Branson, MO, may be a tourist destination best known for presenting country and MOR crooners in long-standing residencies, but Hollywood-based artist manager and promoter Oscar Arslanian says a change is going to come. Branson is realizing that their audience is soon going to be as the television show says six feet under, he declares. To put asses in the seats, they've got to start looking elsewhere.

Arslanian has formulated a solution with Original Stars a show running at Dick Clarks American Bandstand Theater. Hosted by Fabian, Arslanians longtime management client, the show features another Arslanian artist, Chris Montez, along with Bobby Vee, the Chiffons and Brian Hyland. Since we opened our show, they're building a 200 million-dollar convention center, an airport, and working on this new thing called rock & roll, enthuses the ebullient entrepreneur.

Packaging and promoting music wasnt Arslanians original career plan, but after earning an Ivy League diploma from Dartmouth College, he claims the only job he could get was working in retail, where he learned valuable lessons that remain at the center of his philosophy. Say you have a certain shirt, a color its selling, a certain price point. Everything I've done has been based on that. It's so fundamental, theres nothing confusing: Give the people what they want. If you want to be successful, look for what's missing and provide it.

A position working for Scott Paper Company first brought Arslanian to Hollywood. He'd always had a profound love for music, and in college in the late 50s even sang in what he describes as a half-assed band. But on the West Coast he was rebuffed in his attempts to enter the industry. I tried to get a job in the music business, but my queries were not even answered. Right about that time a company was being put together, called Memorex, to take blank tape to another level. Back then it was all reel-to-reel tape and eight tracks; this cassette was a new thing and you bought it at electronic distributorships. Some guys from Proctor & Gamble found a guy from Scott Paper Company. Thank God: it was my entrée to the music business. I helped form Memorex in 1970 and 1971.

A famous ad campaign, Is it live or is it Memorex, featuring the legendary Ella Fitzgerald shattering a glass when her voice was played back on tape, helped to establish the company as an industry leader.

Arslanians new position, however, necessitated a move back east, and he says he missed Southern California every time he heard the Beach Boys on the radio. Arslanian returned to the West Coast two years later, when Capitol Records recruited him to run their fledging blank-tape division. I was National Sales Manager and spent three or four years in the tower. The strength of Capitol was the [vinyl] record guys who despised the tape division. They felt that for every cassette sold there was one less LP.

Eventually the blank tape division was turned over to the record division and Arslanian was named Director of Press and Artist Relations. I loved the artists, and hanging out with them, he recalls fondly. In that era Capitol was home to everyone from Paul McCartney to Anne Murray, the Beach Boys to Bob Seger. But in time there was a down swing in the business. Capitols cost-cutting moves included axing Arslanians position.

I found myself on the street. But after working in a corporate environment for 17 years, I figured I'd take a break. I'd always wanted to do something on my own, to see what was out there. The morning after I was canned, America and Bob Welch both called and said, Wed love to have you do indie PR. It was a natural thing, and I worked with Rick Nelson, Roger McGuinn, and formed a business in my bedroom with a telephone and some calling cards.

Inspiration for his current endeavor came in the mid-80s, via a promoter who was booking the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. He approached Arslanian when headliners Siegfried & Roy cancelled a long-term engagement because of injury. I got a call asking if Fabian would do a show with Chubby Checker, Sam Moore and Mary Wells. I told them, Fabian is not only a phenomenon as a singer, but he's made 30 movies. Make him the host of the show and have him introduce the acts. We went to Vegas, put it together in an afternoon, and it was an immense hit. I came back to L.A. and said, There's an audience for this.

Arslanian was proud to take heritage acts out of the Holiday Inns, and, within a year, into huge venues like the Greek Theater. There was a strong demographic to play for. And guess what: 25 years later that audience is even older, has more time, and more money. And he believes that Branson is a prime market. Because its rock & roll, Andy Williams and those guys appeal to a certain group. But sometimes you get a 16-year-old in there and he hears Chris Montez do Let's Dance the music is appreciated as a common language.

Beyond Branson, there are other lucrative markets for oldies rock. Las Vegas and Atlantic City, obviously, Arslanian notes. And Indian Casinos. Fabian just played the Mohican Sun in Connecticut with 7,500 people in the show room. At Casino-Rama in Ontario, Canada we had 5,500 people. It's major in terms of what they've done: bringing gambling into the world, to small towns that have a foundation of Indian Culture. He confirms that fairs across the U.S are additional venues with huge audiences. Especially in the Midwest a fair in Iowa will draw 10,000 people to our show.

Corporate gigs and conventions offer yet another opportunity. It's comfortable, it's great, it's not schmaltzy, its fun. I've got expertise in putting together packages I think would be entertaining to a corporate audience: Lou Christie or Leslie Gore, people I've got 25-year relationships with. Beyond Chris and Fabian, I work with every artist from that era. Arslanian believes theres a reason for career longevity that extends far beyond the massive, rapidly graying demographic who grew up on rock. These artists have never stopped doing what they were doing when they were 14,15 or 16. It just happens to be 40 of 50 years later. They're like fine wine, they perform exceedingly well, and they're very meaningful to the audiences. God bless em.

Contact Oscar Arslanian & Associates, 323-465-0533