SUGERMAN, Danny 1954-2005

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born October 11, 1954, in Los Angeles, CA; died of lung cancer January 5, 2005, in Los Angeles, CA. Promoter, journalist, and author. Sugerman is best known as the music promoter of the rock group the Doors; he kept public interest in their music alive long after the group broke up. At the young age of twelve, he was introduced to the Doors when he was able to attend one of their concerts. Enthralled by the group, and especially singer Jim Morrison, he went to every concert he could and eventually managed to sneak his way into the band's office. The musicians would often tell him to leave, but Sugerman just kept coming back. Eventually, they relented and assigned him to office work, such as answering fan mail. Morrison became a kind of surrogate father to the young Sugerman, an influence that unfortunately led to a drug addiction that lasted until 1986. He would later write about his addiction and his high life with the Doors in his autobiography, Wonderland Avenue: Tales of Glamour and Excess (1989). After Morrison's death in 1971, the Doors held together for two more years. When they disbanded in 1973, Sugerman worked as former Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek's manager and publicist. By now he was entrenched in a career as a rock music promoter, founding the magazine Heavy Metal Digest and, in 1977, becoming management associate for the Doors Recording and Music Publishing Corporation. In this capacity, Sugerman strove to keep the band's music alive for future generations by having compilations of their music released, and getting their song "The End" selected as the feature track to the movie Apocalypse Now. He also cowrote the Morrison biography No One Here Gets out Alive (1980), wrote The Doors: The Illustrated History (1984), and edited The Doors' Complete Book of Lyrics (1991). Although he did work for other music acts, such as Iggy Pop, throughout his life Sugerman's main focus involved the Doors. His expertise was used by director Oliver Stone, when he was a consultant to the 1991 film The Doors. Sugerman was also the author of Appetite for Destruction: The Days of Guns 'n' Roses (1991).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, January 8, 2005, section 2, p. 10.

Los Angeles Times, January 7, 2005, p. B11.

New York Times, January 16, 2005, p. A25.

Times (London, England), January 13, 2005, p. 67.

Washington Post, January 10, 2005, p. B6.