JEFFERY BOWMAN
Jeffery Bowman is the creator and producer of “Legendary Bingo,” Los Angeles’ longest running and most successful charity event.
Jeffery Bowman began fundraising in the 1980’s, producing some of the very first AIDS benefits in the Los Angeles area. These events featured such icons as Angelyne, Patty Duke, Julie Brown, Pia Zadora and 50’s sex kitten Mamie Van Doren.
Bowman created Legendary Bingo in 1998 as a way of producing a weekly event that would allow charities to raise money in a format that was fun and inexpensive to attend, therefore allowing a younger demographic to experience the joy of fundraising.
24 years later Bingo Boy Inc. has raised a cumulative total of more than 8 million dollars for local, national and international charities and produces more than 300 events a year for charities, corporate events, universities, private parties and country clubs. In addition to the live events, Legendary Bingo now offers Virtual Bingo Events.
Throughout the last 20 years, Jeffery Bowman has become a sort of “charity whisperer” to the organizations he works with (over 200 per year) by becoming a mentor and advisor. His belief is that charities need to operate as businesses and be competitive in the marketplace in order to succeed and survive. Bowman thinks of himself as a cross between Tim Gunn (Project Runway) and Gordon Ramsey (Kitchen Nightmares).
His quote:
“I want you to succeed but I will kick your ass if you don’t even try.”
During the past 30 years and in addition to “Legendary Bingo,” Bowman has been involved with producing events for several charities including AIDS Project Los Angeles, The Wellness Community, The Hollyrod Foundation (with actress Holly Robinson Peete), L.A. Shanti, The Alfred Mann Foundation as well as teaching job workshops for the homeless through The Chrysalis Center in Los Angeles.
In 2008 non-profit organization Being Alive presented Jeffery with “The Spirit of Hope” award for his many years of fundraising for HIV/AIDS.
Jeffery is also the recipient of “The Community Service Award” presented by AIDS Service Center, “The Impact Award” presented by Pet Matchmaker.com and West Hollywood has proclaimed “Legendary Bingo Day” in 2008, 2013 and 2018. He has also been awarded proclamations from the California Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives and the Governor of California.
In 2016 Bowman created and launched the board game “Drag Queen Bingo: The Home Game” which pits players against each other vying for the title of “Miss Bingo Queen Of The Universe.”
In addition to his fundraising, Jeffery concentrates on his writing career, which has spawned nine produced plays, a published book, numerous magazine articles and “Lovelace: A Rock Opera, a musical about “Deep Throat” icon Linda Lovelace which won three L.A. Weekly Theater Awards. Bowman is also currently in development with a game show based on his live events in collaboration with Dan Bukatinsky and Lisa Kudrow of Is Or Isn’t Entertainment.
Read the recent Frontiers article “Bingo and Beyond”!
