Management of Entertainers & Success Principles

 

        I might add here an important principle I learned. In show business or any endeavor as a matter of fact, publicity / advertising / promotion, does NOT come to you, you have to go to it. Unless you’re willing to make calls to the media, write letters, go on interviews, not much if anything will happen to promote your product / project or person – nothing.

 

        I’ve been involved recently with photography, hiring male models – also friends with ‘rappers.’ What dunderheads they are. They think because they’re handsome or put out good songs the world will be at their feet, but no one will not notice them unless they go out with gimmicks, promotion, & publicity stunts.

 

        The local rappers I know think because they put their music on ‘Sound cloud’ or the like they will get big outfits like Sony to discover them & give them contracts – nothing of the sort. NOBODY will notice your music on Sound cloud or any other venue, unless you GO TO THEM, demonstrate your worth, prove your value. You have to be pro active, do things, to get the big shots interested in you, you have to work at it, if not every day, a few days a week, week in, week out, month in, month out, for YEARS. Even then there’s no guarantee, but it’s a possibility you might get somewhere if you have what it takes.

 

        I have tried to explain these principles to the male models & rappers but they don’t listen. They assume that what I know applies to ‘back in the day,’ but today is DIFFERENT in their field of music or modeling. It’s the same world of promotion today as it was a hundred years ago; nothing has changed but the technology. Barnum & Bailey was no different, Sol Hurok Presents was no different, the Great Caruso did the same thing a rapper or model has to do today – if you don’t talk to the media, no one knows who you are, no audience, no promotion, no star.

 

        And now hear this – you need a manager. If you don’t have a manager who knows what to do or how to do it, you must do it yourself – like I did – & it takes work, guts, dedication, you put your nose to the grindstone, & it never ends, if you stop, it stops – no more publicity.

 

        And as far as manager – why would someone take you on when you’re a nobody, who isn’t making any money, & you can’t pay them? Patrick Curtis took on two different women. The first was Raquel Welch. She was a beautiful nobody, but what she gave him was herself – they got married & worked as a team full time, with a plan. They got her on magazine covers in Europe, which was a start; her foot was in the Hollywood door.

 

        After Raquel was launched he got with Linda Evans, moved her career upwards in ‘middle age’ {star of Dynasty}. They got married, so that was the deal.

 

{Patrick Curtis saw me in a beauty contest in Hollywood where I won ‘Most Voluptuous, wanted to get involved, but at that time I was on another project.}

 

My point here is what would you give a manager? Why would a manager want to manage you, to get what? Unless you are sexually involved, romantic or very friendly, they look only to earning potential. You have to be earning bread & they get some, so if you don’t have anything SELL-ABLE, why would someone spend FULL TIME WORK ‘managing’ you?

 

One of my webmen earlier had managed a band. He knocked himself out getting them gigs. The lead was his friend & was grateful, but the other guys said, why should we pay him, when we do the work? My webby quit, & when he did, no more jobs, the band evaporated.

 

                It’s Not Who You Know, it’s Who You Blow

 

Another factor is COOPERATION. If the client doesn’t LISTEN to the manager, they can’t be managed – they won’t succeed. I tried to manage my beloved friend, Yolanda. I got her a photographer – he cajoled her number out of her & took images – all were too dark. {Don’t deal with the men you meet directly, your manager has to do all the contacts. Every man you meet alone will want monkey business, not only for females but males as well.} I got her into a BEAUTY CONTEST where I made sure she got an EXCLUSIVE AWARD – called ‘Most Radiant Health’ given by Yours Truly. Then the big break was I got her a part in a RUSS MEYER MOVIE. She screwed that up by letting him come to her apartment! After entertaining Mr. Meyer home alone, the deal fell apart – not sure why – & I gave up trying to manage Yolanda FOR FREE.

 

Like I said, the BIGGEST NO NO is personal contact with the employer – they will jump on your belly & fill you with jelly – they come & they go. It will be a BUST – most appointments I went on without the management were wrestling matches, after which the guys would admit there was no part anyway, or they gave it to someone else already, or after you win the fight they tell you you aren’t right for the part after all{the usual bullcrap.}

 

That being said, sometimes YOU HAVE TO GET LAID to get to the top – sorry to have to admit that – as they say, ‘It’s not who you know, it’s who you blow.’ Many of the greatest stars, like ‘the King’ – Clark Gable – had to have PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS with their coaches / managers. Mr. Gable had an older female who taught him everything he knew, including speaking in a lower register. {I saw one of his early pics where his voice was too high.} Sadly, Carole Lombard cut into a dance of him & his dowdy wife & stole him away. But the Universe paid her back, her life was stolen in an airplane accident.}

 

It’s well known that Marilyn Monroe slept with some men to further her career. That would definitely be in the beginning – once you become a star you call the shots, they need you, they can’t mess with you. It’s a Universal truth – people who are on your ladder to succeed will DEMAND SEX. It’s a grueling fact, Raquel Welch said every appt she went on was the same. I would say 99%, there were 1 out of 100 there was no harassment.

