The reason I became a press agent at ICPR for a few years was because a close colleague in Glamour editorial invited me. She had left Condé Nast Publications a few months earlier for the other side of Madison Avenue. Literally, CNP was at 350, and she was now at 477 Madison.
"Bonni, you've got to come! You'll be writing a lot, it's very people-oriented, and you'll meet celebrities," my friend said. "There's an opening. Just interview. I promise you'll love it."
And so I did. I landed an account executive position.
I worked with Jimmy Stewart, Robert Goulet, Alan Thicke, Kathleen Turner, Steve Allen, Raquel Welch, and book tours for Christina Crawford's Mommie Dearest, a beauty book by Georgette Klinger, and more.
There were special events for clients like Pentel Pens. (I coordinated this one. Since it was the first all-technology commercial, I held it the Museum of Broadcasting. The press received a credit card with their name, outlet, and THE FUTURE on it. I hired from some agency people dress as R2D2 at the entrance to welcome the press. Then television monitors lined the hallway, playing commercials from the 50s à la "You'll wonder where the yellow went, when you brushed your teeth with Pepsodent!", "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz" for Alka-Seltzer, and "Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should." (Hey, it was the early-80s!)
Hired Isaac Asimov, the renowned futurist, to be the speaker. I had no idea what he would talk about. Gave him free rein to talk about anything.
We got great press. The only bummer was that I wanted to serve sushi, because it was so graphic-looking. The powers above me said no, we had to go with the traditional cheese and crackers. Landed Time magazine, and wouldn't you know... one of their comments about the events was "... the decidedly out-of-date hors d'oeuvres."
I found a journal entry from a day Alan Thicke was in town. He was my charge for the day, and I stuffed it with interviews:
"The Morning Show" (ABC-TV)
The Daily News (writer Kay Gardella)
"Rambling with Gambling" (WOR Radio with John Gambling and Susan Murphy)
"The Dan Ingram Show" on WABC-Radio
Canadian Press (afterall, Alan Thicke was from Canada)
"Midday with Bill Boggs" (WNEW-TV)
and a phoner with Tim Boxer at the New York Post. We went up to Fred Silverman's office for this. He was the honcho, President and CEO of NBC at the time.
Don't even get me going on Leona Helmsley. (Go here for my piece in HuffPost, "Jimmy Stewart, Hollywood's 'It's a Wonderful Life' Archangel.") Mr. Stewart was doing a two-part interview for "Good Morning America"/ABC-TV. Let's just say Ms. Helmsley lived up to her reputation and was rude as ... well, as rude as President Trump was to President Zelensky in the White House. Yeee-ouch.