 |
|
Lee Marshall's success story and this photo were featured in the November Cleveland Magazine. Photo: Jerry Mann < /td> |
Marshall, BSC '78, a Pittsburgh native, co-founded the promotion and marketing company in 1984. Copperfield was one of his first clients. Now a thriving entertainm ent company, Magicworks manages, promotes and controls merchandising for several Broadway musicals, performing artists and even the live touring version of Nickelodeon's "Rugrats" television series, the nation's top-rated children's show.
High-profile clientele helped make Magicworks a multimillion-dollar company that grossed $71.5 million in 1996. But, Marshall says, "the way I measure success is by how many people in the business I can call friends. It's a relationship business."
Promot ing regional concerts while studying to be an engineer at Lorain County Community College sparked Marshall's interest in the entertainment industry.
His guidance counselor suggested he attend Ohio University, where Marshall as a member of a campus concert committee helped bring Steve Martin, Gary Wright, the Outlaws, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer to campus in the late 1970s.
"OU let me be an entrepreneur in an educational setting," Marshall says. "When I got out of school, I could use my sk ills in a practical way." Those skills helped guide his company to a fifth-place ranking among Performance magazine's highest-grossing promoters in America.
Marshall manages to keep his business close to home, staying in the Cleveland area rather than relocating to New York, the hub of entertainment promotion. Marshall, his wife, Karen, and their two daughters live a half-mile from the brick, turn-of-the-century house that is home to Magicworks in Aurora.
--Clare Warmke, BSJ '98
