Donna Maimes

[Aryae Coopersmith]

Phone conversation recorded March 22, 2005

Aryae: How did you first meet Shlomo?

Donna:The story that Shlomo tells – and because you know me, you’ll know how absolutely ridiculous this is – is that he was in Berkeley, I think it was 1965, as a performer at the Berkeley Folk Festival. It was the first time he had been to the West Coast I believe. The story that he tells is that he was walking down Telegraph Avenue, and he saw me dancing, if you can believe that! (both laugh) Dancing down Telegraph Avenue and he knew we were destined to meet. He characterizes me as lightly dancing, which, um, never happened.

What really happened, the real story, is that he was performing at the Berkeley Folk Festival. I was spending time with friends, who have since passed away, who were having dinner one evening, and the dinner guest there was Malvina Reynolds, the folk singer. And Malvina and Bob and Deka, Jessica Mitford was Deka, and Treuhaft who was an attorney in Berkeley, said, let’s go to the Folk Festival. It could be really fun. Malvina was performing at some point during the event. So we went to a concert that I believe was at Pauley Ballroom at the University of California.

What I remember is Shlomo playing guitar and singing. And what I recall – I could be making this up – is that it was the Jefferson Airplane that was playing in the background. I was completely captivated.

Aryae: What year was this?

Donna:1965.

Aryae: And what year were you born?

Donna:1949

Aryae: So you were 16 years old.

Donna:I was also already Jewish. I converted in my own way, through a reform synagogue, when I was 12. So here was somebody that was Jewish, and there was something about… I think it was that he told stories. And he sang songs where it didn’t matter whether you knew the words or not; they still talked to you in some kind of way. And he invited people to come back to his hotel. This huge crowd of people.

And I went. I sort of sat in the background. It was at the University Hotel, not the Shattuck Hotel which came later. We went back. There were probably 30 or 40 of us. He sat and told stories all night long, and it was kind of magic. I had definitely never met anyone like him before in my life. Part of it was this sort of twinkle that he had, and the sweetness, and he was incredibly charismatic. He was also talking about things that interested me. You know, bible stories, Hassidic stories, but nothing like I had ever heard before.

That was probably June of 1965. He came back probably three or four times a year after that, and every single time he came back, I would spend more and more time with him.

He came twice to the Folk Festival.

Aryae: What was it like in 1965?

Donna:The guy that ran it was named Barry [Oliver]. It was at the University of California. It was held all over the place. There were artists who came from all over. There were all kinds of small concerts, and there were workshops that were held. And then there was something called the Memorial Concert. It was the major concert that ended the Festival, and was at Greek Theater. I’m pretty sure it was during the summer. Cause I don’t remember cutting school to hang out with him.

Aryae: The one I was at, it was a very similar story. He was I think the final act and he was standing on that main place in the Greek Theater, down below there, and people gathered around him. And he invited people back to the Shattuck Hotel.

Donna:I think the first time he came he stayed at, I think it was the University Hotel, which I think was on Dwight. If you’re on Telegraph Avenue and heading toward Sproul Hall, it’s to the right and up that road. I’m pulling up the web site for Malvina Reynolds, but I don’t see this concert listed there. Who else was playing then? Joni Mitchel was there. She was playing an autoharp then. (laughs)

I met Shlomo at the same time that Alex and Miriam did.

Aryae: A memory I have of you and him is that you were his business manager in those days. I’m fascinated with that. How does a teenage girl, 16 years old, get to be the business manager of this rising star?

Donna:I absolutely believe that he probably had hundreds of people…

Aryae: …well, he had a business manager in every port in the country, in the world! (both laugh) But how did you get to be his business manager in the Bay Area?

Donna:I got to do it, and this is a skill that I still have, because I am a network queen. And while other people were being blissed out, I knew that the way to get him around was to see how may gigs you could book for him. I’ve always had a clear sense that people don’t arrive, and don’t stay, for free. I was teaching in a couple of synagogues at that point. I was teaching in Beth Jacob. I was hooked up with the rabbi there, Paul Leiderman.

Aryae: What were you teaching?

Donna:I was working with kids. When I was somewhat older I was working with NCSY (National Council of Synagogue Youth), and learning with Paul, and also (Rabbi) Saul Berman. That’s when he was at Beth Israel in Berkeley, and he’s now some big macher (mover and shaker) somewhere.

And the other thing that happened at that period of time is that I met a lot of… I was still in high school. I met some people that I really liked, including a guy I used to to out with. Do you remember a guy named Ron Sheer?

Aryae: No.

Donna:There were two brothers named Ron and Allen Sheer. And we used to drive. Wherever Shlomo was performing, we would go. They were at UC Berkeley at that point and I was a senior in high school.

So the way that I got to be the business manager is that I, you know, I would book gigs for him. I would make phone calls. I would handle the money.

Aryae: Did your relationship with Leiderman and Berman help you book gigs at shuls?

Donna:Yeah. And being on the outside, I was talking to people at the JCCs (Jewish Community Centers) and other organizations. Cause I wasn’t in the clutch, at the front. I was busy talking to the grown ups. When he would do a gig, he’d say, you know, “Talk to Donna.” And there I’d be. I’d talk to them, and we’d make ... it was that contact that made the other concerts happen. So we would go from one to the other. I would work with him on the phone and we would write contracts, and get him paid.

Aryae: You know, I don’t know that I’ve ever thanked you for doing that, but I’m so grateful that you, you know, created the business infrastructure for bringing him back and back and back to the Bay Area. Thank you! (laughs)

Donna:You’re very welcome. (laughs) But that’s what I did. I made those kinds of contacts, and made sure that people understood that there were multiple values that came with him. One is, look at the kids that you have here that you wouldn’t have here if he weren’t here. And how do we bring him back so you keep this energy going? And it was also a time, you know, it was that sort of Aquarian revolution time, where people were really interested in things, and if he could bring people back and engage kids in synagogues, that was really important.

So, you know, I would meet one person at a thing in the East Bay, and she was the director for a synagogue in Lafayette, and we would set up a gig with them. Six months later he would come back … her name was Evelyn. I don’t know if you remember her. She’s one of those people that lost their minds. And when she lost her mind, Shlomo … we set up a thing, and Shlomo and a couple of us went to a state hospital, and did a thing at a state hospital.

Another person that we have a very interesting picture of at that time, this is very weird small world story. Do you remember Lincoln Wesson, who plays the mandolin?

Aryae: Lincoln … the name is familiar.

Donna:He went to med school at Stanford. He is now a radiologist in the town that I live in. He was really involved. He used to play the mandolin all the time with Shlomo back in the really old days. So, you know, we created sort of these friendship groups. Part of it was Alex and Miriam. Cause they were the grownups. They weren’t that old either. But they were they were the grownups. They had an apartment.

Aryae: (Laughs)

Donna:The other people, they didn’t even have an apartment. But they (Alex and Miriam) had an apartment, so they became the place to go.