Paul Ackerley: Saul Holiff
Quotes
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Saul Holiff : Wednesday, March 17: Midnight - Luther called. Johnny's lost his voice - AGAIN!
Saul Holiff : Thursday, March 18: 1:30 AM - Cancelled Cincinnati due to alleged case of laryngitis afflicting Johnny.
Saul Holiff : Saturday, March 20: 6:00 PM - Marshall called. Johnny's appearance in Peoria "highly unlikely."
Saul Holiff : 6:15 PM - Called promoter, radio officials, and building management to make excuses.
Saul Holiff : 7:30 PM - Called June. She said Vivian was in Nashville and had been for the last several days.
Saul Holiff : Sunday, March 21: 1:30 PM - Called Maybelle. Johnny asleep in his office, apparently "out cold."
Saul Holiff : Monday, March 22: 11:00 AM - Called June. Johnny in no shape to play shows. June is powerless to intercede.
Saul Holiff : 7:00 PM - Cancelled Madison, Rockford and Green Bay. Told promoter I would cover his losses. He said he'd call me back "AFTER speaking to his lawyer."
Saul Holiff : Tuesday, March 23: Noon - Called Johnny. No answer. Sent two-page telegram by cab. NO ANSWER!
[Original Source: Saul Holiff's Phone Log, March 1965]
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Saul Holiff : [On sagging record sales] Johnny, last week we discussed Bob Johnston and Don Law. I have given the situation a lot of thought. I urge you to immediately go with Johnston. No one is perfect, and sometimes you have shown poor judgement. Bob Johnston is creative enough to present exciting ideas. The time is ripe for a change and it should be NOW. I think Johnston can bring you to the next plateau.
[Original Source: Letter from Saul Holiff to Johnny Cash; December 29, 1966]
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Johnny Cash : Saul knows his job and does it perfectly. I never worry that things aren't done. He's a perfectionist. Like my dad useta say, "Whatever you're going to be, be the best in the business. Saul is the best agent in the world. I feel sorry for guys like Presley who don't have an agent like him.
[Original Source: "Want Johnny Cash? Call London, Ontario and ask for Saul Holiff;" Canadian Magazine, November, 1970]
Saul Holiff : The fact is, I couldn't find any way to justify BECOMING Johnny's manager. I thought the only way I could manage him was to come up with things that hadn't been been done before - that was part of the reason he got excited.
[Original Source: TBD]
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Johnny Cash : In late '61 we played the Big D in Dallas, Texas and my manager, Saul Holiff, said, "We need a girl singer on the show tonight. They want more than just you and your band." And I said, "Well, get one." He said, "What do you think about June Carter?" And I said, "I've always been a fan of hers." And I had, you know. I loved her work. I said, "Get her if you can." So we booked June Carter on the Big D in Dallas and then that night my manager asked if she would work the next tour with us. So she did.
[Original Source: Interview with WHN Radio New York, July 4, 1980]
Saul Holiff : Dear June, It was nice talking with you the other night... even though I acted like a concerned father. This letter confirms your appearance in Des Moines. We have George Jones, Carl Perkins, and Patsy Cline and June "The Heel" Carter. I would also like to confirm you and all your assorted relatives, at Carnegie Hall, for a fee of $500. Yours, Saul.
[Original Source: Letter to June Carter, December 25, 1961]
June Carter : Hi Saul, I signed the contract and returned it. As we discussed on the phone, this is our "tour price," and I was expectin' as many as 4 days. At this rate, we will just about make expenses. Let's hope the other dates come through. When I see you, we will discuss the management deal. Regards to John, Fluke, Marshall and Luther. I love you all. June.
[Original Source: Letter to Saul Holiff, January 3, 1962]
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Saul Holiff : Dear Barb, The Hollywood Bowl show and the party was a success beyond my wildest imagination. The food, the view, some fine singing by Johnny... people called it the party of the year!
[Original Source: Letter Barbara Robinson, June 28, 1962]
Johnny Cash : Barbara, I feel my association with Saul these past months is the foundation for the new lease on life I have found. As a matter of fact, I know it. Not only have I begun to enjoy life but I am happy and excited about the way my career is zooming! Johnny.
