Stanley Dorfman was born on 24 November 1927 and is a South African-born British music television director, producer, and painter.
60 Facts About Stanley Dorfman
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Stanley Dorfman is known as the co-creator and original producer and director of the world's longest running music television series, Top of the Pops.
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Stanley Dorfman provided many notable musicians with their debut television opportunities.
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Stanley Dorfman played a pivotal role in advancing the careers of women in television during the late 1960s, including by directing and producing three of the first television series on the BBC that were hosted by female performers.
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Stanley Dorfman produced and directed jazz and big band series for the BBC, and series around John Denver, Mary Travers, and Jack Jones.
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Stanley Dorfman's directed and produced television specials such as Frank Sinatra In Concert at the Royal Festival Hall, and the televised performance of Rudolf Nureyev in Giselle, which stands as Nureyev's sole documented performance of the unabridged ballet.
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Stanley Dorfman's work extends to the realm of music videos for artists that include David Bowie, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Ringo Star, Harry Nilsson, Jefferson Starship, and Blondie.
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Stanley Dorfman directed Led Zeppelin's Royal Albert Hall concert on film in 1970.
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Stanley Dorfman was born in Johannesburg, South Africa to a Jewish family.
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Stanley Dorfman began his television career in 1959, initially working as a production designer for the BBC on programs such as An Evening with Nat King Cole, Meet Sammy Davis Jr.
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Stanley Dorfman later received training on production through the BBC Television Training course in 1963.
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Stanley Dorfman continued as the director and producer of the series until 1971, during which he directed 156 episodes over a six-year period.
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One of the earliest notable examples was a video Stanley Dorfman directed in October 1964 for Roy Orbison's "Oh Pretty Woman".
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Stanley Dorfman created the television series In Concert, which he directed and produced from its inception until 1974.
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Stanley Dorfman conceptualized to showcase modern popular music as a fusion of blues, jazz, classical, and folk.
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Between 1968 and 1974, Stanley Dorfman directed and produced over 200 episodes of In Concert.
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Clark had previously envisaged the show's format to highlight a number of rock acts per episode, but Stanley Dorfman simplified it to mirror his UK series by featuring only one act each episode.
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Episodes directed by Stanley Dorfman included performances by Black Sabbath, Electric Light Orchestra, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Steve Miller Band, Barry White, Ray Stevens, Tammy Wynette, Bo Diddley, Chet Atkins, James Brown, and many others.
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Stanley Dorfman was the director and producer of the television series Happening for Lulu, a series of programs of music and comedy broadcast in a prime slot on the BBC between 1968 and 1969.
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Stanley Dorfman then performed an extended, impassioned instrumental of the Cream classic "Sunshine of Your Love".
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Stanley Dorfman played for so long that Dorfman had to pull him off the air.
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Contrary to popular legend suggesting that Hendrix was banned from the BBC for life, Redding clarified that Stanley Dorfman appreciated their performance and even invited them for a drink afterwards.
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Stanley Dorfman later described Hendrix as a quiet and kind person, unaware that he'd done anything wrong.
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Stanley Dorfman opted for a straightforward format for the show, focusing on Springfield's performances without the inclusion of sketches or gimmicks.
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Stanley Dorfman directed and produced Once More With Felix, the first color television series entirely dedicated to a female performer, which aired on the newly established BBC2.
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Stanley Dorfman produced and directed the successor to Once More With Felix, titled The Julie Felix Show.
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In 1968, after featuring folk singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry on an episode of his series In Concert, Stanley Dorfman produced and directed the television series Bobbie Gentry, making Gentry the first female songwriter to front a series on the BBC network.
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In 1972, Stanley Dorfman created, directed, and produced the series Sounds for Saturday, the first jazz music television series on the BBC.
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In 1972, Stanley Dorfman directed and produced the television series Mary: Rhymes and Reasons, which first broadcast on the BBC on 20 August 1972.
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In 1973, when the American double Grammy Award winning singer and actor Jack Jones signed on to do The Jack Jones Show for the BBC, he stipulated that it should be produced by Stanley Dorfman, who directed and produced the series between 1973 and 1978.
