Media Advisory: Shep Gordon — legendary Hollywood agent, manager, producer and mensch — to visit UB Oct. 23

BUFFALO, N.Y. — University at Buffalo alumnus Shep Gordon (BA ’68), fabled raconteur, consummate Hollywood insider and notoriously well-loved manager, agent and producer, returns to UB for a screening of “Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon” (2014), a two-thumbs-up “shagadelic roc doc” about his life and work directed by Mike Myers.

The event is hosted by the UB College of Arts and Sciences.

WHEN: Thursday, Oct. 23

• Film: 1-3 p.m.
• Q&A: 3-3:30 p.m.

WHERE: Student Union Theater, 201 Student Union, UB North Campus.

OPEN TO THE UB COMMUNITY: Free of charge. Open to UB students, staff and faculty members, and to members of the press by prior arrangement.

PRESS: Members of the press who want to attend the film, attend the post-screening Q&A and/or conduct a post-Q&A interview can contact Patricia Donovan in University Communications at 716-645-4602 before Wednesday, Oct. 22.

“Supermensch” is described by one critic as “the rock-and-roll story of a rock-and-roll life,” and by another as “a large and diverse group of wealthy and famous people praising the wealthy, if somewhat less famous, person who made many of them rich.” It is both.

The film chronicles Gordon’s A-list professional life, which took off after he graduated from UB and moved to Los Angeles. There he became friendly with Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix and eventually managed Pink Floyd, Luther Vandross, Blondie, Mick Fleetwood, Teddy Pendergrass, Alice Cooper  and others; helped launch the career of Canadian singer Anne Murray; and created the first independent film company in the U.S.

He went on to invent the cult of the celebrity chef, in part because of his moral outrage at how chefs were treated, and developed a personal friendship with the 14th Dalai Lama (for whom he has occasionally worked as personal cook). Gordon’s professional success, personal kindnesses and philanthropic endeavors with the Tibet Fund are discussed in the film by such friends as Cooper, Murray, Emeril Lagasse, Michael Douglas, Sylvester Stallone, Steven Tyler, Willie Nelson and others.