[Original Source: Letter to Barbara Robinson, October 1962]
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Saul Holiff : Dear Small Sad Sam, I'm so pleased with your new attitude toward our future plans. I sincerely believe that you are capable of great things, provided you keep a level head and an even perspective. our Director of Planning, Saul.
[Original Source: Letter to Johnny Cash, December 27, 1961]
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Saul Holiff : Dear John Henry, I was proud of you in Daytona... no temperament... sincere effort... composure and maturity. It's clear to me that you're going to re-establish yourself at the top where you belong. Saul.
[Original Source: Letter to Johnny Cash, July 13, 1962]
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Saul Holiff : Barbara, Johnny has suddenly decided to end our relationship. I honestly believed that no matter how emotional and irrational he was, he was at least LOYAL. To top it off, we have a HIT RECORD!
[Original Source: Letter to Barbara Robinson, July 11, 1963]
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Saul Holiff : It seems that everyone in London is aware of a conversation suggesting a discrepancy in the attendance at the show. This rumour is vicious and has already done much to malign me.
[Original Source: Letter to Johnny Cash, February 27, 1965]
Johnny Cash : Now that you have raked me over the coals, I want to tell you that you are damn sure barking up the wrong tree. Please raise hell with someone else. I've had enough for everybody.
[Original Source: Letter to Saul Holiff, March 2, 1965]
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Saul Holiff : To Johnny Cash STOP. Confirming Jonathan Joel Holiff at 7 1/4 pounds STOP. Terms - Life Guarantee STOP. One Hundred Percent Top Billing STOP. No Mikes, Spotlights or Extra Talent Required STOP. Admission Free. STOP. Dontcha dare miss him. STOP. Paternally Saul.
[Original Source:Telegram to Johnny Cash; June 9, 1965]
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Saul Holiff : If you are concerned about the manner in which I represent you, I would be agreeable to withdrawing as your manager, and concentrate on dates only.
[Original Source: Letter to Johnny Cash; July 9, 1965]
Johnny Cash : What do you mean, "withdraw as my manager?" I want you to represent me. Let's work together and keep phrases like that out of our conversations. Black is black. Day is day.
[Original Source: Letter to Saul Holiff; July 14, 1965]
Saul Holiff : You have never failed to let me know when I have goofed up. And now you're alleging that I signed "chits" at The Mint that came to the grand sum of $100, only to be made aware, after accusing me of such a monumental theft, that I WASN'T EVEN IN LAS VEGAS at the time.
[Original Source: Letter to Johnny Cash; August 24, 1965]
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Saul Holiff : [Circa 1965] Suddenly I found myself in this chaotic, unpredictable, terrible atmosphere. nothing could be finalized. Nothing could be definite. The cancellations were awful and I had to make good on them.
[Original Source: "A Man Called Cash," by Steve Turner]
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Saul Holiff : [Circa 1965] There was a feeling of anti-Semitism 24 hours a day; it was unmistakable. But it was kind of a naïve anti-Semitism. Just based on being a "good old southern boy."
[Original Source: "Pajama Party" TV Interview 1984]
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Johnny Cash : [On being jailed in El Paso 1965] "I don't ever want out of this cell again. I just want to stay here and die. Because I'm too weak to face everyone. Knowing my family is heart broken, knowing my friends and fans are disappointed. It's more than I can reconcile with them.
[Original Source: "Man In Black," by Johnny Cash]
Various Characters : Dear Saul, I am enclosing, 1. Motion to Allow Petitioner to Leave the Continental United States While on Bond and, 2. Order Granting Permission to John R. Cash to Perform in Canada. Yours Very Truly, Woodrow Bean.
[Original Source: Telegram to Saul Holiff; October 18, 1965]
Various Characters : Saul Holiff, care of Hawaiian Hotel, Hollywood. STOP. Due to unfavourable publicity originating from El Paso, we wish to cancel the Johnny Cash performance scheduled for Texas A&M University. STOP. This is our official notice of cancellation. STOP. J. Wayne Stark, Advisor, Town Hall Committee.
