By John Donovan
Some of the interesting people with whom we had business dealings on behalf of our sales promotion ideas company, Don Marketing.
Our first business foray into the United States was in 1979 when we met at the New York Hilton with Bertrand M. Fainberg, Director of Business Affairs at ABC Television Network.
While on that same visit to NY, we also met with NBC Entertainment President, Myron “Mike” Weinblatt (left).
My colleague Don Redhead and I made a presentation to him and the full board of NBC (with the exception of Fred Silverman) at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York.
Also present; Irwin S. Segelstein (President NBC Television) and W Watts Biggers (Buck Biggers – shown right) NBC VP Advertising & Promotions ( a famous American novelist and co-creator of the long-running animated television series Underdog.
Our first meeting was with Buck Biggers was in April 1979.
During that same period, we also had a business relationship with Steve Sohmer when he was a CBS VP under Bob Daley, the then President of CBS Entertainment. Following a response CBS Letter 2 Aug 1979, I had several meetings with Steve in Los Angels at CBS Studio City and also in New York. In partnership with CBS, we put a joint proposal to Safeway Supermarkets in the USA. The initial letter from CBS was copied to two other CBS VP’s, Donn O’Brien and David Fuchs.
I also had a meeting with Robert Hoskins, President of CBS Radio Division, at his New York apartment.
This was quickly followed by meetings with James H. Rosenfield the President of CBS TV Network. The first was an early morning meeting at CBS NY HQ known as Black Rock. My colleague Don Redhead and I were served breakfast by his butler. Mr. Rosenfield kindly arranged for us to meet later the same day with Walter Yetnikoff, the then President of CBS Records. Also present at the meeting was a gentleman whose name I do not recall who was the then President of Columbia House, another division of CBS.
A letter from Steve Sohmer to John Donovan dated 13 March 1980 confirms a payment from CBS to Don Marketing.
When Steve Sohmer switched to NBC TV as a senior VP, I had lunch with him at the Ritz Hotel in London.
My colleague John Chambers later assisted him with an introduction to a BBC TV contact as NBC was interested in a game show format presented by Bob Monkhouse.
The eventual outcome of all the discussions involving numerous lawyers and law firms was that I signed an agreement for a joint NBC/Don Marketing project with Ray Timothy, President of NBC Television.
Steve Sohmer later became president and CEO of Columbia Pictures. He is now a Shakespearean scholar.
Lars H Lenck, President of Don Marketing USA, a former Chevron executive, was also involved in the negotiations with NBC. We also had dealings with Stephen F Stander, a senior NBC lawyer who later became NBC Senior Vice President: law.
Steve Sohmer NBC Senior VP
Irwin Segelstein, Chairman/President NBC TV
Obituary: Myron Weinblatt (76) former president of NBC Entertainment and one of the first network executives to move into cable TV as president of Showtime in 1980. Weinblatt (right) was president of Multimedia Entertainment Inc. and spearheaded the 1983 merger of Showtime with The Movie Channel Inc., creating a cable company second only to HBO. He died of Alzheimer’s disease in New York City on August 18, 2005.
Interview with Jim Rosenfield at the Media Legends Dinner on June 6th, 2013.
His business card when Don Redhead and I met Mr Rosenfield on 24 July 1979
James H. Rosenfield 1985
Also met with Bertrand M. Fainberg, Director of Business Affairs at ABC Television Network.
Business card given to us by Mr Fainberg when we had dinner with him at the New York Hilton.
Another article about Robert L. Hosking. President of the CBS Radio Division.
The CBS-Broadcast Group announced Monday Robert L. Hosking has…
Business Card for our NY lawyers: DIFALCO AMHURST SMITHSON TANNENBAUM & DUVAL: 605 THIRD AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10016
Believe, but not confirmed, that this New York Times notice relates to the same gentleman – Neil H. Millman, who represented Don Marketing alongside his colleague Samuel Tannenbaum, in the negotiations with NBC.
Last but not least, the business card of the late great Richard Kane, co-founder of Marden-Kane, Inc. A sales promotions and marketing company. Took us many times for lunch at the Friar’s Club in New York City. Non-stop jokes from an avid admirer of Benny Hill. My memory, perhaps faulty, is that he always dressed in light-coloured suits like an entertainer, which he certainly was. He always insisted on paying. Nothing but fond memories of him and his enthusiasm for innovative sales promotion campaigns.
So good to see his photograph and article about him all these years later. It confirms that my memory of Dick Kane is correct.
JIM CLARKE OF ZETTERS FOOTBALL POOLS
Another good man that we had business dealings with in 1967 and again from 1979 onwards, was Mr Jim Clarke (now deceased) for many years Managing Director of Zetters Football Pools in the UK. He was subsequently awarded the British Empire Medal for his services to sport. Clarke, James Dudley Henderson, BEM, Chair, London Marathon. For serv Sport. (James Dudley Henderson Clarke) He was also honoured with an OBE.
From an article published in The Times on 10 Sept 2012
James Clarke: Executive at the Zetters Pools company whose organisational flair brought order to the chaos of the London Marathon’s entry system FULL ARTICLE
Former London Marathon chairman Clarke dies
By Mike Rowbottom
September 16 – Jim Clarke, who served as chairman of the London Marathon from 1995 to 2009 and was instrumental in setting up the entry system for the first event in 1981, has died at the age of 89. Clarke (pictured), who was awarded the OBE and BEM, had also been a trustee of the London Marathon Charitable Trust since 1987… FULL ARTICLE