Word: maney
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Last week Dick Maney was living a pressagent's dream: he was handling six shows at once* four more than any other press agent, and all that the Theatrical Managers, Agents & Treasurers Union allows. His factory was going full blast under strict union rules: he had hired an assistant as soon as he handled two shows; a second assistant as soon as he handled four; a third when he handled six. His helpers were getting a total of $275 a week; he, a minimum of $625 and very likely about...
...Dick Maney's personality stands forth in the rackety, sulfurous, epithet-crawling style, "as distinctive as the Dietrich limbs," of his press stories. But it is his walking & talking personality that has put Maney on top. He scorns the usual props: high-pressuring, dancing attendance on people, buttering his employers. Instead, he hobnobs as an amusing guy with hundreds of people of all kinds, while through the years he has won and held the confidence of editors...
...press, but to its producer he never offers a word of unsolicited advice. And the producer-the man who pays him-comes first, last & always with him. Composer Dick Rodgers once asked him: "Is it a secret that I am writing the music for this show?" Retorted Maney: "It's Billy Rose who is handing out the pay." He says himself that a press agent should have the face of a cherub and the heart of a section foreman...
...Maney insists that, however spectacular publicity may look, it is actually nine parts routine. Before a show opens, it is almost automatic. He begins by announcing the production, follows up with announcements about who is in the cast, who is directing, what the play is about, where it will tryout, when it will open. With luck, that produces ten unpaid advertisements. His first real chance to prove his worth comes in landing big advance stories in the Sunday papers. At such times his only task is selling the editor his idea for a story. Once the idea is sold, Maney...
...show opens a hit, Maney can choose his spots, reserve good stories for the big papers. With a flop, veterans like Maney don't try pleading or high-pressuring. They think fast and try stunts. Publicity stunts have turned many a tide. Anna Held's fame dates chiefly from her milk baths. Belasco strewed tanbark outside a theatre, ostensibly to cushion street noises, actually to start people talking. Lions have been let loose in hotel bedrooms, Ziegfeld girls have marched to New York's City Hall in tights...