Most businesses have their 'heroes'. They're the trend-setters who lay the foundation for the rest to follow.
In the publicity business, the real trend-setters are the Press Agents. They're the people who literally 'create' news stories.
They're people like George Evans. His company was hired to take a relatively unknown Vegas lounge singer called Frank Sinatra and try to make him into a star. Evans hired a dozen girls, at $5 each, to jump and scream 'Oh Frankie, Oh Frankie' and toss flowers at the stage. They met and practiced in the basement at the Paramount Casino where Sinatra was performing.
Jack Keller, Evan's West Coast partner explains what happened:
'We hired girls to scream when he sexily rolled a note.
The dozen girls we hired to scream and swoon did exactly as we told them. But hundreds more we didn't hire screamed even louder. Others squealed, howled, kissed his pictures with their lipsticked lips, and kept him a prisoner in his dressing room between shows at the Paramount. It was wild, crazy, completely out of control.'
And it continued to be for many years. Sinatra was now an established star thanks to a 'media campaign' that only cost the promoters a total of $60 paid to a handful of women to act crazy.
(Read the entire article: Making Up A News Story, Legally by Paul Hartunian at http://www.site-reference.com/Marketing/5271/index.html)
This is true...no lie! See what good marketing can do for you! LOL
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