In association with Pump Up Your Book! Virtual Book Publicity Tours, Jersey Girl Book Reviews welcomes Charles Barrett and Barbara Wall of The Barrett Company!
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Hollywood Daze
My Days on “Tonight” with Newcomer Jay Leno
By Hollywood book publicist Charlie Barrett of The Barrett Company
Long before I became a book publicist…I was Jay Leno’s very first publicist at NBC’s
“Tonight Show” when he was named guest host in 1987 for Mr. Johnny Carson. In those days of my career in Hollywood, I served as the network’s staff PR director for
“Tonight.” Monday was Mr. Johnny Carson’s day-off from the “Tonight Show” and for years NBC had numerous guest hosts “fill in” for Johnny. In 1987, Jay shared the duties as “temp” Monday night guest host with Gary Shandling (“The Larry Sanders Show”) -- after the abrupt departure of Joan Rivers, who for years was the show’s permanent Monday night guest host.
Lately, I have been reading and re-reading Jay’s most popular book, “Leading With My Chin.” It is a very funny, curious and sometimes painfully honest account of his early life in Massachusetts, his parents and how he made it big in the entertainment biz after years and years of struggling. For a good read I totally recommend this book (with co-author Bill Zehme) from Harper Collins publishers. See www.amazon.com for copies.
I found Jay in those late 1980’s days at NBC to be very easy going, always eager and ready to do whatever media interviews I asked him to do. That worked out well for me since Mr. Carson rarely did any media interviews whatsoever. Jay was as quick-witted as they come and, as many of you may recall, a comic Mr. Carson invited on the show many times before he became a guest host. Jay’s wry and sharp-witted sense of humor that he has developed so well over the years has served him well as evidenced by his continued long run and late night popularity as host of “Tonight.”
When Mr. Carson retired, Jay assumed the late night throne on “Tonight” in 1992. Jay eagerly invited my new PR client - Mr. Ed McMahon - on the show in 1993, just before Ed and I were scheduled to cross the USA in Ed’s specially-equipped tour bus to publicize his series “Star Search” which was produced at Walt Disney World in Orlando. Jay was so gracious, warm, respectful and hospitable to Ed that day when he returned to
“Tonight.” Ed even started to tear-up a bit, since the last time he sat in that “famous chair” next to “the desk” was the night of May 22, 1992 when he and Mr. Carson bid their audience good-bye after nearly 30 years at NBC. Since those days I have returned to the “Tonight Show” green room (the back stage lounge) numerous times to watch Jay and his guests even if I did not have a client with me as a billed performer.
I particularly recall one very humorous incident in 1990 with Jay. His alma mater, Emerson College sent an emissary to the show to present Jay with a citation for being a “famous alumni.” When the NBC photographer took the photo of Jay and the Emerson man for the college newspaper, Jay quipped, “My professors at Emerson told me I should forget show biz….hmmm.”
About Charles Barrett, The Barrett Company Founder
Well known, experienced, professional Hollywood book, TV and movie publicist Charlie Barrett formed The Barrett Company in 1991 as a full service publicity and media relations agency to serve books/authors/publishers, television and motion picture industry clients. The Los Angeles headquartered publicity firm offers 21st century publicity and media relations services to celebrities, authors, actors, directors, screen writers, filmmakers as well as film and television producers.
Charlie’s author clients have include LA author-screenwriter Carla Malden, author of Afterimage, Kindle’s John Locke/Lethal People, Julie Sinatra/Under my Skin, Warren Adler/War of the Roses, David R. Fett MD and Steve Langford/White Sleeper, Deby Eisenberg/Pictures of the Past, Marty Jurow/See’in Stars: A Show Biz Odyssey, actor George Kennedy/Trust Me, Peter Ford/Glenn Ford: A Life and Dr. Ken Nedd/Power Over Stress as well as many, many others.
Since it’s inception, TBC has served as publicists to such companies and celebrities as CBS, Simon & Schuster, ABC, Globe Pequot Press, Harper Collins publishers, Norton publishers, Paramount studios, Oxford University Press, PBS, Warner Brothers, American Movie Classics cable channel (Mad Men), Bravo, Life Time Television, NYU Press, Ben Bella Books, Fox Television Network, Little Brown publishers, Fox News, CNN, self-published author service firms such as Xlibris, Author House and i-Universe as well as numerous celebrities from Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon to Kevin Costner, Tatum O’Neal, Tim Curry, Martin Landau, Robert Stack, Rod Stewart, Gary Conway, Oprah Winfrey (Oprah’s Big Give television series on ABC) and numerous other stars.
