Peter Bennett (music promoter)

Peter Bennett (May 10, 1935 - November 22, 2012) was a popular music promoter who worked with several prominent artists including The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra and The Jackson 5.

Peter Bennett was born as Pietro Benedetto in The Bronx, New York. As a distant cousin to singer Tony Bennett, Peter changed his last name in the early 1950s as his famous relation had. Peter and Tony both knew they had family from a similar Italian locale and remained close through the music business. Pete Bennett first entered the entertainment world as a drummer. In 1956 at the age of twenty one he sat in with trombonist and big bandleader Tommy Dorsey at New York's Paramount Theater. An historic engagement that held a reunion of Dorsey and his former boy singer of the early 1940s, Frank Sinatra. Bennett made his television debut in 1961 performing on drums his first single, "Fever," with his group Pete Bennett And The Embers on ABC-TV's Dick Clark's American Bandstand. His behind the scene work helping singer Bobby Vinton plug his early 1962 recordings for Epic Records first introduced Bennett to the world of music promotion. By the summer of '62, Peter was working his new found magic pushing Nat King Cole's Capitol Records single Ramblin' Rose into the top 10, a return for Nat after four years.

Peter Bennett

Peter Bennett may refer to:

Peter Bennett (actor)

Peter Bennett (17 September 1917 – 23 December 1989) was a British stage and television actor. He had served on both the National Council for Drama Training and the British Actors' Equity Association.

Biography

Peter Bennett was born in London, England, on 17 September 1917. His father was a Major in the British Army and a recipient of the Military Cross. Bennett attended Malvern College and trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Peter Bennett married Sheila Bramwell-Jones. He died on 23 December 1989.

Career

Peter Bennett made his first stage appearance on 27 January 1936 as Ma Ta in a stage adaptation of Lady Precious Stream at the Pleasure Gardens Theatre in Folkestone, England. His first appearance in London theatre was on 9 May 1936 as Possum and Ed Sweet in a production of Little Ol' Boy at the Arts Theatre. Bennett made his first and only Broadway theatre performance as Corporal Cramp in the short-lived January 1947 production of Love Goes to Press at the Biltmore Theatre. Other major venues at which Bennett performed include the Westminster Theatre, the Ambassadors Theatre, Embassy Theatre, and the Richmond Theatre.

Peter Bennett, 1st Baron Bennett of Edgbaston

Peter Frederick Blaker Bennett, 1st Baron Bennett of Edgbaston OBE, JP (16 April 1880 – 27 September 1957), known as Sir Peter Bennett, between 1941 and 1953, was a British businessman and Conservative Party politician.

Background and education

Bennett was the son of Frederick C. Bennett and Annie (née Blaker), and educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and the University of Birmingham.

Business career

Bennett was chairman and managing director of Joseph Lucas Ltd and also served as a Justice of the Peace for Sutton Coldfield. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1918, and knighted in 1940.

Political career

Bennett was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Edgbaston at an unopposed by-election in December 1940 following the death of the sitting MP, former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He held the seat in the general elections of 1945, 1950 and 1951. He served under Winston Churchill as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and National Service between 1951 and 1952. On 1 July 1953 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Bennett of Edgbaston, of Sutton Coldfield in the County of Warwick.