{{Short description|American talent manager (1941–2022)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}} thumb|right|Stephen Eugene Sesnick Jr. '''Stephen Eugene Sesnick Jr.''' (September 8, 1941 – October 27, 2022) was an American rock club and rock band manager, and later a businessman. Sesnick is known for being the manager of the Velvet Underground.
==Early life== Sesnick was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on September 8, 1941. He was educated at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, New Jersey and he went on to play freshman basketball for St. John's University in New York City.<ref name="obit">{{cite web |title=Stephen Eugene "Steve" Sesnick Jr. |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/stephen-sesnick-obituary?id=37154012 |website=Legacy |access-date=12 November 2022}}</ref>
==Velvet Underground manager== Sesnick was manager of the Boston Tea Party, a Boston nightclub founded in 1967, which was the first in Boston to spearhead the burgeoning psychedelic rock and underground rock scene, and which also helped break bands which went on to become major stars.<ref name="raven"/><ref name="boston"/> Sesnick was replaced in 1968 by Don Law.
The Velvet Underground shows at the Tea Party were particularly notable and the band became especially popular in Boston.<ref name="raven"/> Sesnick also knew the band from his involvement with Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable.<ref name="goldmine"/> After the Velvet Underground ended their association with Warhol and Paul Morrissey in 1967, they selected Sesnick to be their manager.<ref name=NewYorker/><ref name=Bockris/><ref name=Hogan/> Sesnick was also associated with Jonathan Richman at the start of his career.<ref name=NewYorker/> {{rquote |align=right |quote=Breaking up the Velvets was all Sesnick. You can't imagine how sleazy he could be... Sesnick dumped the second iteration of the band in England with no money and no equipment and just left us there to find our way back. He gave me 6 copies of ''Squeeze'' as pay. I never got any money... I would be told by him that I was better than Lou and that the others were not really my friends I should not confide in them and he did that to everybody... He makes used car salesmen look like Lancelot. |author=Doug Yule<ref name=VelvetUndergroundFanzine>{{cite web |url=http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/articles/headheldhigh/yule.html |title=Head Held High: The Velvet Underground Featuring Doug Yule |author=Oliver Landemain |date=<!--Fall/Winter-->1994 |volume=3 |work=The Velvet Underground fanzine |publisher=Fierce Pup Productions |accessdate=April 20, 2021}}{{better source|date=April 2010|reason=Alright it's a fanzine, but it's strictly an interview -- everything is in Yule's words, and we can have pretty good confidence that Landemain would have recorded them fairly faithfully. And I mean after all, many "reliable" pubs to not check interviews by having an independent fact checker go over the interviewer's notes and call the subject to confirm quotes. Granted, Yule could be misremembering or dissimulating. But that's true of any interview, and we use interviews a lot. But, you know, it's a WP:BLP so your call.}}</ref>}}
Over the next few years, Sesnick influenced the Velvet Underground to move toward a more "overtly pop direction" in their music.<ref name="billboard"/><ref name="dailynews"/> Doug Yule was encouraged to join the Velvet Underground when John Cale quit.<ref name="goldmine"/><ref name="telegraph"/> Yule said "It was put into that sort of AM/hit-FM kind of format three to five minutes max, and very 'up' kind of stuff."<ref name="billboard"/> Lou Reed later accused Sesnick of driving "a wedge between" him and Yule during the recording of ''Loaded'' in 1970,<ref name="qmag"/>{{sfn|Hogan|1997|page=37}} and Yule did aver that Sesnick favored him as the potential leader for a new Velvet Underground, minimizing Reed's role.<ref name="goldmine"/><ref name="qmag"/>
Sesnick owned the tapes that were to become ''1969: The Velvet Underground Live''. Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker signed over their rights to the tapes for $1,500 each (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|1500|1974}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}} dollars).{{inflation-fn|US}}{{sfn|Hogan|1997|pages=49-50}}
==Businessman== By 1972, what was left of the Velvet Underground ceased operations, and Sesnick left the music business and became an avid golfer. He says he conceived the concept of the Skins Game, a yearly golf event where four top golfers competed head-to-head in a match play format. Extant from 1983 to 2008, according to Sesnick he came up with the idea, convinced some influential people of the worth of the concept, and began working on the project with the sports marketing company People & Properties. People & Properties then obtained buy-in from Arnold Palmer; this attracted wider attention, and bigger industry players stepped in and seized control of (and credit for) the property from Sesnick, he claims. Peter Chapman of People & Properties, could not corroborate Sesnick’s account, and said if "Steve has a different recollection I certainly couldn’t dispute it".<ref name=GolfWeek/>
After this, Sesnick worked in golf as a consultant with organizations including Golf 20/20, First Tee, and TourTurf.<ref name=Sestar/>
