Bobby Zarem

Zarem's first job in show business began at Columbia Artists Management, a job that lasted five years.[11] Zarem noticed that he had an affinity for public relations and artist promotion, and began his career as a PR agent under producer Joseph E. Levine in 1968. Zarem became an agent by accident. The company had seventeen minutes of the film The Lion in Winter starring Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. Though Zarem had been working for the company in a business capacity, he invited a number of his friends to watch the preview of the film, a group which included some journalists. When articles on the movie began to appear in publication, Zarem realized he had become a PR agent. Levine later made him head of magazine publicity.[12]

Zarem moved on to the PR firm Rogers & Cowan in 1969.[11] There he served some of his first A-list clients, including Ann-Margret and Dustin Hoffman.[1] He began handwriting long, personalized pitch letters and press releases that became industry legend.[5] In 1974, Zarem started his own agency: Zarem, Inc. He promoted Tommy which premiered in the West 57th Street subway station in front of hundreds of prominent New York socialites.[1] He earned the nickname Superflack at a party he threw for Stevie Wonder in the late 1970s. Mick Jagger and New York Times reporter Judy Klemesrud were standing by the elevator waiting to leave when Wonder finally showed up. Zarem reprimanded Wonder for tardiness in front of Klemesrud. She deemed him "Superflack", which was later popularized in a profile on Zarem in Newsweek.[13]

Aside from his press releases, Zarem frequently promoted films. He would call outlets and say that films reeked of Oscar, threatening to kill himself if the outlet refused to write a piece for him.[14] He regularly worked fourteen hour days, had a notoriously short temper, and was known to hold grudges.[15] Publicist Peggy Siegal long insisted he had thrown a typewriter across a desk at her for incorrectly taking down a phone message. He denied the charge by pointing out how difficult it would have been to miss her with such a large instrument at such close range.[1]

Zarem was credited with having helped save Saturday Night Fever from obscurity. Though Paramount and Robert Stigwood had hired Zarem to publicize the movie, they expected the movie to flop and did not let Zarem send promotional pictures to media outlets. But several magazines were already eager for material on the film and when Martha Duffy, art editor for Time, asked Zarem how soon he could get her pictures, he stormed the Paramount office. Saturday Night Fever's marketing director refused to give Zarem any pictures, so Zarem pushed the marketing director onto a couch and rushed across the hall to the art department, absconding with six color negatives that he sent to The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, and People.[16]

Arnold Schwarzenegger owed Zarem for his success. Zarem had watched an early screening of the documentary, Pumping Iron, starring the then-unknown Schwarzenegger. Zarem secured the documentary's first national coverage on his own initiative and was hired to promote the film. At Schwarzenegger's request, Zarem scheduled a meeting between Schwarzenegger and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. A picture from the meeting gained significant media attention and earned Schwarzenegger a spot on 60 Minutes, cementing his fame.[1] Schwarzenegger and Zarem would collaborate again on the Planet Hollywood restaurant franchise in the early 1990s. Schwarzenegger was one of the principal celebrity investors; Zarem, who had previously promoted the Hard Rock Café, was hired to promote the new restaurant chain. Zarem claimed that he came up with idea to make Planet Hollywood a national chain, conceived the signature aesthetic of the restaurants, and put together its financiers, Keith Barish and Robert Earl. But he ultimately feuded with Barish and Earl over credit, and parted company a year later.[17]

Throughout the 1970s, 1980s. and 1990s, Zarem would promote the films Tommy, Saturday Night Fever, The China Syndrome, Rambo, Scarface, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and Dances With Wolves.[16] By the turn of the century, his fees were among the highest in the industry, estimated to be upwards of $10,000 a month per client.[5]

In 1994, Zarem was sent 10 copies of John Behrendt's true crime book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by the publisher, Random House, in hopes that he would spread the word to his contacts in Savannah, where the book is set.[18] The book quickly became a hit in the city. Zarem wrote an item for Neil Travis's column in the New York Post about the stir the book caused, which he said secured the book's international bestseller status. The book went on to break sales records for the non-fiction novel genre, spending 216 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.[19] Today Savannah enjoys tourists drawn to the city by the book and its landmarks, and there are many options for guided tours of the locations immortalized in the book.[20]

Zarem conceived the public relations for I Love New York campaign and helped in its development. On a Saturday in 1975, Zarem was walking home from Elaine's Restaurant on Second Avenue in Manhattan, and realized "you could have rolled a coin down the street and nobody would have stopped it. The city was dying. Something had to be done." Distraught by the decline of New York's reputation as a cultural hub and declining Broadway ticket sales. William Doyle hired Zarem and brought on the advertising agency Wells Rich Greene to implement his ideas for the television campaign starring Broadway stars, which ended up helping turn around tourism for the city. Governor Hugh Carey ultimately raised $16 million for the campaign and when it proved a success, New York mayor Ed Koch started claiming credit for the slogan, as did Wells Rich Greene. But Zarem insisted that, other than the iconic heart-shaped logo designed by Milton Glaser, he was responsible for the campaign.[1]

Before she met Zarem, Denise Rich had primarily been known as the wife of disgraced commodities trader Marc Rich, who had been accused of owing millions of dollars to the United States government and fled the country for Switzerland. Baby Jane Holzer introduced Denise Rich to Zarem in 1991, hoping that Zarem could help Rich crawl out from the shadow of her ex-husband and gain recognition as a songwriter. Zarem and Rich grew close and he helped her in her career which allowed her to become more known on the New York social scene.[21]

When Rich got involved in the Democratic Party and began donating hundreds of thousands of dollars, critics accused her of angling for a pardon for Marc. These critics believed Zarem was masterminding her campaign. Zarem denied this accusation, citing his life-long support of the Democratic party and insisting that his only motive was to sway Rich to support causes he cared for.[21]

These charges peaked in January 2001, when President Bill Clinton issued a number of pardons on his last day in office, including one for Marc. Zarem dismissed claims that Denise had taken any direct action to bring about Marc's pardon. Days later, news broke that Denise had written a letter to Bill Clinton asking for clemency for Marc, contradicting what Zarem had been telling the press (and what Denise had told Zarem). Zarem claimed that it was he who exaggerated Denise's surprised reaction into a denial, but when Denise invoked the Fifth Amendment at a congressional hearing, many in the press portrayed Zarem as duped by Denise.[21]

In 1998, the Savannah Film Festival was a year old and based at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) when Zarem took over its program, a job he would maintain until 2013. Every year, the festival honors excellence in film and rewards prizes to nurture young talent. Zarem was responsible for drawing A-list names to the event and often met with SCAD students in an advisory capacity. In 2010, Zarem moved back to Savannah and received the festival's Lifetime Achievement Award.[22]