Arnold Goodman, Baron Goodman

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Arnold Goodman, Baron Goodman (1974)

Arnold Abraham Goodman, Baron Goodman CH (born August 21, 1913 (other information: 1915 ) in London ; † May 12, 1995 ibid) was a British politician who was a life peer of the House of Lords in 1965 due to the Life Peerages Act 1958 and who as chairman of the British Arts Council ( Arts Council of Great Britain ) between 1965 and 1972 had a significant influence on cultural life. In addition, he was used as a negotiator in several political crises and conflicts.

Life

Origin, studies and solicitor

Goodman was of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania on his mother's side and was the son of a textile merchant and a Zionist teacher . After visiting the Grammar School in Hampstead , he first began studying economics at University College London (UCL), but then moved to a lecture by Hugh Gaitskell the subject area and then studied law . In addition, he completed an internship at the law firm Rubinstein Nash , approved by the Inns of Court of Gray's Inn , specializing in litigation and theater law disputes.

After he graduated from University College with a Master of Laws (LL.M.) and the exam for Solicitor had graduated with distinction, he attended from 1933 to 1935 a two-year postgraduate studies of subjects Roman Law and laws of the Netherlands at Downing College of University of Cambridge .

In 1935, Goodman joined the law firm Royalton Kisch, which was also licensed at Gray's Inn, and worked there, among other things, in the litigation against the Croydon Corporation for participating in the spread of a typhus epidemic . He also held a weekly freelance legal consultation on Commercial Road in Stepney .

World War II and post-war period

In July 1939, Goodman volunteered his military service in the Territorial Army , where he served under the command of archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler in the 48th Light Aircraft Battery, in which he was last promoted to quartermaster sergeant . Due to asthma and obesity, however, he did not take part in foreign assignments such as in the fight against the Imperial Japanese Army during their invasion of Java , but served with the Royal Ordnance Corps in the British Army's southern command until the end of the Second World War .

Through his acquaintance with the Labor politician George Wigg , he was offered a candidacy in the general election of July 5, 1945 , but he turned it down. The replacement candidate who was then appointed won the seat of parliament in the House of Commons .

Shortly afterwards he was discharged from active military service with the rank of major and resumed his work as a solicitor in the law firm Royalton Kisch . He was also an examiner for The Law Society and a lecturer at the University of Cambridge . After the death of Ronald Rubinstein, he returned to the Rubinstein Nash law firm before, in 1954, together with a friend from the military service, he founded his own law firm under the name Goodman Derrick .

After the rise of commercial television channels, the firm focused on this new clientele. He also maintained contacts with the film industry, for example with the film producer Sidney Bernstein, and reworked process scenes in his productions, among other things, in 1955 in So Something Love the Women (The Constant Husband) by Sidney Gilliat with Rex Harrison , Kay Kendall and Margaret Leighton . In 1958 he was involved in founding the television station Television Wales and the West (TWW), which ultimately also led to a collaboration with the television station ITV Granada .

Contacts to the Labor Party and member of the House of Lords

Prime Minister Harold Wilson , who proposed Goodman for Life Peerage in 1965

At the same time he built his contacts with Labor Party politicians such as Aneurin Bevan , Morgan Phillips and Richard Crossman . In the late 1950s he also advised Labor Party leader Hugh Gaitskell on land law reform. After Gaitskell's death, Goodman quickly won the trust of Harold Wilson , Gaitskell's successor as Labor Party leader and leader of the opposition . After the Labor Party won the general election on October 15, 1964 , he became an advisor to the now Prime Minister Harold Wilson on questions about the future of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra .

Because of his personal acquaintances with Labor Party politicians, he had a major influence on the legislation of the government under Prime Minister Wilson in 1964 for the safety of tenants through the formula of "fair rents" and the establishment of administrative staff to assist tenants in enforcing these fair rents .

By a letters patent dated July 20, 1965, Goodman was raised to the nobility on the proposal of Prime Minister Wilson under the Life Peerages Act 1958 as a life peer with the title Baron Goodman , of the City of Westminster, and thus belonged to the House until his death of Lords as a member. Soon after, Goodman became chairman of the film production company and distributor British Lion Films and of Charter Film Productions.

Chairman of the British Arts Council

In 1965, he succeeded John Fremantle, 4th Baron Cottesloe, as chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain and held this position until he was replaced by Patrick Gibson, Baron Gibson in 1972. As chairman of the arts council, he stood up for funding the art had, but at the same time also affect areas such as daily newspapers , theater , cinema and universities . Because of this far-reaching influence on cultural life, he has been referred to as the “Chairman of almost everything”. Under his chairmanship, the Arts Council created the Theater Censorship Committee , which suspended all censorship of plays for a trial period of five years. The Theater Act passed in 1968 introduced profanity as the exclusive basis for censorship in theater performances.

