Harold Holt
Harold Edward Holt, CH (/hoʊlt/; 5 August 1908 – 17 December 1967), was an Australian politician and the 17th Prime Minister of Australia. Holt spent 32 years in Parliament, including many years as a senior Cabinet Minister, but was Prime Minister for only 22 months before he disappeared in December 1967 while swimming at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria, and was presumed drowned.
As Minister for Immigration (1949–1956), Holt was responsible for the relaxation of the White Australia policy and as Treasurer under Menzies, he initiated major fiscal reforms including the establishment of the Reserve Bank of Australia, and launched and guided the process to convert Australia to decimal currency. As Prime Minister, he oversaw landmark changes including the decision not to devalue the Australian dollar in line with the British pound, and the 1967 constitutional referendum in which an overwhelming majority of Australians voted in favour of giving the Commonwealth power to legislate specifically for indigenous Australians. He controversially expanded Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, with the slogan "All the way with LBJ".
Harold Holt (impresario)
Harold Holt (3 November 1885 – 3 September 1953) was a noted impresario in England from the 1920s to the early 1950s, who managed many of the great names in the classical music world. He was considered the leading concert agent of his time, and was said to be "the greatest raconteur in London, who wasted away his fortune".
Biography
Harold Holt was born in Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa on 3 November 1885. His father was a Jewish diamond merchant. He trained as a lawyer, but never practised.
In 1924 he went into partnership with Lionel Powell, who had taken over the firm created by Alfred Schulz-Curtius after the latter's death. (The firm had been founded in 1876 by Schulz-Curtius to promote Richard Wagner's music in England. He later took Lionel Powell into partnership.) Powell died suddenly in 1931, leaving Holt with a mountain of debts and a company to run. It is now known as Askonas Holt.
The list of famous names Harold Holt managed was long. It included: Marian Anderson, Feodor Chaliapin, Ania Dorfmann,Amelita Galli-Curci, Beniamino Gigli, Dame Joan Hammond,Ida Haendel,Josef Hassid,Jascha Heifetz, Vladimir Horowitz, Fritz Kreisler, John McCormack, Dame Nellie Melba, the young Yehudi Menuhin (in his concerts with Sir Edward Elgar),Grace Moore, Vladimir de Pachmann, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Gregor Piatigorsky,Rosa Ponselle, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Paul Robeson, Richard Tauber, and Luisa Tetrazzini.
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