b. Leonard Davies, Hayes, Middlesex, England. While working as a packer at the nearby EMI Records factory, Davies auditioned for his record company and was duly signed. After changing his name to Larry Page in honour of Larry Parks, the star of The Jolson Story, the teenager began a brief recording career. Dubbed "the Teenage Rage" by showbusiness columnist Jack Bentley, Page lived up to his sobriquet with a series of exploits, including a whirlwind romance with a fan leading to a much publicized marriage. With his sharp suits, blue-tinted hair and monotone croon, Page was an unlikely pop star but became one of the first UK performers to cover a Buddy Holly song with "That'll Be The Day".
After retiring from performance at the end of the 50s, Page joined Mecca Enterprises as a consultant manager and ran the Orchid ballroom in Coventry. This led to a meeting with music publisher Eddie Kassner and the formation of Denmark Productions. With a deal whereby he could select and manage acts, Page launched a selection of minor talent, including Johnny B. Great, the Orchids, Little Lenny Davis and Shel Naylor. In 1964 Page was approached by two society gentlemen, Robert Wace and Grenville Collins, and offered the chance to co-manage a north London act known as the Ravens. Page rechristened them the Kinks, helped fashion their image and prevented their imminent dissolution following a notorious quarrel between Dave Davies and Mick Avory, in which the former was hospitalized. An unsatisfactory US tour culminated in a dispute between Page and Ray Davies that festered into a High Court action. Recovering his poise, Page promoted a couple of other acts, the Pickwicks and the Riot Squad, before finding another hit artist in the Troggs. On this occasion, Page not only signed the band to a management deal but produced their records and made them the leading lights of Page One (the record company he had formed with publisher Dick James). Remarkably, his association with the Troggs ended in another High Court action yet, in spite of his litigious history, Page was never regarded as one of the unscrupulous managers of the 60s.
Page's name was well-known during this period, not only because of frequent appearances in print but the instrumental albums his label released under the self-referential title the Larry Page Orchestra. When Page One ceased operating in the early 70s, Dick James went on to found DJM Records while Larry formed the inauspicious Penny Farthing label. Page rewrote history to some extent in the 70s and 80s when he briefly regained managerial control of both the Troggs and the Kinks.
