Larry Alan Harris (May 31, 1947 – December 18, 2017) was executive vice president and co-founder of Casablanca Records,[1] with his cousin Neil Bogart, Cecil Holmes, and Buck Reingold.
[4] Casablanca's financial fortunes changed with the success of KISS Alive, the band's 1975 live recording, which stayed on the charts for 110 weeks and has sold nine million copies.
Firstly, while they worked extremely hard, Casablanca had a relaxed, shoot-from-the-hip, anti-corporate feel, where cocaine and Quaaludes were openly used, whereas Polygram was the highly corporate antithesis of this.
Secondly, in Casablanca, most senior positions were held by people of Jewish ancestry and Polygram had brought in many German staff, one of whom bragged about being a U-boat commander during WWII, which didn't foster cohesiveness within the group.
Polygram, who had become increasingly worried about the lax spending habits within Casablanca began cutting back on staff, closely looking over shoulders, and doing their best to implement a change in culture to more match their own.