Wald’s ride almost ended permanently in 1986, when he was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after an overdose. He was even on the organizing committee for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Jerry Brown (first go-round) and President Ford.
Thanks to vigorous fundraising, primarily for Democrats, Wald was close to major politicians including Gov. Nonetheless, Wald maintained key relationships - and not just with leading figures in Hollywood. Among other things, Wald was accused of punching Reddy’s boyfriend at the time and attempting to run him over in a silver Maserati. When Wald and Reddy split in 1983, Wald’s massive cocaine use was cited as one of the primary causes, and their vicious custody fight over their then-10-year-old son made the cover of People magazine. Wald acknowledges that he thrust the gun into a picketer’s mouth he got 18 months probation and paid a $1,000 fine. In 1980, Wald was arrested after brandishing a shotgun in front of picketing hotel employees in Tahoe. Hot-tempered and prone to fisticuffs, Wald told me he once cold-cocked Rod Stewart in a hotel lobby in Hawaii because Stewart had trashed the room that Wald was waiting to occupy. But Wald stood out in the crowd for his staggering cocaine habit. In Wald’s heyday, drug abuse was an accepted and arguably essential lubricant to doing business in Hollywood, where the boundary between work and play often blurs. Wald was well known in his own right and as the husband and manager of Helen Reddy, whose anthem “I Am Woman” helped define the era.
Short, barrel-chested and with a gravelly, Bronx-accented voice, Wald regaled us with outrageous stories of his life in the ’70s and ’80s as the manager of an array of huge stars including Donna Summer, George Carlin, Sylvester Stallone and Crosby, Stills and Nash. (Wald had been president of the Guber-Peters Co., so obviously he knew our subjects well.) I first met Jeff Wald in the early ’90s, when Nancy Griffin and I were writing our book, Hit & Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood.
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