When headlines blared that businessman José Menendez had been shot 15 instances alongside along with his spouse Kitty whereas watching TV of their Beverly Hills house on the night of August 20, 1989, it registered as simply one other homicide sufferer for most individuals, however these within the report trade immediately acknowledged the title.
Not lengthy earlier than, José Menendez had held a high publish at RCA Data — house to Diana Ross, Kenny Rogers and Corridor & Oates, amongst different artists, on the time — the place he was tasked with turning across the label’s sagging income. He additionally signed Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, that includes a younger Ricky Martin, whereas there and oversaw hit data by Mr. Mister, Starship and Eurythmics.
Certainly, he was such a identified entity within the biz, and the story of his homicide at 45, and subsequent arrests of sons Lyle and Erik Menendez (21 and 18 on the time), fascinated so many, that even irreverent radio tipsheet Hits journal featured the brothers on the duvet of their Mad magazine-inspired anniversary subject on the time.
“After I picked up the New York Occasions over breakfast and examine [the murders], I used to be flabbergasted,” says one trade vet who labored with José for 4 years however prefers anonymity (“I don’t wish to spend the remainder of my life speaking about José Menendez”). “It wouldn’t have occurred to me such a factor would occur. He was at all times straight with me, and even gave me tasks that helped revitalize my profession. On the time of the trial, I used to be approached by either side as a possible character witness, however I managed to keep away from that then, and now.”
Retired music enterprise govt Roy Lott was in a mid-level place at RCA when José Menendez was accountable for the corporate’s report operations within the early to mid-80s. “I don’t keep in mind any particular dealings with him aside from a basic impression that he was overbearing and never even attempting to be appreciated,” he recalled. “After he was murdered, the FBI confirmed up at my workplace to interview me as a result of I used to be on his remaining vacation card checklist.”
George Ghiz, who nonetheless manages Mr. Mister’s Richard Web page and signed the band to RCA by means of A&R exec Paul Atkinson, says of José, “I beloved the man. He was a hard-driving man and didn’t endure fools, however he was one of many few who got here from outdoors the music enterprise that received it. I assumed he was a genius.”
The Cuban-born José had an unbelievable rags-to-riches story. The son of well-to-do mother and father who, after Fidel Castro got here to energy in 1960, despatched him to america alone at 16 years previous, he arrived in Hazleton, Pennsylvania talking little or no English and lived within the attic of a cousin’s house.
As depicted in Ryan Murphy’s Netflix collection, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, José, attending Southern Illinois College on a swimming scholarship, met blond magnificence queen Mary Louise Andersen, a full of life communications main two years his senior who everybody known as Kitty. The 2 married in 1963 regardless of the objections of each households when Jose was 19 and Kitty 21. (They’re performed by Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny, respectively, within the collection.)
Erik Menendez, left, and is brother Lyle, in entrance of their Beverly Hills house for ‘The Menendez Brothers.’
Ronald L. Soble/Los Angeles Occasions/Getty Photos
After transferring to New York, José transferred to Queens Faculty, washing dishes on the 21 Membership whereas incomes his accounting diploma. He was later employed on the prestigious agency of Coopers & Lybrand, overseeing shoppers like Lyon’s Container Service in Illinois, who had been so impressed along with his recommendations they lured him away and named him comptroller. Inside three years, he was the corporate’s president, and by the point he was 35, he had been named govt vp accountable for U.S. operations at Hertz, the rent-a-car firm which was then a subsidiary of RCA Corp.
José was named chief working officer of the corporate’s recorded music division, RCA-Ariola, directing worldwide operations at a wage of $500,000 a 12 months ($1.9 million in as we speak {dollars}). He got here into the label as then-head Bob Summer season had simply signed disastrous overpriced offers with Diana Ross and Kenny Rogers. “On the time, the corporate was divided between the older, out-of-touch incompetent workers who had been there endlessly and a totally corrupt promotion division,” says a former colleague. “José was introduced in to wash it up and ‘generate revenue’ for the company. Executives at RCA had been fungible. … If you happen to turned across the rent-a-car enterprise, perhaps you could possibly do the identical for the report labels.”
