Spending as much time as I have with the ghosts of movie publicity whilst researching my book, I have recognized that they all understood or had the bitter experience of the fame cycle. I stumbled upon this scrap of wisdom that perhaps the faded Britney Spears should have known. “Success is ephemeral, failure is inevitable and woe to those who don’t bow before the fickle gods”

I am currently researching the studio PR men that created Jean Harlow. It’s an extraordinary story that would make a contemporary star maker blush. Harlow knew the power of her sexuality and manipulated it  to great effect. One of her many tricks to create an entrance  was to put ice on her nipples right before shooting a scene in order to appear sexier. The current wannabes should take some time out and study the old masters.

I see Lindsay Lohan has been admitted to treatment again… is anyone with a pulse actually interested?  It really underlines the point that Ms Lohan’s publicist must really be clutching at straws if this is the best they can come up with.  If we go back to the great Hollywood publicists, we could learn some tricks.  Howard Strickland was one such publicist and a day in his life would include the following:  Hustling off Loretta Young to Europe who was pregnant with Clark Gable’s child, to hide her bump and take the heat of the press.  At the same covering…

Following the destruction of the career of MGM actor William Haines, who refused to end his relationship with his gay lover Jimmy Shields and enter into a “lavender marriage” on the request of MGM, a spate of such marriages occurred so gay and lesbian couples could seek refuge in this institution.  A lavender marriage is a term used to describe a marriage between a man and woman in which one or both parties are homosexual / lesbian.  Usually both parties are complicit in a public deception to hide their homosexuality.  It became very common in Hollywood in the 1910’s and…

The publicity stunt is not a tool used only by wily pr’s but has been taken on board by certain weird religious groups to further their following. For example, in 1967, Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan baptized his daughter Zeena at the Black House.  This was a Victorian mansion that stood at 6114 California Street in San Francisco, which Anton LaVey used as his headquarters for the Church of Satan.  He conducted many satanic seminars and rituals at the Black House, but the most famous was the Baptism of his daughter which was widely publicised at…

Leafing through a set of files, I am reminded about how the publicity stunts have been dwindling over the years, probably because people are too straight laced or uptight when it comes to taking risks. Max Rosey was the genius behind many a PR stunt. Rosey was the legendary New York PR man who put an elephant on a giant water ski in the Hudson River to promote an amusement park. Of course, these days you’d never be allowed to do such a politically incorrect stunt involving animals. One of Rosey’s best stunts was the one he came up with…

From “When Elephants Ski – The Publicity Stunt Is an Institution as American as, Well, the President by Peter Carlson   Washington Post Staff Writer  Saturday, May 1, 2004  Aaron Cushman, is a legendary Chicago PR man and author of a 2003 memoir, “A Passion for Winning: Fifty Years of Promoting Legendary People and Products.” He’s talking about a shameless stunt he produced for Marriott hotels in the late ’70s. When Cushman learned that Marriott was planning to break ground for three new hotels in one day — in Kansas City, Denver and Newport Beach, Calif. — he figured he…

Annual events that we all know and love, especially those in the U.S., began more often than not, as cheap publicity stunts.  The Miss America pageant started as a stunt to lure tourists to Atlantic City in 1921.  The stunts became so shameless in their purpose, that by the late 1920’s the American Association of Publishers tried to persuade its members to ignore the covering of pageants due to their aims, claiming it was “the most flagrant use of free publicity”.  Inevitably, all the papers ignored the suggestion as the content was so compelling.  It only went to show that…

In the 1950’s, the Hollywood producer, William Castle, became so frustrated by the lack of PR ingenuity and the general disinterest from publicists to plug his movies, that he started to concoct his own publicity stunts.  His 1958 movie “Macabre” starring William Prince and Jim Backus received the familiar, “don’t ring us, we’ll ring you”, so Castle decided to publicise it himself.  He took out a Lloyds Insurance Policy, insuring all ticket holders against death by fright.  The premiere was held in Indianapolis and Castle arrived in a coffin which was carried by a hearse.   The movie theatre was packed and the…

Following on from my blog Mark My Words, about stunts and stories being done before, the idea to pander to animals and treat them like humans (for example, the well publicised dog wedding that one of my consumer teams organised for Harrods’ “Anything is Possible” campaign) has been around for decades. Way back in 1951, a publicity stunt was created for the opening of the station restaurant at the Gare de L’Est in Paris.  A canine section was created so that French travellers could bring their dogs for an afternoon or evening full of treats.  Firstly, they would be fed…

The world renowned venue at Olympia in London saw the Bertram Mills Circus grace its doors in 1919.  Members of the Mills circus agreed to a publicity stunt which involved catering for the whole Bertram Mills Circus.  As it was nearly Christmas, the team put on a lavish Christmas lunch with all the trimmings.  The team included amongst others, the world’s smallest man as the waiter, and the world’s tallest man as a between course entertainer.  The chef, the resident sword swallower, knew absolutely nothing about cooking.  He left the Turkey out to “hang” thinking it should be treated like…

These days it’s almost impossible to promote anything to kids, alcohol, cigarettes, chocolate, burgers, chips are all no go areas, but not so in the 1920’s.  Jim Moran was hired to promote a now defunct brand of beer.  In true Moran style, he took a pantomime horse into numerous bars across California as a guerrilla marketing stunt to promote the beer.  The children loved the horse, but unfortunately the adults didn’t get it and Moran’s stunt failed, but this horse became the precursor to brand emblems – the superheroes and mascots that are still in wide use today as marketing…