and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967–1968). Lew Grade was very supportive of Thunderbirds, even insisting that episodes be longer. These shows were expensive to make but were very successful and shown repeatedly around the world.
In 1966, Lew Grade's companies were reorganized into the Associated Communications Corporation (ACC). His companies, along with those of his brothers, controlled many major talents and theatres in the UK.
Later Television Productions
In 1967, ATV lost its London TV license but gained a bigger license for the Midlands region. Through ATV Music, Lew Grade also gained control of the songs written by Lennon–McCartney (from The Beatles).
His companies continued to sell many shows overseas. They even won the Queen's Awards for Export in 1967 and 1969 for their success in selling British TV shows abroad.
Some shows in the 1970s didn't do as well, like The Protectors and The Persuaders!. Gerry Anderson also made live-action science fiction shows for ITC, such as UFO and Space: 1999.
In the mid-1970s, Lew Grade met American puppeteer Jim Henson. Henson wanted to create a new variety show with his Muppet characters, but American TV networks weren't interested. Lew Grade watched one of Henson's pilot shows and decided to help. He allowed Henson to make The Muppet Show in Britain. This was a very important decision that helped The Muppet Show become a huge worldwide success from 1976 to 1981.
Another big achievement for Lew Grade in television was the mini-series Jesus of Nazareth (1977). This show was very successful in America and earned a lot of money.
Moving into Film
Lew Grade also decided to get involved in making movies. He had success with films like The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), which was a big hit. He also produced Farewell My Lovely (1975).
He worked with major Hollywood studios on films like The Boys From Brazil (1978) and Movie Movie (1978). He was also an executive producer for the popular Muppet movies, The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981).
However, some of Lew Grade's expensive movies didn't do well. One famous example was Raise the Titanic (1980). It cost a lot of money to make but didn't earn much back. Lew Grade himself joked that "It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic" than to make the film. Other movies like Saturn 3 (1980) and The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981) also lost money. These failures marked the end of his major involvement in film production.
Despite these setbacks, some critically acclaimed films he produced were released after Raise the Titanic. These included On Golden Pond (1981) and Sophie's Choice (1982), both of which won Academy Awards. He also produced The Dark Crystal (1982), which was Jim Henson's last project with ITC.
Later Years and Legacy
In 1980, Lew Grade's position in the media industry was affected by the failure of Raise the Titanic and a decision that ATV would lose its license unless it separated from him and ITC. He resigned from his company, which then went through many changes. In 1982, he lost control of ACC.
After this, Lew Grade continued to work in entertainment. He joined an American company called Embassy Communications International to produce films and TV shows. He also became a producer for Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Starlight Express. Later, he started his own company, the Grade Company, and became a vice-president of a chain of cinemas in the United States. He even owned the rights to 450 romance novels by Dame Barbara Cartland and adapted them for television.
In the 1990s, Lew Grade returned to ITC to lead the company one last time until his death. He was also a member of the Founding Council of the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford.
Honours and Recognition
In 1969, Lew Grade was made a knight, which means he could use the title "Sir." In 1976, he was given the title of life peer, becoming Baron Grade of Elstree. He chose Elstree because ATV's main studios were located there. This meant he became a member of the House of Lords, part of the UK Parliament.
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Death
Lew Grade once said in an interview in 1978 that he didn't plan to retire until the year 2000. He passed away from heart failure at the age of 91 on December 13, 1998, in London. He was buried at the Liberal Jewish Cemetery in London.
In 2006, BBC Radio 2 broadcast two special tribute programs to celebrate Lew Grade's life and mark what would have been his 100th birthday.