“When he came visiting from Hertz, he knew completely nothing in regards to the report enterprise,” his work affiliate continues. “However he was a really fast research. He was extremely shiny. He had no really feel for the music, however he picked up on how the enterprise was carried out.”
José introduced in RCA U.Okay. head Don Ellis, a veteran A&R exec who beforehand labored at Epic Data, to move the U.S. labels. Ellis employed his earlier CBS Data colleague Gregg Geller, who José promptly put accountable for the Elvis Presley catalog, transferring it over from Nashville, the place Joe Galante was solely too blissful to relinquish it after the gross sales spike from Presley’s demise in 1977 had cooled off.
An ex-RCA worker says José Menendez was “powerful and a browbeater, notably when confronted with incompetence or folks he didn’t respect. … You didn’t wish to incur his wrath. That mentioned, I received alongside effectively with him. I suppose as a result of I knew what I used to be doing. I didn’t attempt to bullshit him. He took enter from folks he revered. He was completely different towards me than just about everybody else within the firm then. Issues had been improved at RCA underneath José. We had been having hits. I keep in mind going to see the Eurythmics with José on the Ritz and he couldn’t have been extra charming. He was chatting up Annie Lennox. He was completely nice along with her.”
With RCA Corp. about to be acquired by Basic Electrical in 1985 (who would quickly unload the music holdings to German firm Bertelsmann), José was on the best way out as veteran music govt Elliott Goldman was introduced in to restructure the report enterprise. He tapped fellow trade standbys Rick Dobbis and Bob Buziak to run the report labels.
“I solely met him as soon as,” Dobbis says of José Menendez. “I used to be introduced into his workplace and he appeared fairly distracted, like he didn’t care. Possibly he knew he wasn’t going to be there for much longer.”
When GE Chairman Jack Welch failed to supply José the presidency, he left in 1986, taking his household cross-country from New York to Calabasas, then to Beverly Hills, the place he moved right into a Spanish-styled $5 million mansion as soon as owned by Michael Jackson and Elton John within the shadow of Rodeo Drive.
Professionally, José went on to hitch indie movie studio Carolco — house of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo motion pictures — the place he was put accountable for their failing subsidiary Worldwide Video Leisure (IVE), a distribution firm acquired from a porn distributor named Noel Bloom. After shedding $20 million the 12 months he was employed, Menendez turned the corporate round by firing a lot of the employees and forcing the exit of Bloom, whose grownup movie background embarrassed the straight-laced Cuban. By 1987, IVE boasted earnings of $8 million after barely avoiding chapter the 12 months earlier than. A merger with Minnesota report distributor Lieberman to type LIVE gave José his subsequent fiefdom.
“I keep in mind as soon as assembly him in his workplace with each of us smoking cigarettes like chimneys, and he excused himself to take a telephone name,” says Ghiz. “When he returned, he blurted out, ‘George, my oldest son is a nasty seed.’ And that was it. In all our interactions, I by no means noticed any indication that Jose was sexually interested in males.”
On the time of his demise, José Menendez nonetheless harbored political desires of operating for Senate in Florida, grooming his household as a Latin Kennedys — one of many causes he drove his two sons so onerous.
Final 12 months, José was accused by former Menudo member Roy Rosselló of sexual assault. Within the wake of Murphy’s collection and renewed curiosity within the case, it may issue into efforts to launch the imprisoned Kyle and Lyle Menendez, each of whom are serving life sentences. Their circumstances are presently being reconsidered by newly elected L.A. district legal professional Nathan Hochman, with the subsequent continuing scheduled for March.
In a telling reminiscence, José’s one-time worker recounts: “My spouse and I had been sitting with José and Kitty on the RCA desk for the very first Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame dinner in 1986. As a result of we only in the near past had a son, they started to debate childbirth. It was at that time Kitty revealed she had been pregnant with each of her boys for 10 months. After I discovered what occurred later, I instantly thought again to her remark. Consider that as you’ll. Who is aware of what it means.”