Mr. Barrett started up The Barrett Company publicity firm after serving in top PR positions with the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) for more than ten years, where he was in charge of media relations for Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show and Today, among other well-known NBC shows such as Unsolved Mysteries, Fame and numerous highly-rated NBC specials, including The American Film Institute Awards and The American Movie Awards.
When earlier basing in New York City, Mr. Barrett served as a book publicist to many major publishers with publicity campaigns for a number of best-selling authors from large trade book publishers from Scribners to Random House.
Mr. Barrett has also held executive media relations posts with 20th Century Fox Film Corporation in New York and Capitol Records in Hollywood, New York and London, where he helped launch recorded music by The Beatles, The Band and many other music artists including Joe South, Freda Payne, Bobbie Gentry and Glen Campbell.
You can visit his website at www.thebarrettco.com. Visit them on Twitter at www.twitter.com/thebarrettco.
About Barbara Wall, Vice President of The Barrett Group
About The Barrett Company
The Barrett Company also assists attorneys and their clients, managing media coverage in civil and criminal cases from California to New York in both state and federal courts.
Mr. Barrett formed the firm after serving in top public relations positions with the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) for more than ten years, where he was in charge of media relations for The Tonight Show and Today, among other well-known NBC shows such as Unsolved Mysteries, Fame and numerous highly-rated NBC specials, including The American Film Institute Awards and The American Movie Awards.
Mr. Barrett has also held executive media relations posts with 20th Century Fox Film Corporation in New York and Capitol Records in Hollywood, New York and London, where he helped launch recorded music by The Beatles, The Band and many other music artists.
When earlier basing in New York City, Mr. Barrett assisted major publishers with publicity campaigns for a number of New York Times best-selling authors, serving such publishers as Scribner’s, Simon & Schuster, Norton, John Wiley & Sons, Warner Books and Golden Books, among many others.
The Barrett Company serves major publisher and self-published authors with Harper Collins, Little Brown, Penguin Press, i-Universe, Oxford University Press, Viking Press, Xlibris, Random House, Holm Press, Ben Bella Books, Author House, SMU Press, NYU Press, creating and performing a range of publicity services and media outreach for both fiction and non-fiction book releases.
Charles Barrett began his media career as a reporter with The Associated Press in New Haven, CT and later served on the editorial staffs of both The Hollywood Reporter in Los Angeles and Billboard Publications in New York. He has also authored numerous articles for magazines and newspapers on the performing arts and travel as well as appearing as a contributor on major U.S. radio talk shows discussing celebrities, films, television and books. He was voted the Book Publicist of the Year award by the Southern California Book Pub Society recently. Charles is a member of The Publishers Association of Los Angeles, The Academy of TV Arts and Sciences (Emmy Award) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (The Oscars ®).
The Barrett Company is well known and regarded among the world’s media outlets for its credibility and creativity. Through years of client assignments we have developed remarkable and successful campaigns for our wide range of authors/publishers, Hollywood creatives, companies and celebrities, which have paved the way for us to produce media, consumer and trade events of all descriptions both in the United States and overseas, from Book Expo to NATPE (the renowned annual television program executive conference) to Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, The Frankfurt Book Fair to filmdom’s Show West as well as MIP in France, The Beverly Hills Film Festival and The Cannes International Film Festival.
TBC’s experience, skills and knowledge in various professional disciplines have enabled the company to offer programs we are proud of, including trade and consumer publicity campaigns, Internet publicity campaigns, crisis communications management, new company and celebrity launches, trade show media awareness, marketing communications solutions, and consultancy to in-house publicity firms in publishing, film and television. No assignment is too big or too small. TBC possesses a keen awareness of the workings of the global media – - including but not limited to print, broadcast and digital – - and has demonstrated over the years the ability to create stunning and effective media outreach models for valued clients, be they well established, or start-ups, or beginning careers as authors and celebrities.
WIN A KINDLE FIRE!
~ ~ ~ GIVEAWAY ~ ~ ~
Pump Up Your Book and The Barrett Company are teaming up to give you a chance to win a Kindle Fire!
This giveaway is part of the Barrett Company Hollywood Publicity Tour hosted by Pump Up Your Book. There are a lot of great blogs participating in this Kindle Fire giveaway. After you enter, check out the other stops on the Barrett Company Hollywood Publicity Tour and enter there too!
Here’s how it works:
Each person will enter this giveaway by liking, following, subscribing and tweeting about this giveaway through the Rafflecopter form below.
The Kindle Fire promotion will run March 5 – 23, 2012. Winner will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter, contacted by email and announced on March 24, 2012.
To find out who else is participating and more chances to win, visit http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2012/02/09/the-barrett-company-hollywood-virtual-book-publicity-tour-march-2012-kindle-fire-giveaway/.
Contest is only open to U.S. and Canada residents.
Good luck everyone!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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