Stan Polley

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Stanley H. Polley (born Bronx, NY 1922), is a retired entertainment manager from the 1960s and 1970s. His clients included rock band Badfinger, musician Al Kooper, singer Lou Christie, singer-producer Hank Medress, arranger Charles Calello, composer Sandy Linzer, WABC disc jockey Bob Lewis, among others. Polley's career was marred by accusations of impropriety from several of the artists whom he managed.

Polley served in the U.S. Army before beginning his managerial career in New York's garment industry.^[1] He began artist management after he met Christie in the mid 1960s. It was through his association with Christie that he met and began working with other artists in the New York and Los Angeles entertainment fields. It was around 1968 that Polley first formed a company called Five Arts Management, that included Christie, Kooper, Calello, Linzer and Lewis. He formed new companies to house future artists he secured, including composers Irwin Levine and Larry Brown. In 1970, Polley formed a company called Badfinger Enterprises, Inc. as a management arm for the British rock group Badfinger, which had no American representation at the time.

Beginning in 1971, and reported in the New York Times, a Senate Investigation Committee conducted hearings regarding New York State Supreme Court Justice Mitchell D. Schweitzer on allegations that he had accepted bribes at various times in the 1950s. Polley was named during the hearings as the intermediary between unnamed crime figures and Schweitzer. In July, convicted stock manipulator Michael Raymond told a U.S. subcommitee that Polley was "well connected with organized crime." Most of Polley's American clients said they were already suspicious of their manager by this point, but the publicity of the hearings convinced several to severe ties with him.

Badfinger, who admitted being unaware of the American hearings, continued working with Polley. In 1972, he successfully negotiated a new record contract with Warner Brothers for Badfinger, which called for advances to be paid into an escrow account. In 1974, approximately $100,000 in publishing escrow funds from Warner's publishing division disappeared after Polley gained access to the account. Reportedly, after several months of unsuccessful attempts to contact Polley about the funds, Warner Brothers filed suit against Polley and Badfinger Enterprises for breach of contract. The legal morass crippled Badfinger financially. Band leader Pete Ham committed suicide in 1975, leaving behind a note that blamed Polley for his death. Two Badfinger songs, "Hey, Mr. Manager" and "Rock & Roll Contract," are reportedly about Polley. The WB lawsuit concluded in 1979 and Polley was ordered to repay WB $42,500 of the escrow funds.

In 1991, Polley pleaded no contest to charges of misappropriating funds and money laundering in Riverside County, California. Aeronautics engineer Peter Brock accused Polley of swindling him for US$250,000 after the two set up a corporation to manufacture airplane engines. Polley was placed on probation for five years and ordered by the court to return all missing funds to Brock, although the complainant said the restitution never materialized.