Elliot Mintz

Elliot Mintz
Photo by Jimmy Steinfeldt
Born (1945-02-16) February 16, 1945 (age 79)
Bronx, New York
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Radio personality, Television personality, Media consultant
Years active1963–present
Websiteelliotmintz.com

Elliot Mintz (born February 16, 1945) is an American radio and television personality as well as media consultant. He began his career as a radio DJ in the 1960s before becoming a radio and television personality. He hosted shows on KPFK, Earth News Radio, and Innerview and was also an entertainment correspondent for ABC 7 in Los Angeles. In the 1970s he became a publicist for John Lennon and Yoko Ono, later adding other musicians and actors as clients, including Bob Dylan, Paris Hilton and Canadian drummer Neil Peart from Rush. Mintz also presented The Lost Lennon Tapes, a music documentary series that ran between 1988 and 1992.

Early life

Mintz was born in the Bronx borough of New York City on February 16, 1945. In 1963 he moved to California to attend Los Angeles City College – partly inspired by the film The Misfits[1] – where he studied broadcasting and began to do radio interviews. Early interviews by Mintz included Jayne Mansfield and Jack Lemmon. His first interview to be broadcast nationally came after the death of John F. Kennedy, when he discovered a classmate of his, Roland Bynum, had known Lee Harvey Oswald while in the US Marines together. The interview was the first character and background interview done about Oswald in the US, and was picked up by the national and international radio broadcast networks. He then became a radio D.J. in the 1960s.[2][3][4]

Radio and television career

From 1966 to 1968,[4] Elliot Mintz had two shows on KPFK in Los Angeles, California, Looking In and Looking Out.[5] The shows provided a platform for community conversation as well as for interviews Mintz would do with public figures. Each show would begin with a series of rhetorical questions, which listeners could call in to respond to.[6] When he started with KPFK, Mintz was the youngest talkshow host in the US, at the age of 21, broadcasting a nightly radio show on the station.[1] In 1971 he hosted a Kaiser Broadcasting syndicated television show called Headshop that integrated musical guests with film clips shot in and around Southern California.[3]

From 1973 to 1974, Mintz was the entertainment correspondent for Eyewitness News on KABC television in Los Angeles. He also worked on-air at KLAC (1968–69), KMET (1969), and KLOS (1970–71). During this part of his career he interviewed Hollywood actors and recording artists, and lived next door to Timothy Leary.[4][7] In 1980 Mintz received a California Associated Press, Television, and Radio Association award for his November 30, 1979 radio interview of an Iranian student at the American Embassy in Tehran during the Iran Hostage Crisis.[8] Mintz's interviews include those with Mort Sahl, Norman Mailer, Ray Bradbury, Alan Watts, Salvador Dalí, Jack Lemmon, John Wayne, Groucho Marx,[1] Timothy Leary, Jack Nicholson,[9] Allen Ginsberg,[10] Jayne Mansfield, Raquel Welch, Karen Black, and musicians like John Lennon, Donna Summer, John Coltrane,[11] Stevie Wonder,[12] Ringo Starr, Alice Cooper, and Mick Jagger.[4]

Mintz was the host of the television interview show Headshop, where he interviewed individuals including Kris Kristofferson.[13] He retired in 2014, upon which he released a website containing his past interviews for download. Other radio stations he worked for include KPPC, KABC, Earth News Radio, Innerview, and Westwood One.[11]

He appeared on episodes of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in 2021.[14]

Public relations career

Mintz is a public relations person and spokesperson for individuals and corporate clients. His first client was Bobby Sherman during the 1960s.[10] He also represented John Lennon and Yoko Ono, whom he befriended in 1971. He joined their entourage throughout the 1970s and remains a spokesperson for both the John Lennon Estate and Ono.[2] Other clients of Mintz's have included Christie Brinkley,[15] Crosby, Stills and Nash,[16] Diana Ross,[17] Don Johnson,[18][19] Janet Jones,[20] Melanie Griffith,[21] and Bob Dylan.[22][23] During the 2000s Mintz represented Paris Hilton,[24] and appeared on her television show The Simple Life.[25]

