Lee Stoller, the entrepreneur
By Pete Chaney
MADISON, TN (IPS Features)--Entrepreneurship is the plasma of commerce. From Thomas Edison’s vision of an incandescent light bulb to Bill Gates ideas for computers, someone has taken the germ of an inspiration to its conclusion for success.
Lee Stoller is an entrepreneur in salesmanship and his story is literally one of rags to riches. Born to a large Illinois farm family, he grew up in poverty where they couldn’t even afford a radio. Now he could buy a station if he wanted to.
It has been built on entrepreneurship.
When he came back from a tour of duty with the U.S. Marines, he married a petit young girl named Ellie Johnston. Her background was similar, being the eighth in a family of 12 children.
He was successful selling pots and pans. The money was good but did not mach his ambition. The challenge was not there.
Stoller’s restlessness left him searching for a project to merit his energy. He found it one Sunday afternoon while watching a World Series game with Whitey Ford pitching.
During the commercial, he realized he had also been listening to a pleasant voice coming from the kitchen where his wife was cooking.
He asked his wife who was singing on the radio. Then he realized there was no radio in the kitchen. She had been singing happily while preparing a meal.
That was the beginning of a business project that would carry him beyond his wildest dreams. That was the “birth” of Cristy Lane the singer.
The name change from Ellie Stoller came when he asked famed Chicago DJ if he could borrow part of his name. They went the usual routes of nightclub appearances for exposure and to overcome her innate shyness. He made demo tapes and called on country radio stations to promote their playing her music.
She appeared on the National Barn Dance from Chicago and on the Grand Ole Opry.
National exposure came suddenly when the nightly news played a currently released song of hers. It was “Let Me Down Easy” and was aired during a segment of a New Mexico balloon festival.
During the Vietnam War, Stoller organized a troupe and took the Cristy Lane show overseas to entertain the troops. They were within shelling distance of the front line and she almost lost her life twice, once when a helicopter that was to convoy her was shot down and again from the strain on her health in the vicious climate.
She was signed with Capitol Records, named Top New Female Vocalist of the Year by the Country Music Academy and had the number one country song—“One Day at a Time.”
A quick learner, Stoller started his own LS Records when the Capitol contract expired. And he took her on the road in concerts, often as a fundraiser for benefits. Working with one sheriff led to problems. He gave in to the officer’s demands for upfront money for a concert and was later convicted of bribery.
Released from prison after eight months, he faced the financial problems incarceration had left. And he went to work.
Determined to publish a manuscript on his wife’s story, he sought professional aid from writers and editors. He was proud of the biography, which he titled “One Day at a Time” and carried it to the mainstream publishers.
That was in the same time period of biographies of Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn, neither of which had done well. Publishers weren’t interested.
The spirit of entrepreneurship kicked in. He would publish and market the book himself. He learned there were several test markets considered typical for products. A commercial was made and aired on TV and radio.
It flopped. Undaunted, he tried again and packaged a commercial that included a testimonial by Barry Saddler of “Ballad of the Green Beret” fame. The book sales began to skyrocket, along with the record albums.
Lee Stoller was in the mail order business. St. Martin’s Press produced a paperback edition and it was their best seller for months on the racks of supermarkets and stores.
Ads for the Cristy Lane biography and her albums appeared in national publications. The book sold over a million copies. Her albums sold many millions.
They bought and operated the Cristy Lane Theatre in Branson, which they later leased out. While appearing in 1995 at another theatre in Branson for a show, she stepped back when an inexperienced stagehand dropped the curtain. At the same time, the lights were accidentally turned off and she fell from the stage backwards.
Her injury put stage appearances on hold.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars at its annual national meeting this year in August at San Antonio inducted Cristy Lane into its Hall of Fame for her service in the field of entertainment for the military.
Today a quiet home in Madison is the hub of a massive mail order business. He has two offices in his home with a computer where he can oversee orders. His daughter Tammy runs an office at another location where records of order fulfillment and credit are handled. Shipping is handled from a huge warehouse overseen by Steve Poole, husband of their daughter Tammy. A son, Kevin, is a druggist.
Lee Stoller has single-mindedness about him that will not accept defeat or delay. Granted his wife Ellie had a beautiful voice singing in the kitchen that day. But it was his entrepreneurship that took her talent, promoted it, packaged it in print, albums and advertising to make a multi-million dollar business.
(Editor’s Note: Pete Chaney is co-author of “One Day at a Time” with Lee Stoller. A sequel and a movie are being planned.)