H&R Block Grand Openings Nashville 2004-05

A project that I managed for the Momentum Agency. It required localizing a national program that would draw attention to the grand openings of thirteen H&R Block offices. I created a wide variety of events to accomplish this goal. Crime Dog McGruff was at Green Hills and Clifton to create ID's for the kids. Spiderman dropped down in Brentwood with cake and cookies. Jon Byrd and Suzanna Spring performed country music at the Oakwood Commons office. The Kats cheerleaders handed out photos in Smyrna. DJ Mindub entertained the crowd at the downtown office in the Arcade. Professional and college basketball players Ashley McElhiney, Dontae Jones and Adam Sonn were in Inglewood and the Heritage office to discuss hoops. The H&R Block staff were excited with the variety of events, the media attention and increase in business.

Bud Light Party Passport Nashville 2000

The Entertainment Marketing Agency contracted me to plan, manage and document the Bud Light Party Passport program. I managed a crew of ten during a three month period. We created Bud Light Passports in Nashville area bars. The crew gave away prizes to the winners of the games that were held in the venues. A Final Draw Party was held at the conclusion of the twelve weeks. The headliner was Better Than Ezra. The passports were the contestants entry into the party and a contest for a trip to Hawaii. I transformed the Boundary parking lot into a beach complete with sand, palm trees and tiki torches. The events were coordinated with a variety of radio stations, Budweiser staff and the regional beer distributor. The final draw party had 1500 in attendance and Ajax-Turner, distributor of Budweiser, was extremely pleased with the results. 

Classical KXTR 1995-1996

I turned the fine arts community upside down in Kansas City with my events at KXTR. The greatest event was getting the Kansas City Symphony to Kauffman Stadium on Memorial Day for a performance after the Royals baseball game. I created a contest for the first pitch. The KXTR listeners could purchase seats in the KXTR section and enjoy the game with the station air staff. The Kansas City Royals played against the Detroit Tigers with 25,000 in attendance. I always created an added value event to merge advertisers and non-profit arts organizations. Singles parties before symphony concerts or after show parties for listeners and advertisers at ballet, art exhibits, or designer showcases. The composer birthdays were created to generate new advertisers; classical musicians in a coffee house on Bach's birthday with Bachs lunches. There was no place I was not afraid to take classical music. Station ratings and revenue were increased as a result of my efforts. Check out the logo I created for the staff polo shirts. 

Luxury Theaters 1986-1989

In 1986 I joined up with Tom Moyer's Luxury Theater chain as the Film Buyer of Specialty Films. It was here that I supervised the advertising and management for the Lloyd Cinemas Art House, The Guild Theater and The Hollywood Theater. I brought in The Last Emperor for the Lloyd Art House. It has only 200 seats and the film was so successful that we had to move it to the largest auditorium. In the Guild Theater I put Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing where is played for three months. And I put Action Jackson in the Hollywood Theater where it broke box office records.  Bill Forsyth's Housekeeping was booked in the Lloyd Art House where it sold out all Christmas dates. 

I programmed one screen at the Hollywood Theater into a rep house. This required booking a variety of films that changed every two days. I designed the calendar that displayed the movie title graphics and a synopsis of upcoming films.

And long before Starbucks, I placed an espresso bar at the entrance to the Lloyd Art House. The Lloyd Art House was located inside the 10 screen multiplex known as the Lloyd Cinemas. This was the company's first coffee bar. I had five screens at Luxury Theaters that I was responsible for buying and booking the films, negotiating the advertising with the film companies and the Portland media, along with supervising the managers and staff of each venue. 

The Movie House 1981-1986

The Portland Movie House was owned by the Seattle-based Seven Gables Theater company. This company pioneered grassroots marketing for specialty films. Examples of their success were demonstrated by the ad campaigns for the films Harold and Maude and King of Hearts. Their programming endeared the Portland movie audiences to the Movie House with its quaint art deco style and friendly staff. In the late 1970's this started to wane. Partly, because Seven Gables added a three-screen house that competed with its other venues and the programming was recycling the same film genres. 

