Jim Moran was the publicist responsible for selling fridges to Eskimos when he famously teamed up “Refridgerator” with American Airlines. American Airlines virgin flight to Alaska needed publicity as well as “Refridgerator’s” first Ice Box. Moran organised the transport of the ice box on the first flight to Alaska, which brought about the publicity stunt…
All my recent Hollywood publicist research has led me to the much-talked-about Hollywood myths. Over the years of movie publicity, a plethora of myths exists. A young intern at the Academy Library in Los Angeles, who I met on my last trip, has written to me having found some interesting information on a lady named…
Veteran publicist Frank Liberman was born in Manhattan on May 29th 1917, and educated at Cheshire Academy in Cheshire, Conneticut. He graduated from Lafayette College in Easton, PA, in 1938 with a BA degree. His career in public relations began at Warner Bros’ home office in New York City, following a year’s service on the…
The more I research the life of the actress Tallulah Bankhead, the more I realise she must have been the nemesis of every Hollywood publicist in the 1930’s. Bankhead started her career on the stage and had a publicist, Jimmy Julian, by the time she was 16. He was the publicist responsible for launching her…
Reasons why, over the ages, people have employed publicists, include some poignant moments in the history of Hollywood. At the time when Zsa Zsa Gabor was married to George Sanders, a momentary event put the “writing on the wall” for their marriage when the couple were taking a walk in Hollywood. A group of teenagers…
I have had a bag full of emails from publicists all over the place with their views on the history of PR. Reflecting a piece in today’s Express on “friendly bacteria” I was interested to find a stunt by a German publicist named Wolfgang Zeilman. Zeilman was responsible for hyping the talents of a German…
A boring and monotonous modern day PR gimmick used by the many stalwart agencies around London these days is the peddling of research results. Occasionally, these do have an impact and a point, but the more credentials PR presentations I see, make me realise this is the only way people know how to generate a…
The front page of this morning’s Daily Mirror has the harrowing headline “Girl, 6, Killed In Fire-Eater Horror”. A six year old girl died from burns when she was showered with flames while watching a fire eater in Turkey. Apparently the little girl was the victim of a stunt spectacle going horribly wrong, when a…
I have noticed down the years that publicists can often get over-excited about what looks, on paper, to be a very interesting job proposal. But sometimes, by the time you’re only half way through, the job has exposed hidden depths. I have been reading about some of the shenanigans of Paul Macnamara, who entered the…
So here I am again staring at another blank piece of paper. Struggling to drive my grey matter to execute some intellectual gymnastics. I examine my scrawled notes balancing a reference book on my knee. As I begin to type and the juices start to flow, a bloody email pings up in the corner of…