I was a total rube when I started my first job as an editorial assistant at Glamour. For one thing. I talked too loud on the phone. My editor taught me how to sound more grown-up (i.e., sophisticated). I was fresh out of school in New England and lived on Martha's Vineyard for a few months after my summer job ended.
"You want to speak softly and lower your voice," she said. "Like this: 'Hulllloooo, you've reached Glamour magazine. How may we help you?"
After two years, I became an assistant beauty and health writer. Frankly, I was getting tired of telling women what diet they should follow. A new products column dictated what lipstick to wear, and if they wore the color I mentioned in the past few issues, these H&G readers were pathetically passé.
But the real reason I left Condé Nast Publications to become a press agent at ICPR was that a close colleague in Glamour editorial invited me. She had left Condé Nast 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. "Plus, it's $5000 more than you're making! There's an opening. Just interview. I promise you'll love it."
And so I did. For my second job, I landed an account executive position.
I worked directly with Jimmy Stewart, Robert Goulet, Alan Thicke, Kathleen Turner, Steve Allen, Raquel Welch, and booked tours for Christina Crawford's Mommie Dearest, a beauty book by Georgette Klinger, and more.
We also hosted special events for clients like Pentel Pens. (I coordinated this one.) Since it was the first all-technology commercial, I held it at the Museum of Broadcasting. The press received a credit card with their name, press outlet, and "Welcome to THE FUTURE" on it. I hired an agency where actors dressed as R2D2 characters from "Star Wars" stood at the entrance to welcome guests. 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."
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 coverage. 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 on a segment for "Entertainment Tonight" and a column in 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 packed it with interviews. Don't you love some of these old names and networks?
"The Morning Show" (WABC-TV with Regis Philbin and Cyndy Garvey)
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.
And 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 in her office at The Helmsley Hotel in midtown. Let's just say Ms. Helmsley lived up to her reputation and was as rude to me as ... well, as rude as President Trump was to President Zelensky in the White House. Yeee-ouch.