Ethel S. Podolor

October 6, 1909 - December 8, 2015 Ethel Podolor passed away Dec 8, 2015. She was 106 years old. Born in Duluth, Minnesota in 1909 of parents Ima Mistachkin and Anna Schartzbine. She was the second of five siblings - older brother Norman, younger sisters Elsie and Millie, and younger brother Buddy. Millie at 93 is the sole surviving sibling. At nineteen she married Mike Podolor and moved to California where he soon developed the largest used car business in Los Angeles - Podolor Motors. They had a son, Donald, and six years later another son - Richard. Richard, as a young talented guitar player, was discovered in high school by a country record company owner and invited to record at his Malibu studio. Richard played on several hit records there and lead the family into starting their own recording studio - American Recording Co, part of the Hollywood Palladium building on Sunset and Argyle in 1959. After a stint in the Army, where Richard was in Special Services giving solo guitar concerts in Germany, the UK, Belgium, and France, he and Mike converted a famous Chinese restaurant into the new American Recording Co in Studio City, CA in 1962. Ethel ran the front office on a first name basis with people like David Geffen, Clive Davis, Jerry Moss & Herb Alpert of A&M Records, and Joe Smith of Warner Bros. Her son Richard began producing gigantic hit records with Steppenwolf, Three Dog Night, Blues Image, and others and Ethel was right in the middle managing his affairs and the studio. For 5 years Three Dog Night was the biggest selling, highest grossing rock group in America. Richard produced hit records, and Don booked major concerts all over the world. After that, Mike and Ethel retired and spent their time at home, with family, and travelling to Europe, Israel, and Switzerland. Mike passed away in 2000. In later years, Ethel remembered many things from her childhood in Duluth, Minnesota. Like when her aunt Sadie and her best friend, Bob Dylan's mother, put together some money to send Bob to New York to see if he could make something of himself. She heard it turned out pretty good. And like when, in an amazing turn of fate, her date for the prom was tragically killed by lightning as he had built a radio kit and was listening on headphones in the attic that were attached to the lightning rod on the roof. And because of that, she ended up meeting and marrying Mike. And her father who had written and recorded a song "Duluth, Minnesota" that became very famous in the area. She can be seen on You Tube under "102 year old grandma sings her father's song about Duluth." She lead a charmed life and is sadly missed by her family and all that knew her.