[Original Source: Telegram to Saul Holiff; November 12, 1965]
Saul Holiff : I have given much consideration to the part I've played in your life. There was a period a few years back when you were completely indifferent to your career. I like to think that I helped you to channel and direct your energies back to constructive and creative effort. If this was my only service to you I feel satisfied. However, there were many times that surgical repairs had to be brought into play. I considered it my job to make such repairs. I always respected you as an individualist and a non-conformist, but I don't feel you have recognized my efforts.
[Original Source: Letter to Johnny Cash; December 21, 1965]
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Johnny Cash : [Circa 1966] I had become habituated to amphetamines, barbiturates and alcohol... all three at the same time. I got up to a habit of as many as a hundred pills a day and a case of beer. There was a lot of people OD'd on a lot less than that.
[Original Source: Johnny Cash interview with WHN Radio New York; July 4, 1980]
Saul Holiff : He turned from a quiet, benign personality into a monster.
[Original Source: TBD]
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Alabaman : [Quoting the White Citizens' Council, Mobile, Alabama] Johnny Cash has a NEGRESS for a wife and FOUR mongrelized children. THE RACE MIXERS in the record industry CONTINUE to sell his records to YOUR teen-aged children." Original Source: "Hate Groups Gun for Johnny Cash in Racial Error"
[Variety, October 5, 1966]
Saul Holiff : We'll re-possess every thing they own so that lies like this will not grow to such monstrous proportions in the future.
[Original Source: Saul Holiff as quoted by "Singer Johnny Cash Fights The Voice of Hate;" New York Post, October 6, 1966]
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Saul Holiff : [April 7, 1967] We were in Edmonton and he was on a rampage of pep pills, and he had a Martin, an expensive guitar. And he was in a darkened room, and he hadn't slept for a couple of days, and he's already missed one of the dates. And they're all my dates that I'd set up because nobody wanted to book him. You know, they couldn't trust that he would be there. He took the guitar and smashed it against the wall. I had said things to provoke him. And I guess he just didn't have the nerve to hit me with the guitar so he hit it against the wall and smashed it.
[Original Source: Saul Holiff quoted by "Johnny Cash, The Biography," by Michael Streissguth]
Saul Holiff : After submitting you to every buyer in the business, I was only able to get four dates. Your professional behaviour is totally reprehensible, showing a complete disregard for everyone around you.
[Telegram from Saul Holiff to Johnny Cash; May 6, 1967]
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Johnny Cash : Saul, It's hell to realize that today is October 21st, 1967 and that my divorce was officially final yesterday. It was a dream comin' true that June made me hang onto for FIVE years. She's 37, and I'm almost 36. I dropped a terrible marriage, 4 sweet kids, and half my estate-thinkin' June was planning to marry me. Just yesterday she made a definitive statement-she wants to stop our life together just as it starts. I already said I'm goin' into hospital for as long as I can after this tour. But she's plannin' to ditch me next month. I've promised till I'm blue in the face that I'll act right in California. But she says she can't believe me. She knows its betrayal, but she piles up reasons for cutting our relationship off. My manhood has been insulted and debased. Now I retaliate. Sorry to put this load on you Saul, but unless there is an immediate admissal of betrayal, and an apology to me as a good man, she can't be on my show. This will definitely test June's intentions, her kindness, her goodness, as well as make her open up her heart to me, and show me whether or not she'll leave with these lies following. John.
[Original Source: Letter from Johnny Cash to Saul Holiff; October 21, 1967]
Saul Holiff : You missed $40,000 worth of dates in one year! If you continue like this, it will lead to disaster. Your solution is to cut back my commissions. I am willing to do that... but I want your cooperation in cutting your OWN expenses, and in missing NO MORE DATES."
[Original Source: Letter from Saul Holiff to Johnny Cash; October 31, 1967]
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Johnny Cash : Saul, There is one question that burns in our minds. Do you believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah as prophesied by the Old Testament? Do you believe in His Divinity?
[Original Source: Letter from Johnny Cash to Saul Holiff; April 28, 1975]
Saul Holiff : John, I can't honestly answer your question about Jesus. Years of sounding off about things I haven't fully investigated has resulted in a need for a mental catharsis.
