Sid Bernstein

Bernstein was born in New York City in 1918 and was adopted by a Russian Jewish family. He studied journalism at Columbia University before working in a ballroom and joining the US Army in 1943. During World War II, he was stationed in Britain and also served in France with the 602nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Gun Battalion of the United States Army. After the end of the war he returned to New York and became the manager of mambo musician Esy Morales, as well as acting as a booking agent. He started work for the General Artists Corporation (GAC), and by the early 1960s was working as a booking agent for pop stars such as Dion and Chubby Checker.\n', '

Bernstein helped jump start the British Invasion as the first concert promoter to bring The Beatles over to the United States from Britain. An Anglophile, he contacted Beatles manager Brian Epstein in early 1963 after reading about the…