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It was about 1980 as I recall it. I
had a meeting with Don Kelly and Dennis Nicholas in Los
Angeles. They were the co-managers for Wolfman Jack at that
time. We completed our business and I flew back to Atlanta.
Several weeks later Dennis called me on the phone and said
that he and Don had disagreed with how to handle Wolfman’s
career; thus, he had left as co-manager. I liked him from
our LA meeting, and asked if he might have an idea of
something we could do together. He was well connected in
Hollywood. He flew to Atlanta and we discussed forming a
company called Ads for Movies, Inc. Dennis had worked on the
first American Graffiti movie (Wolfman was one of the stars
of it), and he thought that between Burkhart/Abrams
research, station contacts, and on air production skills
that we could create promotion concepts for movies to be
released.
So we leased a small office on Wilshire in Beverly Hills,
and we were officially in business. Dennis took me to meet
Ned Tanen who was president of Universal. Ned liked the
idea, and assigned us to work with his promotion department.
Dennis also took me to see other movie executives and
producers.
Our first assignment was a movie to be released starring
Richard Pryor and the Pointer Sisters called Car Wash.
After previewing the movie, I knew it was for us because of
its music soundtrack that offered perfect music for radio
commercials. I asked some of our consulting guys about the
voice for the commercials. As I recall we used Sonny Fox who
was then working in Philadelphia radio who did a great job
on them. Then, we advised our client on which stations to
buy advertising, the frequency, dayparts, etc. Car Wash was
a financial success, much better than our client had
anticipated. The buzz about Ads for Movies, Inc was heard in
Hollywood boardroom and bars.
Irving Azoff called. He and Bob Evans were doing a movie
called Urban Cowboy. I flew to L.A. and listened to an
incredible sound track featuring some of Irving’s clients
like the Eagles. I asked him to play the soundtrack again.
It was even better the second time!!! We got involved with
this project which was a pleasure. The ad spots for radio
contained the music from Urban Cowboy. The movie was a
smash, and of course the LP of the music was a best seller.
Dennis took me to meet Jon Peters who was co-producer of the
Eyes of Laura Mars starring Faye Dunaway. We had lunch in
his on-the-movie-set office as we discussed the movie and
our thoughts about promotion. Jon was then dating some lady
by the name of Streisand who sang the title song in the
movie which we used in the radio station ads).
Dwight Douglas from our consulting office worked on The
Rose, More American Graffiti, and Frank Langella’s
Dracula. All good movies, and Dwight did a super good
job.
We tried to be very selective about movies that we would
promote. We missed on a few, but I won’t mention their names
because the may still be rentals.
We were paid a very handsome fee. It wasn’t long before
other movie promotion people found out about our fees. They
convinced the movie companies and producers that they would
do the same work as Ad for Movies, Inc for one fourth of the
price. Saving money talks!!! We lost quite a few movie
assignments because of our high fees. We had a decision to
make. Take our profits and close the company, or continue
with lower rates. We took our profits and closed our Ads For
Movies, Inc shop. Hollywood was fun for a while.
I know because I WAS THERE!!
Next week: HOW SATELITE MUSIC NETWORK
(SMN) WAS FOUNDED/FORMED.
e-mail Kent
kent@kentburkhart.com
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