Fields and Me (1976) Night of the Juggler (1980) Underground Aces, Chu Chu and the Philly Flash and Buddy Buddy (all 1981) and 1990’s beach volleyball film Side Out starring C. Weston’s subsequent film credits could include W.C. The film, like the book that inspired it, played fast and loose with Holiday’s true life story, but it quickly put Ross, the former lead singer of The Supremes, into the front ranks of Hollywood leading ladies.

The following year he produced Lady Sings the Blues, along with Berry Gordy, Brad Dexter and James L. Weston moved to Los Angeles in 1971 to pursue film production more actively. That same year, Weston would co-produce the film For the Love of Ivy, starring Poitier and Abby Lincoln. His first major project there was 1969’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? starring Jane Fonda.Īlso around that time - in 1968 - he produced the play Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, a notorious Broadway flop that nonetheless won Pacino a Tony Award, launching the young actor’s career. He became public relations counsel for Cinerama Inc., where he worked for a decade, and then went to work as head of ABC’s feature film division, Palomar Pictures, in 1967. There he started a newspaper, The Hialean, which won the Army Commendation Medal as the best newspaper in Korea.Īfter his discharge, he returned to New York and started a publicity firm representing many young stars including Paul Anka. After earning a B.A., he began his career in publicity before being drafted and sent to Korea in 1952.

Weston had attended New York University as a pre-med student before switching to an arts curriculum.

And most of it’s true, but a lot of it isn’t.’ I read the book and I said to her agent, ‘I want to make a movie out of it.’ He said, ‘Give me $5,000, and I’ll think about it.’ So I gave him $5,000, and it took 13 years and many $5,000 payments to keep the rights because everybody wanted it.” In a 2011 interview, Weston recalled the meeting: “She said to me, ‘Some guy just wrote a biography of me called Lady Sings the Blues. The familial love of music would hold Weston in good stead: When he met the great jazz singer Holiday at the Newport fest, he became intrigued by her newly published memoir. (Stanley Weston later would become an inventor who created the iconic G.I. In his sole excursion to Broadway, Weston produced the storied 1968 production of Don Petersen’s play Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, launching the career of a young Al Pacino.īorn John Weinstein on March 9, 1929, in Brooklyn, Weston and his younger brother Stan lost their mother at a young age and were raised by their opera-enthusiast father and jazz pianist stepmother.

Lady sings the blues songs