Eaker, 'Back Stage' Founder, Dies

By: Roger Armbrust (BackStage.com) Ira Eaker, co-founder of Back Stage, died June 26 following surgery in Florida. He was 80 years old.

In 1960, he created Back Stage with Allen Zwerdling -- Eaker serving as co-publisher and advertising director, Zwerdling as co-publisher and editor. Over the next quarter century, they built the national weekly into the consummate trade publication for the working performer in America.

An expert ad salesman, Eaker was enamored with show business, making him and Back Stage a perfect fit. He mirrored the entertainment industry, initiating creative methods to at first keep the fledging publication alive, then develop it into a trade leader.

On Dec. 2, 1960, he and Zwerdling released the first issue, a 16-page weekly selling for 25 cents a copy, and touting the promise to offer readers "a new, complete service weekly for the entertainment industry."

The publication suffered real growing pains during its early years, with Eaker and Zwerdling responsible for most of the labor: Zwerdling handling the editorial; Eaker selling ads, writing promo copy, and overseeing ad production; and both contributing to writing reviews. The two even carried stacks of weekly issues in their cars, ready to hurry them to any newsstand that might require more copies.

It was actually the newspaper strike of 1962-63 in New York City that lifted Back Stage over the hump. A void of entertainment news in the city led Eaker to the idea of publishing Amusement Guide, an entertainment guide with theatre, movie, TV, and restaurant listings. The guide received immediate response and built to a circulation of 60,000. The profit from that publication was put back into Back Stage, helping it to fulfill its potential in serving the industry.

Also in the '60s, as New York's television commercial production industry began to expand, Eaker made sure that Back Stage grew with it. The paper expanded its coverage of the TV spot-shooting market. Eaker developed a new clientele, and the newspaper grew, serving two entertainment markets.

A large part of that success was Eaker's accessibility to his clients, nurturing relationships with advertisers large and small.

Back Stage opened a West Coast office in 1975, with Eaker serving as liaison to the Los Angeles branch. Eventually, the paper expanded coverage to Chicago, New England, and Florida as TV commercial production began to grow in those areas.

His daughter, Sherry Eaker (Back Stage's current editor in chief) joined the paper as editor of the theatre section in January 1977.

In the early '80s, with both the theatre and TV sections of the paper growing -- and understanding that they were serving two creative, disparate readerships -- Eaker and Zwerdling decided to provide two papers in one, creating a theatre-section insert.

In 1985, the co-publishers celebrated the paper's silver anniversary with a black-tie gala attended by 1,400 leaders and celebrities from all sectors of the entertainment industry. The event was a milestone in Eaker's and Zwerdling's careers.

Within a year, Eaker and Zwerdling decided it was time to cash in their chips, selling Back Stage to Billboard Publications Inc. in 1986, thus ending a 26-year partnership. Eaker stayed on as consultant for another two and a half years, until June 1989. A year later, the two strong readerships he had built up evolved into two separate publications: Shoot, which covers TV commercial production; and Back Stage, which covers the performing arts. (Back Stage is now owned by VNU Business Publications, which also owns Editor & Publisher.)

After leaving Back Stage, Eaker and his wife Lee continued to maintain residences in New York and Florida, permanently residing in Florida over the past three years.

Ira Eaker was born in New York City on Jan. 14, 1922, the son of Samuel and Hannah Conner Eaker. He attended New York's public schools, then interrupted college during World War II to serve as a corporal in the U.S. Army in Europe.

He returned from the war to marry Lee Eisenberg on Nov. 24, 1946. Two years later, he graduated from the business school at City College of New York, having majored in advertising. During those college years, he worked as an advertising sales representative and manager for various companies. From 1948-60, he served as advertising manager for Show Business Weekly, then started Back Stage. He was a member of the Friars Club.

He is survived by his wife, his daughter, his son Dean Eaker, a sister, and two grandchildren.

Private services were held Sun., June 30, in Florida. Donations may be sent to the American Cancer Society.