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Stanley Dorfman played a significant role in the early television career of John Denver, an American singer-songwriter.
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In 1973, Stanley Dorfman produced and directed The John Denver Show, which aired on the BBC.
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On 16 November 1970, Stanley Dorfman produced and directed Sinatra In Concert at the Royal Festival Hall for television.
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Sinatra's respect for Stanley Dorfman was evident when he insisted on Stanley Dorfman being seated beside him during a dinner at Kensington Palace.
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In 1970, Stanley Dorfman was hired by Led Zeppelin to direct of their performance at the Royal Albert Hall.
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Stanley Dorfman brought on Peter Whitehead, a cameraman who had worked for him on Top of the Pops, and together, using handheld Bolex cameras, they filmed the concert on 16 mm film.
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In March 1973, Stanley Dorfman directed and produced the BBC television special Harry Nilsson: A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night.
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Stanley Dorfman, who was watching the album recording in progress, persuaded Nilsson to recreate the recording session as a television special by the same name.
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In 1998, Stanley Dorfman directed the three-hour television special of The Struggle Continues, a human rights concert in Paris supporting Amnesty International, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights organization.
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In 1994, Stanley Dorfman directed the televised coverage of the Woodstock '94 music festival, known as Woodstock '94.
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Stanley Dorfman directed the performances on the main North stage, using the early analog HD 1125-line Hi-Vision system in a 16:9 aspect ratio.
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In 1999, Stanley Dorfman directed the television coverage of the Woodstock 1999 music festival, called Woodstock '99, for MTV.
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Stanley Dorfman directed the televised performances on the main "East stage".
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In 1977, Stanley Dorfman directed the music videos for David Bowie's songs "Heroes" and "Be My Wife", both iconic tracks in Bowie's discography.
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In 1977, Stanley Dorfman directed the music video for one of Bowie's most famous, covered, and licensed songs, "'Heroes".
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However, Pegg later clarified on his blog Guts of a Beggar, that Stanley Dorfman was indeed the director.
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In 1977, Stanley Dorfman directed an as-yet-unreleased video for Bowie's expressionistic piano-driven song "Sense of Doubt," a track from Side B of his "'Heroes'" album.
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In 1979, Stanley Dorfman directed the music video for Blondie's song "Heart of Glass", a song that became the band's first chart-topper.
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In 1984, Stanley Dorfman directed the music video for John Lennon's song "Grow Old with Me", one of the final songs written by Lennon.
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In 1974, while Stanley Dorfman was not working full-time for the BBC anymore, he was increasingly creating promotional films for music albums.
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Stanley Dorfman chose the rooftop of the Capitol Records Building in Los Angeles, known for its distinct resembling a stack of discs, as the shooting location for both the commercial and the music video.
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Stanley Dorfman arranged for lasers to shoot beams of light from a nearby building, illuminated Starr's spacesuit.
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In October 1974, Stanley Dorfman directed and produced a promotional film for Harry Nilsson's album Duit on Mon Dei, which was released in 1975.
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Stanley Dorfman created the video for "Kojak Columbo" at a significantly lower cost than Starr's Goodnight Vienna production, due to a bet Nilsson had made with RCA.
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Stanley Dorfman made it on the first take, but Dorfman, unaware of Starr's call, did not capture the shot.
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Stanley Dorfman managed to complete the entire production for $3,000, winning Nilsson's bet.
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In 1946, Stanley Dorfman was awarded a scholarship to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Academie Julian in Paris, where he studied painting and fresco.
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Stanley Dorfman was a member of the Penwith Society of Arts, a group that sought to explore new artistic directions beyond the confines of the traditional St Ives Society of Artists.
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Stanley Dorfman's work was exhibited alongside work from fellow abstract artists such as Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Paul Feiler, Sir Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Roger Hilton, and Bryan Wynter, and members of the Crypt Group like Peter Lanyon and Sven Berlin.
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Stanley Dorfman has been in a long-term relationship with actress and model Barbara Flood for over forty years.