Arnie Smith
National Director of Disco Promotions for Casablanca and RSO Records.

Arnie started out as a DJ at Sybil Burton’s (Richard Burton’s wife) infamous, Arthur Discotheque in New York City in the 1960's,  Spinning records for the Jet Set (this is the club where the term was coined), he met and mingled and worked his way back and forth between East and West Coasts as a DJ at many exclusive private Discotheques.  By the mid 1970's he teamed up with Marc Paul Simon at Provocative Promotions working Disco Records and Artists, such as Van McCoy, LaBelle and bringing Grace Jones record “I Need A Man” to #1 on the billboard Disco Charts.

Shortly thereafter, Casablanca Records bought them out and set them up in their offices on Sunset Boulevard where he worked with the label’s roster of artists such as Donna Summer and The Village People.  During this time one of his tasks was to road manage the first leg of Donna Summer’s first tour to major cities like Boston, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.  

Following that, he founded his own independent promotion company, where he worked on numerous projects, including a year and a half with Sy & Eileen Berlin, the owners of Beam Junction Records and the managers of Grace Jones.  It was during that time he brought her iconic smash “I NEED A MAN” to #1 on the Billboard Dance Charts.

After that, RSO Records offered him the job to be National Director of Disco Promotions.  It was there that he worked closely with Irene Cara, Linda Clifford, Jean Shy, David Naughton (“Making It”), and Jimmy Rufftin (Hold On To My Love).