He also knew how to exploit public funds in his capacity as Chairman of the Arts Council, and on the other hand found it outrageous that the House of Commons Committee on Public Accounts ( Public Accounts Committee ) questioned him as well as the Department of Education and Science ( Department of Education and Science ) had to sign off the Art Council's output lists. In his 1993 memoir Tell Them I'm On My Way , he wrote:

"My own relationship I to Chancellor of the Exchequer ( Chancellors of the Exchequer ) Roy Jenkins have, makes it tangible to me for discussions on estimates and any reductions of these."
'My own relationship with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Roy Jenkins, made him available to me for discussions about estimates and any reductions of them.'

During his time as Chairman of the Arts Council, he also succeeded in founding The Open University in 1969 in collaboration with the Minister of the Arts of the Labor Government, Jennie Lee , which offers courses, certificates, diplomas and university degrees such as the Bachelor , Bachelor (Honors ), Masters and Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) in distance learning . On the other hand, there was a heated argument with Lee's successor, David McAdam Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles , who became Minister of Art in the conservative Heath government in 1970 , over different views on the promotion of controversially discussed works and exhibitions .

Diplomatic negotiator

In 1968, Baron Goodman helped arrange a meeting between Prime Minister Wilson of the Labor Party and Ian Smith , then Prime Minister of Rhodesia , on the situation in Rhodesia. Three years later, in 1971, he worked for Edward Heath , Prime Minister of the Conservative Party , negotiating an agreement with Smith that many of Goodman's Labor friends viewed as a fraud against the black African majority in Rhodesia, after deliberations in the Peace Commission was overwhelmingly rejected, which Goodman attributed to poor advice from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office . At the suggestion of Prime Minister Heath, he was appointed a member of the 65-person Order of the Companions of Honor in 1972 .

Goodman was also a leader in establishing the Royal National Theater in 1960 and was a member of the board between 1968 and 1982 after it opened in 1967. As such, he played a sustained role in the management of the theater, during the period when Laurence Olivier resigned as an artist due to illness Head 1973.

Entrepreneurial and social engagement

Furthermore, Goodman served as chairman of the Newspaper Publishers Association between 1970 and 1976 and was also President of the Theaters Advisory Council , the Theater Investment Trust and the Theaters Trust from 1976 to 1987, theirs He was president until 1995. In addition to a further engagement as a member of the board of directors of the Royal Shakespeare Theater , he was also a board member of the Royal Opera House and chairman of the English National Opera between 1977 and 1986, before he was its president until his death.

In 1972, Goodman was named founding chairman of the Association for Business Sponsorship of the Arts and in 1973 chairman of the Housing Corporation and the National Building Agency . Goodman, who was President of the National Book League from 1972 to 1985 , served as Vice-Chairman of the British Council from 1976 to 1991 . In this capacity, he also headed a committee to investigate charity law in the 1970s.

As chairman of the management of the weekly newspaper The Observer between 1967 and 1976 he negotiated a 25 percent reduction in the number of employees in the printing sector and in 1976 played a major role in the sale of the newspaper by the successors of William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor to the Atlantic Richfield Company . However , he previously refused to assume the role of editor of The Observer with the following words:

“I always wanted to be a dancer in the Bolshoi Ballet . I know I could have done that. I know I would have been good The tragic thing, however, is that nobody else was of my opinion. "
'I have always wanted to be a dancer with the Bolshoi. I know I could do it. I know I'd be good at it. The tragedy is that no-one else agrees with me. '

Head of University College Oxford

In 1976, Baron Goodman succeeds John Redcliffe-Maud Baron Redcliffe-Maud as head ( master ) of the University College of the University of Oxford and held this position until his replacement by Kingman Brewster, Jr. for ten years to 1986 from. Through his innumerable relationships, he succeeded in building several new buildings and appointing several new fellows .

When negotiations on the Camp David Agreement to resolve the Middle East conflict threatened to fail in 1978, Baron Goodman was sent to Paris to negotiate with the Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat . Later he was also one of the advisors to the Prince of Wales with his problems during his marriage to Diana Spencer .

Even after leaving the Arts Council, he had a decisive influence on artistic life and, among other things, contributed to the fact that the Proms 1980 summer concert series did not fail due to the musicians' strike. In the 1980s he was also chairman of the Council for Charitable Support .

Baron Goodman was also active as President of the Institute of Jewish Affairs and Chairman of the Union of Liberal & Progressive Synagogues and the Jewish Chronicle Trust between 1970 and 1995.

Publications

  • Report of Speeches by Lord Goodman , 1971
  • Not for the Record: Selected Speeches and Writings , Quality Book Club, 1973
  • How Much Paternalism? , University of Essex , 1977
  • Tell Them I'm On My Way , Memoirs , 1993

Background literature

  • David Pountney, John Mortimer: Gala Tribute for Lord Goodman CH , 1986

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Goodman, Arnold, Baron Goodman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Goodman, Arnold Abraham, Baron Goodman (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British cultural promoter, lawyer, business manager and politician
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1995
Place of death London