The Daily Swarm

WCBS

CBS 2 News has learned that Linda Stein, the former manager of the Ramones and “realtor to the stars,” was found dead, lying in a pool of blood in her multi-million-dollar Fifth Ave. apartment on Manhattans’ Upper East Side.

Police confirm she suffered blunt impact trauma to the head.

NY Mag:

Stein was the original “broker to the stars,” helping turn the sale of fancy real estate in the city into the gossipy, publicity-driven soap opera that it has become today, where we all know, or think we know, which boldfaced name lives where, and how much they paid. A tempestuous, bawdy, funny woman who, through her marriage in to Sire Records founder Seymour Stein (the man who discovered and nurtured Madonna as well as the Talking Heads), transformed herself from a fifth-grade teacher in the Bronx to Ramones manager and international party girl (best friends with Elton John and Studio 54 regular).

Michael Gross, writing for New York Magazine in 1991:

Diminutive, brassy, and caustic, Stein has a face as expressive as her truck driver’s mouth. Everything about her is too much, from her too high Manolo Blahnik heels to her too short Gianni Versace skirts. Yet somehow it all works for her. She’s a complicated woman, full of conflict and contradictions. One movie star who knows Stein well is said to have called her ‘Buddy Hackett with tits’—behind her back. Others refer to her ‘power envy,’ pushiness, and name dropping. ... But even Stein’s detractors admit that they have a soft spot for her, that she’s immensely human. If anything, she’s too open about her problems. ‘Her nerve is beyond anything,’ one longtime observer says, laughing. ‘You can’t help but admire her.’ ”

Danny Fields in Please Kill Me:

Linda Stein, Seymour Stein’s wife, who was my partner in managing the Ramones, was very internationally minded. She was, I would say, hypnotized, and rightly so, by the lucrative possibilites open to the Ramones in the European market.

From the very beginning, she properly sensed that we were likely to find an easier niche in the U.K. So from the beginning, we tried to get to England, especially as it seemed less and less likely that we could move beyond New Jersey, the other side of the river.

Our first Ramones show in England was July 4, 1976, the weekend of the Bicentennial, which I thought was metaphorically appropriate, because here it was the two hundredth anniversary of our freedom from Great Britain, and we were bringing Great Britian this gift that was going to forever disrupt their sensibilities.

From The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB‘s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk:

As Linda Stein explains it, they were too much for folks outside of New York. “Being from New York and being Jewish is related, and they were definitely from New York,” Stein says. “I can see now that it was the same for me. It’s as if I’m an alcoholic and I can finally admit the truth: I’m a New Yorker, I’m a punk.” Stein rises to her feet, puts her fists in the air, and shouts jokingly, “And I’m a Jeeewww!”

From NY Sun: Meet the Rock ‘n’ Roll Real Estate Agent:

Re-enter Madonna, this time in need of an apartment in Manhattan.

“She didn’t want to spend more than a million dollars,” Ms. Stein said. “So I found her an attractive apartment on Central Park West. She still lives there.”

Whether it was through Madonna or others in the entertainment industry, word spread quickly that Linda Stein was the real estate agent to the stars.

Celebrities sought her services. There was Sting and his wife Trudy. There was Billy Joel. There was Steven Spielberg. There was Michael Douglas. There was Calvin Klein. Not long ago, there was Angelina Jolie.

There was also Damon Dash, the hip-hop mogul.

“Thanks to the accident of birth, I speak English,” Ms. Stein said. “Thanks to my time in Paris, I speak French. And thanks to Damon Dash, I speak hip-hop.”

[...]

“The rock ‘n’ roll business is mild compared to the real estate industry,” Ms. Stein said. “If you think you’ve experienced the most vicious competition, think again.”