My goal was to return the Portland Movie House to its place as the leader in exhibition of challenging, fun and exciting films. I did this by moving away from French comedies to films that reached out to a broader audience. And I set up events to involve a greater variety of Portland's non-profit organizations. There were benefits for theater groups, non-commercial radio stations, political organizations, and I brought in comedians to entertain the audience before the films started. 

The films I brought in to great success were Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander, Das Boot, The Grey Fox, Blood Simple, The Big Chill, Kurosawa's Ran, the Alfred Hitchcock reissues of his 1950's films - The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rope, Rear Window, & Vertigo, Abel Gance's Napoleon, and the Eric Rohmer films including Pauline At The Beach. 

The Movie House was involved every year with the presentation of the Portland International Film Festival with the Northwest Film Studies Center. It was essential to program the festival with rare and exciting films. And the Portland International Film Festival was our tool for the launching of the next year's new releases. 

I was responsible for the management of the Portland Movie House. This was a daily process of staffing, inventory, payroll, maintenance, and establishing the very finest of customer service. My staff had fifteen minutes to serve 400 patrons every two hours per weekend. I staffed the venue with an unique group of personalities. I wanted a staff that customers would enjoy conversing with in their fifteen minutes. 

KQFM 1978-1980

The radio market in Portland during this period was highly competitive. KQFM was up against KGON with the same format and the highly rated KGW AM with Top 40 hits. I had to build audience, re-enforce the station image and generate revenue with added-value promotions. I worked to combine any two or all three. The slide show lists a sample of events. There were additional weekly events in nightclubs, restaurants and monthly events at retail outlets. My favorite events were the Devo costume contest at the Paramount theater lobby and the Pat Travers Band racing listeners and staff at the Malibu Grand Prix go kart track. 

Moyer Theaters Events 1976-1978

The Moyer Theater chain comprised of movie theaters in Portland, Salem, Eugene, additional Oregon cites and Vancouver, WA. I helped Roger Paulson with the marketing, publicity, promotion, ad placement and event management for most of these theaters. It was small events and big events. The movies were the latest Hollywood blockbusters or small releases. The China Syndrome with Michael Douglas, we did the premiere with KGW AM radio. Once it was the top station in Portland. I contacted JK Gill Books about giving me the window to promote the movie. Longhair Records gave me their window for a display on Dawn of the Dead. The staff at the Town Center theater dressed dead for the event. Russ Meyer and his latest starlet showed up for the premiere of Beneath The Valley Of The Ultravixens at the Bagdad Theater. Gary Busey met with the Portland media to talk about The Buddy Holly Story. Lynn-Holly Johnson came to the Lloyd Center ice rink to promote Ice Castles. I set up a boxing ring for Rocky II in front of the Rose Moyer Theater. We showed the movie Nightwing outside in Delta park. Janet Leigh and her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, came to town to promote The Fog.

Fifth Ave Cinema 1976-1977

I managed and helped with booking at the Fifth Avenue Cinema in Portland, OR. The theater was a two screener owned by Moyer Theaters. We showed art films and competed with the Portland Movie House. My staff was great and I can find some references to support this claim. I brought the Werner Herzog films to the Fifth Avenue. We had the midnight movies every Friday and Saturday with KGON FM for 92 cents. The radio station FM frequency is at 92. Again - name and dial reinforcement for Arbitron ratings. Each weekend my staff rallied to support me against 400 drunk and stoned patrons. After all it was midnight on weekends in a town that did not offer much to do for those under 21. We were the show! My first midnight movie was Pink Floyd at Pompeii. Sold out and turned away another 200 patrons. We used one print for two auditoriums and I had just learned the process of running the film in sync. I started the film and it broke. Oh no! I was scared. I spliced the film together and pushed the correct switch. I figured it out.

