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 fire-eater’s petrol bottle exploded and the subsequent blast set fire to the auditorium in which they were seated.

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 film industry in 1945 as the director of advertising and publicity for the David O. Selznick organisation. The Selznick Releasing Organization was making a picture from author, Eric Hodgins’ bestseller, Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House. The deal was struck by Dore Schary, who was…

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 my screen. I am immediately distracted, not least because it has been sent from a highly entertaining old mate with a wicked sense of fun. Phil spends too much time contemplating the modern and confusing public relations hemisphere. It’s a breathless email: “Shit Borkie take…

Oh one more thing before I end today’s Barnum blog. Dedication is the word that was used constantly by many of the people I interviewed for my book. Whoever I spoke to, whether it was Lord Bell or Bobby Zarem, irrespective of their skill or area of expertise, they attributed their success to a belief in the client and the subsequent commitment needed to create and manage the client’s success. So going back to the age of the early Stuntster, I realised that the trailblazers had those same motivational genes, but subtly they had a more practical manner. Currently when…

By the dawn of the 1970’s, television changed the way in which publicists in the U.S. used their craft. Budgets could be plundered if a course could be chartered between ‘turn’ and product. It was Henry Rogers of Rogers and Cowan who pioneered the way. He fully understood the value of entertainment collateral when dealing with promoting product. What was important was balance; and any true PR empire knows this for ultimate effect and unfettered development. As companies desired enlargement and expansion, the status quo began to change. The “boutique” or speciality agency that had become so prominent in the…

I have had a flurry of emails from folk interested in debating some of the issues I wrote about yesterday. One of the key points I was asked to expand upon was the subject of the mortally wounded publicist. I don’t know where to start, but when researching my book in Los Angeles, I met a number of publicists who were keen to open up and chat about the topic in a much more frank way than any Brits have. Bitter PR’s are never pleasant people to encounter. The issue which over-powers the old and current generation of publicists or…

After a week of working through the papers from Percival Stein, I have been considering his legacy. I suppose if one had to sum up my research, it’s clear that he was a lost son of Barnum. The papers provide evidence that advocates he was a man of passion, in love with something that was yet to be called a profession. I believe I have now spent over ten years considering men like Stein and have tried to search for the constituents that drive this passion. I believe that at the nucleus of all the great publicists is this substantial…

As early as Percival Stein’s days, men were performing great displays of daring by jumping from building to building to promote brands. Percival Stein employed an actor named Richard Talmadge, a stunt man from Hollywood and paid him to make daring leaps from one building to another to launch events and promote companies.

Two more tales have come from Nicholas Leonard’s great great grandfather’s archive. An early U.S. flight company approached Percival Stein in regard to their zeppelin flight service which was losing money left and right. It appeared that nobody trusted the hefty aircraft and preferred not to fly with the company.

Continuing with the stunts of Percival Stein, this week’s “Son of Barnum”, Stein found himself in the employ of a large but financially insecure New York Tailoring business. Despite numerous attempts to increase their revenue, Teideman’s of NYC were making a loss for the fifth year running. Having heard of Stein’s exceptional talents for publicity, Teideman’s chairman, Norman Starck employed Stein to “revamp” their image.