 

Understand this – It’s only the SERIOUS RELATIONSHIPS with that person/s who actually guarantees you help that you put out to. If you gave it to every Tom, Dick & Harry – most of which ‘jobs’ don’t pan out, you’ll feel used up & washed out, it’ll be degradation for nothing, it will hurt your self esteem / morale. This applies to men as well as women; I’ve spoken to about 100 male models for hours with all the scams they got put through & the sex demands.

 

Btw every photographer of males is GAY – or at least bisexual – it’s all about sex, there’s scarcely any commercial work being done, a straight male would find it REPULSIVE to shoot sexy pictures of men. Most of the male photographers offer male models ‘trade’ but when they work, they GET MONEY FOR THE SEX. That was a secret it took me YEARS to discover when I was on ‘Model May Stay.’

 

When Elvis Presley met Col. Tom Parker, one of the greatest managers of all time, he was already a rock n’ roll star, he had hits – ‘That’s Alright Mama,’ ‘Hound Dog’, ‘Don’t be Cruel’ & ‘Blue Suede Shoes.’ He was a SMASH wherever he went. Col. Parker could see he had what it takes, & he, with Sen Hubert Humphrey, called himself one of the ‘snowmen’ – which meant he could con, persuade, manage anyone into anything. He took him on for money; he led him to the top, for 50%. And so, to get a manager you either have to give yourself to them or lots of money or BOTH, but if you don’t have what it takes – even with a good manager, how do you become a star?

 

Only one model listened to me, back in the time of 2012 to 2017 when I worked male models. I never met him – we spoke on the phone. We had two convos totaling EIGHT HOURS, during which I explained the principles of show biz success. He had ambition, desire, what it takes, he was gorgeous. He did have some drawbacks, but they were not huge & he was willing to what he had to. He got to the top of the modeling world with work for RALPH LAUREN. You don’t go any higher.

 

The rest of the models & rappers haven’t listened, & they aren’t getting anywhere. They think my advise doesn’t apply to them, they can make it in their own way, today is different. But as I said, the principles of promotion are always the same. Anna Pavlova the ballerina & Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale, were promoted by Sol Hurok, the same way then as now. Eugene Sandow, World’s Strongest Man, was promoted in the media same as today. He was a counterpart of La Belle Otero, a singer-dancer who had 5 kings of Europe seated at her 30^th birthday table, where she danced naked atop the table. Josephine Baker, the black vaudeville star who made it big in Europe, made it the same way everyone else did – through the media. There is nothing new under the sun.

 

Let me just add this. Yes, I called the Press, which any stripper could have done. But WHY did they come out to interview me? Because I did something NO STRIPPER HAD EVER DONE, I worked for God when I danced, in 90% of the clubs I gave ACTUAL SERMONS before or after the act. When I could not preach, I would pray with the customers between shows – one time I saved a guy from SUICIDE. Let me digress:

 

        The Man I Saved from Suicide

       

        Did you ever see a person kill themselves? I did. It happened when I was working in Montreal.

 

        I was standing at the Metro station waiting for the next train, when lo & behold, a young man to the left of me jumped onto the tracks, just as a train came & barreled over him. Everyone – I mean everyone –jumped back but me. I stood there staring, trying to comprehend what happened.

 

        A police officer came & singled me out to give the ‘deposition’ – which is an eyewitness account – not sure why he chose me, I guess someone told him I didn’t jump back but stood & stared, so I went to the office there underground & made out the document.

 

        I was upset by this incident, however, & the next day I went to the office & inquired why the man had killed himself, did they know? The officer told me the man had a relationship with the guy standing next to him & he told him,

 

        ‘If you don’t tell me you love me, I’m going to jump on the track & kill myself,’

 

        The man said nothing, so the guy jumped. The officer told me he did have some mental problems. I was deeply saddened.

 

        After that I prayed sincerely, ‘God, let me save a man from suicide to make up for this.’

 

        Some time later I was working in Washington DC, the second gig there, when a young man approached me for prayer. He said,

 

        “I have lost my job, then my girlfriend, I want to kill myself, pray for me.’

 

        I held his hands & prayed for 20 minutes. When finished I asked him how he felt, he said,

 

        “I don’t want to kill myself any more.”

 

        Suddenly I remembered my prayer. God answered it.