Jeff Apter is best known for his biographies on music royalty - Angus Young, The Cure, John Farnham, Jeff Buckley. But the subject of his latest book is someone he kept hearing about in the margins of those iconic stories: a man who lived in the background. 

Always there, but barely visible. In the shadows. And a man Apter had been wanting to write about for more than a decade.

“It all started when I was writing a book about Johnny O'Keefe, a legendary Aussie rocker from the ’60s - sort of Australia’s Elvis - and throughout my research, this name, Lee Gordon, kept coming up,” Apter said.

“He was Johnny’s mentor, someone who really helped guide O'Keefe’s career. And the more I looked into his life, the more I realised - though O'Keefe was called 'The Wild One' - Lee Gordon was actually wilder. And in some ways, an even more interesting character.”

The result is Lee Gordon Presents: How One Man Changed Australian Life Forever - a new biography chronicling the wild, chaotic, and pioneering life of promoter Lee Gordon.

The book, released a few weeks ago, has already received strong praise.

Lee Gordon at the Big Show Office. Photo: Ronald Stewart/Fairfax Syndication

“The reviews have been really good - it was the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age non-fiction pick of the week when it came out, and the reader response has been fantastic,” said Apter.

“I’ve had a steady stream of emails from people saying things like, ‘I’m so glad someone finally wrote a book about this guy,’ or, ‘I was at one of his shows - it was the wildest night of my life, and I’m 75 now.’ I even got one from a lady who told me about smoking dope with Johnny O'Keefe.”

Still, Apter says the book wasn’t an easy sell.

“Because Gordon wasn’t a public figure - or at least not as well-known as most of the people I’ve written about - it was quite hard to get a publisher interested,” he said.

“Eventually I fine-tuned the pitch. I started putting him in context: people know about Chugg, Harry M. Miller, and all the big-name promoters who came after. But what they don’t realise is that Lee Gordon created the industry here. Once I framed it like that, it was a much easier sell.”

Part of the appeal of the book is the sheer unpredictability of Gordon’s life. One chapter he’s introducing Frank Sinatra to Australian audiences. The next, he’s launching the roller derby. Then it’s Australia’s first drive-in restaurant.

The Sydney Stadium in Rushcutters Bay, the scene of Lee Gordon's Big Shows. Source: Mark Iaria

“He was quite the visionary. He opened Sydney’s first drive-in restaurant 10 or 15 years before McDonald's arrived - and it failed because people didn’t understand how it worked,” Apter explains.

“He brought the roller derby to Australia - mostly female skaters beating the daylights out of each other while circling a rink. He brought it here ten years before it was big on TV in the States. Again, it failed - people just didn’t get it.”

Gordon was also a masterful marketer with an uncanny ability to sell big ideas and get people on board - even when he was in deep trouble. 

One of Apter’s favourite stories is about the time Gordon owed $30,000 in airfares to Pan Am while booking American artists for Australian tours.

With only a few dollars to his name, Gordon flew to Pan Am’s San Francisco headquarters - unannounced - with his right-hand man Alan Heffernan, and pitched them a deal.

“He said, ‘Look, I know my company owes you $30,000. We’re in trouble, and we probably won’t be able to pay it back because we’re declaring bankruptcy.’ 

Lee Gordon as he appeared in the opening credits of the rarely seen 1959 concert film Rock 'n' Roll, which he produced. Source: Mark Iaria

Then he said, ‘But here’s the good news: I have tours lined up with Nat King Cole and Johnny Ray. If you give me a handful of first-class and economy tickets, I’ll make so much money that I can clear the debt entirely.’”

“And somehow… they agreed. He walked out with the tickets,” said Apter.

These are just a few of the many unbelievable tales packed into the book. But Apter says that beyond the chaos and colour, his goal was to give Gordon the recognition he deserves.

“If Beyoncé or Coldplay or Taylor Swift comes to Australia now, it’s a given. But in the ’50s, it wasn’t. You’d hear stars on the radio or see them on the big screen, but that was it,” Apter said.

“Because of Lee Gordon and the shows he promoted, that changed. He helped create the very idea that Australia could be a viable touring destination. And that’s what I wanted people to understand - how the business came into being.”

Lee Gordon Presents: How One Man Changed Australian Life Forever is out now. Jeff Apter will be launching the book at Kiama Library on 9 August. Tickets are free and available here.