News Archive July 2010

Bill Aucoin Is Remembered By His Home Town
From: Nashoba Publishing
by Mary E. Arata
Posted: July 31, 2010

It's a huge leap from the Cottage Restaurant in Ayer to the worldwide stage - or is it?

The man responsible for managing the careers of some major musical acts has died at the age of 66. Bill Aucoin, a native of Ayer, Massachusetts, died in a Florida hospital of complications from prostate cancer on Monday, June 28.

Locals might recall him as the son of the original Cottage Restaurant owner William Aucoin, Sr. The restaurant has since been reopened at the same location and with the same name but under new ownership after a multi-decade hiatus.

The most glorious musical act Aucoin was attached to was the black-leather clad, platform boot-wearing KISS rock band. Aucoin stumbled upon the Brooklyn act in mid-October 1973. The band agreed to Aucoin's management offer conditioned on his getting them signed to a record label in two weeks. KISS was signed by Casablanca records on November 1, 1973.

Aucoin got the band's point and helped the band ramp-up the theatrics. Flamboyant lead singer Gene Simmons was quoted in the 2003 authorized biography "KISS: Behind the Mask" that, "It was Bill who said, 'Let's take them to the nth degree,'

Aucoin plastered on the outrageous make up, costumes, choreography and even suggested the signature fire breathing by lead singer Gene Simmons. He helped create the band member's stage identities: leader Simmons was dubbed a Demon and played bass guitar; Peter Criss on drums and vocals was branded a Catman, vocalist and rhythm guitar player Paul Stanley is the Starchild and lead guitarist and vocalist Ace Frehley became the Spaceman.

Aucoin used his personal American Express card to fund the group's first tour on hopes that it would pay-off someday. During Aucoin's tenure, KISS broke into the Top 40 with their single "Rock And Roll All Nite." KISS singles "Beth," a ballad, and disco-driven "I Was Made For Lovin' You" have been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

The indicators were there early, said his sister Janet Bankowski when contacted at her Virginia Beach, Virginia home. She said Aucoin started working in the Main Street restaurant at age 12 and was very close to his namesake father.

Born in 1943, Aucoin and his family lived at 71 Pleasant Street in Ayer. Janet, Bill and younger sister Betty Britton, now of Westerly, Rhode Island, all attended the Pleasant Street School (now renovated into senior housing), located across the street from their house.

"Oh my gosh, yes," Bankowski said of Bill's aspirations for fame, "He had his own broadcasting station that he'd built in the cellar. It (the signal) was only supposed to go a mile or two but before we knew it, it was broadcasting 4-5 miles. My father got a visit from the government that they had to shut that down when he was 13 or 14."

"Wonderful times - we have such memories of growing up there," Bankowski said of the family's Ayer days. Eleven years Bill's senior, Bankowski said she was off to college by the time Aucoin was in grade school but she recalls, "He was so intelligent even back then."

The Aucoin children all attended Ayer Junior Senior High School when it was located off East Main Street. Janet graduated with the class of 1950. Bill was a graduate of the class of 1961.

A contemporary of Aucoin's at Ayer High was Sharon Lanteigne Wark, who has since moved to Texas in 1969. She said she was two years behind Aucoin in school, graduating Ayer High in 1963.

"He was voted a class celebrity in his Senior year," Wark said, a sign foreshadowing Aucoin's later career, "He was well-liked in school. Very talented. If I remember correctly, he was in the Band and the Choir and performed in school plays."

With a penchant for the arts, Aucoin graduated from Northeastern University and studied the media while working for a stretch at WGBH TV in Boston as a production assistant on the late Julia Child's cooking show The French Chef.

Aucoin headed off to New York City upon graduation and landed a job doing camera work for TV production company Teletapes. He'd later enter television production and fatefully see the band perform and thereafter become the band's manager.

Aucoin is credited as the genius behind the initial worldwide marketing of the band's image. A 1977 Gallup Poll determined KISS was the nation's most popular band.

Aucoin's website (www.aucoin.biz) boasts that KISS pulled in $119 million in fiscal year 1978. Over the years the band sold more than 100 million albums, and landed gigs playing both the Super Bowl and the Olympics. Under Aucoin's leadership, KISS branded everything from lunch boxes, comic books, pinball machines, dolls, notebooks, and, of course, make-up.

Fans came to identify themselves as members of the KISS Army. Aucoin successfully filed to have the KISS band members' signature facial paint design trademarked.

Aucoin's reputation for effective band management lead him to manager other mega acts like Billy Idol and Billy Squire. In recent years, Aucoin has lead his own management company often advising up and coming acts.

After a decade managing KISS, the group and Aucoin went separate ways 1982. They wanted to take their makeup off. Aucoin opposed the move. The band did scrub it off for several years but has returned to full battle regalia in recent years. Recently, Aucoin's company was in production with KISS to jointly release a DVD of live footage from Aucoin's own archives from the early days of the musical act.

Janet Bankowski remembers her younger brother as a giving person, "A lot of that generosity and that spirit came from my father. Dad owned that restaurant but he was always helping the homeless It had a profound influence on Bill. He kept doing the same thing. He just gave a lot of his money away."

"My dad was so proud of him," Bankowski said, "Dad lived to see some of KISS performances." Aucoin's parents are buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Ayer, where a plot had been reserved for Bill.

Bankowski said she, her sister and brother Bill all gathered annually in Florida to get together. "We were lucky to get a week from him," she laughed, noting Aucoin's incredibly busy schedule.

Aucoin is survived by partner Roman Fernandez, and two sisters, Betty Britton and Janet Bankowski.