Sesnick was later part of a team at Florida Sustainables which developed technology for replacing plastic grocery bags and other plastic items with robust but degradable plastics, the research being partly funded by a $383,000 grant from the American National Science Foundation (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|383000|2011}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}} dollars).{{inflation-fn|US}} This effort won the team the 2011 Cade Prize from the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention.<ref name=GainesvilleSun/><ref name="flortrend"/>
Sesnick claimed to have invented improvements to the solar cell and licensed it for commercial development from the University of Florida through Sestar Technologies, a sort of parent company for Florida Sustainables,<ref name=GainesvilleSun/> of which Sesnick was a co-founder and Vice President of Product Development.<ref name=Sestar/>
==Personal life and death== Sesnick died due to complications from a heart attack in St. Augustine, Florida, on October 27, 2022. He was 81. He was survived by his wife Cynthia.<ref name="obit"/> ==References== <references>
<ref name=Hogan>{{cite book |last=Hogan |first=Peter |title=The Complete Guide to the Music of the Velvet Underground |year=1997 |publisher=Omnibus Press |isbn=978-0-7119-5596-7 |page=50 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GL0eMqztmuIC&pg=PA50}}</ref>
<ref name=Bockris>{{cite book |last1=Bockris|first1=Victor |title=Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story |year=2002 |publisher=Omnibus Press |isbn=978-0-7119-9170-5 |page=69 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_Yf3szF0iAC&pg=PA69 |first2=Gerard|last2= Malanga |accessdate=December 4, 2010}}</ref>
<ref name="boston">{{cite news |last1=Sherman |first1=Marjorie |title=Lively Cambridge Affair On Psychedelic St. |work=The Boston Globe |date=June 12, 1967 |page=15}}</ref>
<ref name="billboard">{{cite magazine |last1=Morris |first1=Chris |author1-link=Chris Morris (author) |title=Velvets' set 'Loaded' with new music |magazine=Billboard Magazine |date=January 11, 1997 |volume=109 |issue=2 |pages=11; 14 |id={{ProQuest|227082061}}}}</ref>
<ref name="dailynews">{{cite news |title=More 'Loaded' Than Ever For Velvet Underground Fans |work=Los Angeles Daily News |date=January 7, 1997 |page=L8 |id={{ProQuest|281667586}}}}</ref>
<ref name="flortrend">{{cite magazine |last1=Gorham |first1=Will Short |title=Monday's Daily Pulse: What You Need to Know About Florida Today |magazine=Florida Trend |date=May 23, 2011 |url=https://www.floridatrend.com/article/1972/mondays-daily-pulse}}</ref>
<ref name=GainesvilleSun>{{cite web |url=https://www.gainesville.com/article/LK/20110522/news/604139665/GS |title=Creating a plastic alternative |first=Anthony|last= Clark |date=May 22, 2011 |work=The Gainesville Sun|accessdate=April 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421004329/https://www.gainesville.com/article/LK/20110522/news/604139665/GS|archive-date=April 21, 2021|url-status=dead}}</ref>
<ref name=NewYorker>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/11/25/world-on-a-string |title=World on a String |author=Ben Greenman |date=November 17, 2013 |magazine=The New Yorker |accessdate=April 20, 2021}}</ref>
<ref name="goldmine">{{cite magazine |last1=Thompson |first1=Dave |author1-link=Dave Thompson (author) |title=The Last Days of the Velvet Underground |magazine=Goldmine Magazine |date=June 25, 2004 |volume=30 |issue=13 |pages=14–16; 18 |issn=1055-2685|id={{ProQuest|1501011}}}}</ref>
<ref name="qmag">{{cite magazine |last1=Snow |first1=Mat |author1-link=Mat Snow |title=The Velvet Underground: Party On, Dudes! |magazine=Q Magazine |date=July 1993 |via=Rock's Backpages}}</ref>
<ref name="raven">{{cite AV media notes |last1=Walker |first1=Clinton |author1-link=Clinton Walker |title=The Velvet Underground: What Goes On|title-link=The Velvet Underground (album) |publisher=Raven Records|type=Sleeve notes |date=1993|via=Rock's Backpages}}</ref>
<ref name=Sestar>{{cite web |url=http://www.sestartechnologies.com/about-sestar/board-of-directors/ |title=Board of Directors |publisher=Sestart Technologies |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331213227/http://www.sestartechnologies.com/about-sestar/board-of-directors/ |accessdate=April 20, 2021|archive-date=2012-03-31 }}</ref>
<ref name="telegraph">{{cite news |last=Power |first=Ed |title=The Velvet Underground owe so much to Doug Yule – why was he written out of history? |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/velvet-underground-owe-much-doug-yule-written-history/ |work=The Telegraph |date=October 26, 2021}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
<ref name=GolfWeek>{{cite web |url=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2019/10/17/golf-skins-game-a-never-before-told-story-about-how-it-all-started/ |title=The never-before-told story about the Skins Game forgotten man |author=Adam Schupak |date=October 17, 2019 |work=Golf Week |publisher=USA Today |accessdate=April 20, 2021}}</ref>
</references>
{{The Velvet Underground}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sesnick, Steve}} Category:1941 births Category:2022 deaths Category:People from Hoboken, New Jersey Category:The Velvet Underground Category:Talent managers Category:American music managers Category:21st-century American businesspeople Category:St. Cecilia High School (New Jersey) alumni Category:St. John's University (New York City) alumni Category:Businesspeople from Hudson County, New Jersey