Post Script

I'm the kind of guy who sees everything as an opportunity, and that certainly helps in the world of publicity. I like to create news, to make things happen. So when I get a call out of the blue from someone who wants to speak with a big movie star because it's the 200th anniversary of the star's hometown, I see opportunity. It doesn't mean the caller is going to speak with the star. But I can decide if whatever I've learned is a good enough hook to generate press to publicize the star's new film or book.

We signed a lot of business over the years because of my policy of returning calls. Two aspiring stars--20 years apart in age and phone technology--called me and left messages explaining that I didn't know them, but asking for industry advice. I called each of them back and answered some of their insightful questions about the business. One later became a successful director and hired my company because I'd taken his call decades earlier when he wasn't famous. The other became a top stand-up comic who later got a TV series, and we did the PR for all the years it was on the air because, he said, I gave him a few minutes when no one else would.

When I began in the 1940s, an executive's importance was measured by how many phones he had on his desk. We were forever reaching for the next call as soon as we hung up the phone we were on.

I'm still excited about who might be calling. My pockets, briefcase, car, office and home are full of phones. I don't want to miss a call--or, in recent years, an e-mail--because I never know what the caller might be offering.

I sell Hollywood to the world. The least I can do is to show people that beyond just buying a movie ticket, an album or a book, the Hollywood they adore is accessible to them.