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Since the death of Lennon, Mintz has acted as a spokesperson for the Lennon estate.[2] While sifting through Lennon's belongings, he discovered hundreds of unreleased tape recordings including half-finished new songs and early versions of famous hits. Beginning in 1988, he hosted a weekly syndicated radio series based upon these recordings called The Lost Lennon Tapes, which was broadcast for about four years. After the show came to an end, Mintz began hosting the spinoff radio program The Beatle Years.[7] Mintz has appeared in feature documentaries about Lennon and Yoko Ono, including Imagine: John Lennon, The U.S. vs. John Lennon and The Real Yoko Ono. In 1985, he was a technical advisor on the television film John and Yoko: A Love Story.[25] He also authored an essay about his relationship with them published in a 2005 book entitled Memories of John Lennon.[26] In October 2024 Mintz published a memoir We all shine on: John, Yoko and me.[27]

References

  1. ^ a b c Paul Leslie (28 October 2014). "Elliot Mintz: Media Consultant, Former Radio & Television Personality". 89.1 WBCX. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  2. ^ a b c Marie-Joëlle Parent (October 30, 2008). "In the shadow of stars". Canoe. Archived from the original on April 12, 2014. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  3. ^ a b Pope, Kyle (August 27, 2006). "Walking Miss Hilton". Fashion & Lifestyle. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2015-02-05. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  4. ^ a b c d Kubernik, Harvey (2009). Canyon of Dreams: The Magic and the Music of Laurel Canyon. New York: Sterling Publishing. p. 286. ISBN 978-1-4027-6589-6. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  5. ^ "Saturday January 27". KPFK Folio. Pacifica Foundation. January 1968. p. 21. Retrieved 2024-11-16 – via Internet Archive Book Reader. 10:00 Looking In with Elliot Mintz
  6. ^ Lasar, Matthew (2000). Dawidoff, Robert (ed.). Pacifica Radio The Rise of an Alternative Network. American Subjects (Updated ed.). Philadelphia: Temple University Press. p. 222. ISBN 1-56639-777-4. Retrieved 2024-11-16 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ a b Puig, Claudia (March 11, 1992). "'Lennon Tapes' Hits Its Last Reel: Radio: What began as a 2-year project ends four years later as host Elliot Mintz finishes his final 'Lost Lennon Tapes' show". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  8. ^ "Phone call to the occupied American embassy in Iran / by Elliot Mintz and Roy Tuckman". KPFK. 1979-11-30. Retrieved 2024-11-17 – via Pacifica Radio Archives.
  9. ^ "People: Mintz offering free access to celeb talks". The Spokesman-Review. May 19, 2014. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  10. ^ a b Valerie Milano (September 29, 2014). "Elliot Mintz Media Consultant and Broadcaster". The Hollywood Times. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  11. ^ a b Sandy Cohen (May 21, 2014). "Retiring host Elliot Mintz shares interviews free online". Associated Press. Archived from the original on February 5, 2015. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  12. ^ "'Inner View' Now Offering Part 2 Stevie Wonder". Billboard Magazine. 27 November 1976. p. 20. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  13. ^ Michael Walker (2010). Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood. Macmillan. p. 76. ISBN 9781429932936. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  14. ^ "'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' finale recap: The Year of the Ox". EW.com. Retrieved 2023-12-27.
  15. ^ "Model Christie Brinkley, Husband Separate". Fox News Channel. July 12, 2006. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  16. ^ "Crosby gets new liver". Syracuse Herald-Journal. November 19, 1994. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  17. ^ "Diana Ross gives birth to fifth child". The Telegraph-Herald. August 26, 1988. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  18. ^ "Don Johnson, wife expecting a baby". USA Today. December 26, 2005. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  19. ^ "Don Johnson ends holdout". The Vindicator. June 21, 1986. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
  20. ^ "HOCKEY; Lawyers Say Neither Gretzky Nor His Wife Will Be Charged". New York Times. February 17, 2006. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  21. ^ "Melanie Griffith faints at home". Gainesville Sun. May 28, 1993. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  22. ^ "Dylan's Change of Tune Riles Fans". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. October 17, 1996. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  23. ^ WILLIAM E. SCHMIDT (November 4, 1988). "Hibbing Journal; No Honor for the Home Of a Famed Native Son". New York Times. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  24. ^ Bryan Alexander (May 6, 2007). "Paris Hilton & Longtime Rep Part Ways". People Magazine. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  25. ^ a b "Elliot Mintz: Miscellaneous Crew". IMDB. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  26. ^ Yoko Ono (2005). Memories of John Lennon. Harper Collins. ISBN 9780061870804. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  27. ^ Mintz, Elliot (2024). We all shine on: John, Yoko and me. Bantam. ISBN 9780857506078.