Legends of Entertainmnent publicity share their secrets over decades of representing TV and Film celebrities at an Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (EPPS) event at the Radio TV Museum in Beverly Hills, CA.
(PRWEB) December 23, 2005 -- A panel of seasoned Hollywood publicists talked about the golden days of PR when gimmicks and tricks helped shape the profession during a "legends" session put together by the Entertainment Publicists Professional Society in Beverly Hills this month.
"I've been fired by 500 stars," said Jay Bernstein, who made his mark as a publicist for Farrah Fawcett, William Shatner and Michael Jackson to name a few luminaries.
"When I got my start, we were called 'press agents' and we had to do stunts to get the media's attention," said Lee Solters, who is observing his 66th year as a publicist.
Working at Harry Horwitz' agency in New York, Solters did PR for some of the biggest shows on Broadway. He repped "Guys & Dolls," "My Fair Lady," "The King & I," and "Death of a Salesman."
Solters is a big believer in gimmicks. "On Alice Cooper's tour he wanted to bring a snake along so we put out ads for the snake and I had to bribe two people with a snake to do the job,"he said.
He drummed up publicity to get Miss Piggy nominated for an Oscar to promote the Muppet TV show, and once got arrested for buying tickets for a bunch of dogs to watch "It's a Dog's Life."
Luckily for Solters, the judge was a dog lover and "let us go, though the movie never made it."
Walter Seltzer, who broke in during the '30s at Fox, recalled when Erroll Flynn gave him the key to his dressing room.
"We used to have fun with the media," he said.
Experience is the greatest teacher, said Jerry Pam, who gained his fame when he introduced two Beatles movies, "A Hard Day's Night"and "Help"to the American public in the '60's.
"There doesn't seem to be a place to learn PR," he said. "At MGM, we had to know how to write and we had to go through such a rigorous course of writing a pitch. Out of 100 motion pictures, not one did we know what the campaign was going to be."
Arthur Wilde, who broke in with Warner Brothers in '39, rides his bike a mile a day to stay healthy and keep in good mental shape.
At one time he was a personal publicist for Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Orson Welles and Milton Berle.
His film credits include "Jaws II," "The Coal Miner's Daughter,"and the "Postman Always Rings Twice."
He said: "If you tell the truth, even when you conceive a crazy idea, you’re better off. If you can’t be honest, keep your mouth shut."
“Never tell a lie,” said Julian Meyers, who has been a Hollywood publicist for more than six decades. Over the years he publicized such well known celebrities as: Julia Andrews, Blake Edwards, Pat Boone, Dennis Weaver, Gregory Peck and Marilyn Monroe.
“You can always say no comment. Lying is the kiss of death. You can always find something that will take you 100 years into the future like ‘AmigoDay’ organized to counteract negative generalizations about peoples, cultures, nations, faith and groups, as important as Mother’s Day, “said Myers, who was a publicist at 20th Century Fox for 11 years; American International Pictures for another 11 years and ten years at Hanson & Schwam PR and 10 years operating his own firm.
“If you know and I know and you keep it straight, you’ll be around for a long time,” said Moderator Army Archerd, who for more than 50 years wrote a daily column for Daily Variety, and retired in September 2005.
Archer continues to report entertainment industry news for the trade paper. His column “Just for Variety” was a must-read for industry professionals every morning from its debut for Archer regularly scooped all other journalists with industry and career related news.
“Erroll Flynn spent most of his time covering his tracks,” he said of celebrities who planted stories. Army is one of three journalists to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Archer will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the ICG Publicists Awards next March.
“The biggest publicity job I’ve ever had is EPPS considering me as a legend,” said Charles (Chuck) Panama, who came to Los Angeles after WWII U.S. Air force service, entered UCLA, where he was sports editor for the Daily Bruin and started his career, not as a publicist, but as a correspondent for the LA bureau of the International News Services. He covered all aspects so of the Southern California scene, including entertainment, politics, hard news and sports.
Panama’s first film assignment when he joined 20th Century Fox in 1954 was “There’s No Business Like Show business” which had Marilyn Monroe third billed after Ethel Merman and Donald O’Connor.
During his 12 years in film publicity he directed publicity on the first three Elvis Presley features. His next move was to open the West Coast office of NY Publicist John Spring, whose clients included Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Henry Fonda, Faye Dunaway and many more. “There are two words that describe Army Archerd’s 60 years of journalism: the best.” He said.
All panelists said “don’t use interns to pitch important feature stories, and don’t lie.”
For inside tracks on entertainment media and product placement visit MAYO PR website
at www.MayoPR.com
George McQuade writes a monthly column for
Jack O'Dwyer (www.odwyerpr.com). Questions?
Call him at 818-340-5300.
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