[Original Source: Letter from Saul Holiff to Johnny Cash; May 20, 1975]
June Carter Cash : For Saul, Dear Lord, in your book of predestined, preordained, if it's not there - I wish you'd write down ol' Saul's name. Back when excuses had to fall it was Saul who took the call, and looked you straight in the face and followed Johnny every place, in bars, honky- tonks and ditches - ol' Saul caught the heavy pitches - and threw them back just as hard. He fought to keep John in the yard.
[Original Source: Poem June Carter Cash to Saul Holiff, December 25, 1975]
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Johnny Cash : We had long ago found an understanding friend in Saul. He had suffered much embarrassment because of some of my capers when I was on pills. But he was cool, level-headed, and always handled the most complicated of my business problems, without burdening me down with the details of what he'd gone through in straightening out some of the messes I got myself into from missing show dates. He had never relayed the embarrassing questions he must have had to answer when I'd been in trouble.
[Original Source: "Man In Black," by Johnny Cash 1975]
Saul Holiff : I would say he has all of the faults of a very successful entertainer. A big ego, uh, self-centred, self-serving, uh, I could just go on endlessly. Read "The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau" and you've got it all in one nutshell. And on the other hand, he's, um bright. He respects a job well done. He's very demanding of himself. He's a perfectionist. Uh, he's inordinately clever. He's exceptionally well read, uh, so he's, he's got qualities you can't help but respect and admire.
[Original Source: CFPL Radio interview 1976]
Johnny Cash : Saul suffered much embarrassment when I was on pills. But he was cool, level-headed, and always handled the messes I got myself into. Saul made many of the most significant moves of my career, and I owe him a lot.
[Original Source: "CASH: The Autobiography," by Johnny Johnny Cash with Patrick Carr 1997]
Johnny Cash : Saul stayed pretty well insulated from the fall-out. When I did something that left a mess-things broken, people abused, money squandered, laws broken, jail cells visited-his technique was to simply disappear.
[Original Source: "A Man Called Cash," by Steve Turner 2004]
Saul Holiff : Holiff grins and agrees: "I had one of the best disappearing acts - when I'd had enough. I just felt that there was a dignity involved and I could only go so far. And when I couldn't go any further, I just left.
[Original Source: "The Johnny Cash Connection" Country Music News, May 2007]
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Saul Holiff : It has now been twenty years since we parted company, and with the benefit of hindsight, and an awful long time to think, I realize now, more than ever, that if it hadn't been for your confidence, belief and trust in me so many years ago, I would probably still be back in London promoting hamburgers, clothes and mediocre rock and roll acts. Hope all goes well with you and your family. Sincerely, Saul.
[Original Source: Letter from Saul Holiff to Johnny Cash; October 16, 1994]
Johnny Cash : It was so nice to hear from you after all these years. We often reminisce about the years we worked together, and always know that we think well of you, and speak kindly of you. I hope we can see you again. Your friend, Johnny.
[Original Source: Letter from Johnny Cash to Saul Holiff; February 6, 1997]
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Saul Holiff : He was as mercurial as they come. He was the quintessential enigmatic everything. He was kind, he was cruel, he was thoughtful, he was selfish. And he was smart! We had endless conflict. I was always guilty of underestimating him.
[Original Source: Victoria Times-Colonist, September 13, 2003]
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Saul Holiff : [On Johnny Cash - the person] He's not what he appears to be. In many cases, he's more than he appears to be and, in some cases, possibly less... and the fact that his marriage lasted so long. They had a lovely son together, who has done well. I would have to say overall it's a very happy story, you know, like a guy who prevailed against incredible odds and did extraordinarily well as have the people around him. I mean, I didn't come out of this suffering either. Everyone who knew him might have different views about how situations could have been handled differently but when you have as much power as he had, he was okay with people. He could have been like some of your horror stories you read about. He wasn't like that. On the other hand he'd step out of character and drive a hard bargain when you least expected, and be tough, so you never knew what was coming down. If he thought you were trying to be a smart-ass, it was curtains.
[Original Source: "Country Music News" May 2007]
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Saul Holiff : [recalling being terrified of having to tell an unruly crowd in Jacksonville, Florida, Johnny Cash was a no-show] I didn't think I was going to get out of that place alive.
[Original Source: Winners Got Scars Too by Christopher Wren]