We had great runs with Bertolucci's 1900, Kentucky Fried Movie, Pretty Baby, Eraserhead, The Marquise Of O, and Desperate Living. We had a not so great run of the Rocky Horror Picture show. One great midnight show and the Clinton Street picked it up and held on to it for 200 years or so. John Cassavetes came there for A Woman Under The Influence and Joan Rivers for her film called Rabbit Test, Darcelle for Mae West's last film Sextette. The theater had great tunnel vision. And we showed that too -Tunnel Vision. You don't want to know. We had a great Christmas run with the French film The Toy. As evidenced by the promotion we did with KINK FM. We collected toys at the galleria for kids and gave tickets away in exchange.

The Film Committee at Portland State University 1975

I was a member of the Film Committee at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. This was around my attendance at PSU - 1975 through 1976. Film was a mission that I latched on to. Independent film was making waves across the country. I happened on the films of Jean- Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Louis Malle, Claude Chabrol from France, Akira Kurosawa from Japan, Ousmane Sembene from Sengal,  Satyajit Ray from India and from Germany- R.W. Fassbinder and Werner Herzog.  The Film Board pioneered the release of John Cassavetes' films in the Portland market- A Woman Under The Influence, Faces and Husbands and Wives.

The Film Committee presented A Woman Under The Influence for its first public showing, along with other pioneering films - Distant Thunder, Every Man For Himself, God Against All (The Story of Kaspar Hauser), and a tribute to the French New Wave. The French New Wave series was followed by a series tribute to French filmmaker Louis Malle. 

Each quarter the chair of the Film Board rotated to a different member. Upon my ascendancy I launched an ambitious tribute to the then current filmmakers of Germany; Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders and Volker Schlondorff. Many of these films were new releases and had yet to play in venues outside of New York City. Fassbinder made two or three films per year and had accumulated about 12 movies by that time. Their styles were different, they were bold and their films challenged the viewer. 

The German New Wave series included Ali:Fear Eats The Soul, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Beware Of A Holy Whore, and Effi Briest - all by Fassbinder. Even Dwarfs Started Small, Signs of Life, Fata Morgana, Land of Silence and Darkness and The Great Ecstasy of Walter Steiner by Werner Herzog. Kings of The Road, The Goalie's Anxiety At The Penalty Kick, Alice In The Cities, Summer In The City and The Wrong Move by Wim Wenders. 

My efforts in booking and publicizing this series led to commercial runs for these filmmakers earlier and subsequent films in Portland and Seattle. Most of these films were leased from New Yorker Films, which sadly and recently, went out of business. 

My inspiration and passion was ignited by Andries Deinum. Andries taught film appreciation at PSU. He was engaging and challenging. He screened us Joris Ivens, Eisenstein, Kurosawa, Bresson, and his favorite Yasujiro Ozu. Andries had a lot of passion for film and we carried that passion on through the Film Committee.

WYSO FM Yellow Springs Ohio 1970 to 1972

It was 1970 that I started as an on-air announcer for the non-commercial FM radio station WYSO. The radio station was largely funded by Antioch College, a private liberal arts college. This six hours of excitement was titled The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show and I had it free and clear, weekend after weekend.  No college student was going to get up early to do radio show on a Saturday morning.  I insured my time slot because I was also the engineer for the Metropolitan Opera. The Met was on every Saturday at 2PM. In 1970 there was no radio station located in southwest Ohio that played rock and roll. So I mixed in the latest releases with a mixture of blues, country, bluegrass, some folk and occasional electronic music. 

My volunteer work at the station included audio production. The station staff taught me how to produce audio documentaries. We used reel-to-reel tape and edited with a razor blade. I helped out with the station marathons. Our pitch to raise money to cover the budget that the college could not cover. The station was 750 watts in Mono when we I started and eventually went to some 6000 watts stereo. That was a big deal!

The Grateful Dead sent us tapes of live shows to raise money for the station. Rod Serling was an Antioch alum. He called in to read one of his stories for donations. John Fahey came by the station one Saturday morning. That was the first time that I met him. He performed live and left the station copies of his albums, along with albums by Leo Kottke and Peter Lang. 

It was a fun time. I was still in high school while I was doing all of this. Poco played an outdoor show on campus because Richie Furay was from Yellow Springs, Ohio. The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return To Forever each did shows in the campus auditorium. It is just all memories now.