Claire Rothman, a trailblazing sports and entertainment industry executive indelibly tied to the Los Angeles Lakers during their 1980s heyday, has died.
Family members confirmed her death, on Saturday, was due to complications from a fall. She was 97.
As the president and general manager of the “Fabulous Forum,” Rothman was pivotal in bringing big-name musicians to the Inglewood venue and had deep ties to the Lakers when it was the team’s home during the “Showtime” era, when the Lakers won five championships in a decade.
Jeanie Buss, the daughter of former Lakers owner Jerry Buss — who after the recent sale of the team acts as its governor in NBA meetings — lamented the loss of Rothman, a woman she said shaped her career.
“Claire paved the way for women working in live entertainment. She was tenacious, creative and indomitable. My father always described her as the MVP who championed the Fabulous Forum as the West Coast concert rival to the legendary Madison Square Garden,” Buss said Sunday evening.
“For me personally, she was a mentor and a guide, helping me learn and navigate an industry that had never been very open to women in leadership,” Buss said. “I learned an incredible amount from her as an executive and consider her one of the major influences in my life.”
Rothman, hired in 1975 by Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke, became the vivacious president and general manager of the Forum during a pivotal moment in the Lakers’ history. She was frequently seen around town wearing the many championship rings that the team won during her tenure. Rothman was a prominent character in the HBO series “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” played by actor Gaby Hoffmann.
“Claire Rothman is a f— legend,” Rebecca Bertuch, a writer for the show, told The Times in 2022. “I mean, she broke barriers that people didn’t think would ever be broken and she kicked ass and was notorious and well-known in her line of work for being that girl.”
Rothman has been recognized for her role in professional sports at a time when women were not commonplace or were treated poorly.
“I’m not exactly quiet,” Rothman is quoted as saying during a speech in a 1985 profile in The Times. “I am the only woman in the United States who runs a major sports arena. I have a variety of duties. I book the building. I schedule the sports. The box office answers to me, all the staffing answers to me, and at night I get to play hostess.”
She brought big-name acts such as Prince to the Forum and developed relationships with entertainers including Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond and Lionel Richie.
“Many building managers will not meet artists in their entire lives,” Larry Vallon, then-vice president of the Universal Amphitheatre, told The Times in 1985. “In Claire’s case, artists go out of their way to meet her. She has an incredible reputation in the industry.”
It was a remarkable position for a woman whose family had humble beginnings in this country.
Rothman’s family fled Romanian pogroms against Jewish people at the turn of the 20th century, immigrating to Philadelphia, according to Magda Peck, a cousin of Rothman’s mother.
“What I remember about Claire was how important family was to her and how close she was with my mother and the other cousins,” Peck said. “There was something about modeling how women support each other, how cousins are there for each other across generations.”
Peck, a public health expert, last saw Rothman a couple of weeks ago.
“She said, ‘Promise me that you’ll stay close to the cousins,’” Peck said. “Before she’s famous, before she’s the mother of the Lakers family, [she prioritized] the value of extended family.”
Rothman died in Las Vegas, where she had moved after leaving Southern California. She is survived by a son and a daughter, and multiple grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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