A Travelin' Man

"When I Stop Taling, You'll Know I'm Dead - Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man" by Jerry Weintraub with Rich Cohen Twelve 291 pages $25.99

Weintraub's wheeling and dealing began with his first business. He saw a late afternoon rush at the dry cleaners next door in the Bronx when commuters poured in to get their clothes. He went to the owner and asked if he could deliver the garments so that the commuters could just go home and relax before their dinners. The owner shrugged and said "Why not?" Weintraub then annexed the delivery business at the next door laundry. He did so well he had to farm out some of the work to his younger brother. He was 14 or 15.

Weintraub, as a promoter, represented Frank Sinatra (and hung out with the Rat Pack) as well as Elvis Presley - the Colonel and Weintraub picked the venues. He "invented" John Denver, traveled with Armand Hammer (always in a private plane - a control issue with Hammer) to Russia and China. He played golf with George Bush, got Barbara Bush to appear in a movie...

But the book is not just a collection of names with "my best friend (insert star name)" or "my dearest love" Weintraub offers sound business advice at the end of many of the chapters. "Packaging" is key to presenting a person, an act, a movie script -- it's all in the story behind the presentation material.

It was a good book, funny and insightful, and as a former PR person I was aghast at some of the stuff he pulled off. Example: a rock band wanted more and bigger speakers! or they wouldn't play. Weintraub got a bunch of paper boxes, had them spray painted black and put them en masse up on the stage. The band was thrilled and said they'd never had a sound so good.

Blog #800