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An Open Letter to MT Carney

May, 06, 2010 3:14 pm | On #julian myers, movie marketing, MT Carney

An Open Letter to MT Carney From Julian Myers, “Hollywood's longest active movie publicist”:

Welcome to “Hollywood.”

We understand you have new methods of winning customers, and we could use them. Our costs of film production are high, and fresh ways of raising revenues will enable us to keep investing ambitiously.

Because the budgets on most of our pictures are in the tens of millions they must “open” on their first weekends or they are regarded as failures. To prevent this from happening you would be wise to spend 90 percent of your marketing budgets in the ways that “Hollywood” has found are most productive. Use the other 10 percent in “your” ways. No doubt you'll open our eyes with your innovative advancements, yet you will not be endangering yourself by abandoning our current give-the-picture-a-...

What's Black and Red and Gone All Over?

November, 12, 2009 4:18 pm | On #hollywood reporter, julian myers

If the Hollywood Reporter as I have known it for more than 60 years is gone, it must be noted that three of its recent editorial heads were among the finest in its history. In fact, they are among the finest in the annals of Hollywood coverage. Yes, I'm alluding to Elizabeth Guider, Alex Ben Block and Robert Dowling.

Other top-notch Hollywood Reporter heads included Tichi Wilkerson, Frank Barron, Don Gillette, Jim Powers, Howard Burns and Hal Bates. Its memorable daily columnists included Mike Connolly, Herb Stein, Jim Henagan, Robert Osborne and Hank Grant.

I used to drive founder Billy Wilkerson's kids around (as 20th-Fox PR director Harry Brand's junior publicist), used to deliver news items to Hollywood Reporter columnist Edyth Gwynn (one of Billy's ex-wives) and I read...

We Could Sure Use Frank Liberman Today

September, 24, 2009 7:52 pm | On #Frank Liberman

Last time I visited Frank Liberman, at the Motion Picture Country Home a few months ago, he did not recognize me or, at least, did not seem to.

I had known Frank for about 40 years through his many years at Warner Bros., and during the decades when he was the chief personal publicist for Bob Hope, who also maintained several other publicists on his staff to do who-knows-what.

Frank's wife, Pat Harris, died about 25 years ago. She also worked in the industry and his sister-in-law, Radie Harris, was the Hollywood columnist for a New York City publication. We all gave her royal treatment during her California visits.

No one would accuse Frank of not saying exactly what he thought. You got his true -- sometimes ascerbic -- observations whether you liked them or not . When I told him in 1962 that I had resigned from the 20th-Fox publicity department to...

Good-Bye, Dear Army

September, 08, 2009 9:13 pm | On #Army Archerd

Dear Army is gone, coincidentally and appropriately, just as the Century of Hollywood has ended.

That was Army's Century, where he told us mostly good things about good people. He made almost every weekday better for us because we learned something constructive and heartening.

When I met Army around 1949, he was "leg man" for columnist Harrison Carroll at the Los Angeles Herald-Express, coming out to 20th Century-Fox on Fridays to visit the sets, get news from the stars, and make the lives of us publicists better. I visited him in his $12,000 Sherman Oaks tract home, where he turned down an offer to join a film production company as an officer because he felt it would conflict with his standards as an objective newsperson.

Friends of Army included Fox PR head Harry Brand,...

A True Hollywood Solution for the MPTF

August, 31, 2009 11:49 am | On #julian myers, Motion Picture Home, MPTF

With all the conflicts in California today, Hollywood doesn't need another one. Two groups, both dedicated to helping others, are warring over the closing of the Motion Picture & Television Fund's long-term care center .

This is not necessary. Our industry has found out that sometimes a co-production turns out well.

There's a way to permanently solve the situation confronting some of the residents at the home -- where the motto printed on the name sign in front of the home reads "We take care of our own." It is in the spirit of those who during the past century have cherished and worked for and contributed to this fund, which epitomizes the best in our community.

Let's all who care join to make the following happen, while adding a glorious new chapter to the history of Hollywood. First a few words about...

Ear on the Oscars

Description

Longtime publicist Julian Myers' favorite day was waking Marilyn Monroe for an appearance on a ship in San Pedro, in front of 3,000 soldiers. A former Fox publicist, he still has his own firm, Julian Myers Public Relations in Marina Del Rey.

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Latest Posts

An Open Letter to MT Carney

What's Black and Red and Gone All Over?

We Could Sure Use Frank Liberman Today

Good-Bye, Dear Army

A True Hollywood Solution for the MPTF