By: Deborah Speer cover of Pollstar 12/21/20 issue Ben Bart might have seemed like another unremarkable music fan as a young man from Knoxville, Tenn., in the 1930s, other than a penchant for traveling between Memphis and Nashville to see the orchestras and bands of the day perform live. The main object of his affection was “race music” – the euphemism of the time for what evolved into R&B and soul music, and the (segregated) domain of Black musicians. He’d gotten a job at the Gale Agency booking the artists he loved and, by 1945, was ready to break out on his own – taking some of the era’s biggest acts with him. The agency he created, Universal Attractions Agency, celebrated its 75th anniversary on May 15.