Lee Solters
Encyclopedia
Lee Solters was an American
press agent
who used his flamboyant style to represent celebrities from stage, movies and sports including 26 years with Frank Sinatra
.
, New York
on June 23, 1919 to Jewish-American parents (Jacob and Gussie), Solters attended New York University
, where he studied advertising and journalism. After being drafted into the United States Army
, he became a writer for Stars and Stripes
, the official newspaper of the United States Armed Forces.
After leaving military service, he went into the public relations
business with his own company in 1948, achieving early success with stories about clients planted in the columns of Army Archerd
, Hedda Hopper
and Walter Winchell
. He had as many as 60 employees working for him, resisting offers to be bought out by other firms over the years with his insistence that he remain his own boss. Solters began to gain success as his firm Solters & O'Rourke (with partner James J. O'Rourke) gathered clients. Broadway
publicist Harvey Sabinson joined the firm, adding his theater division, changing the company's name to Solters, O'Rourke and Sabinson. When Sabinson left to head the League of N.Y. Theatres and Producers, the firm was renamed Solters/Roskin (later Solters/Roskin/Friedman) with Solters heading the west coast branch (in Los Angeles) and Sheldon Roskin heading the east coast branch (in New York City). Monroe Friedman was added to the firm's partnership, assisting Solters on the west coast.
productions of Camelot
, Funny Girl
, Guys and Dolls, The King and I
and My Fair Lady
. When one of David Merrick
's plays was struggling to get audiences, Solters placed ads that featured quotes from people whose names had been selected out of the phone book because they matched those of noted theater reviewers.
, Carol Channing
, Jackie Gleason
, Cary Grant
, Barbra Streisand
and Mae West
. After reports spread in 1990 of the death of Bubbles
, the chimpanzee
companion of his client Michael Jackson
, Solters told the press that "When Bubbles heard about his demise he went bananas". He represented Dolly Parton
and would say he knew her "since she was flat-chested". In a press stunt, Solters had a New York City cabdriver deliver a poodle to Claudette Colbert
that she was said, falsely, to have left in his car, creating a great photo of Colbert with the dog.
in Las Vegas
in 1965, Solters first met Frank Sinatra
. Solters followed Sinatra on his tour to ensure that Sinatra would be connected with the hotel. Solters told Sinatra that he wasn't impressed with his existing publicist and suggested that Solters would invite columnists in each city where he performed to meet the star five minutes before he went on stage to give the reporters a rarely-obtained chance to speak directly with Sinatra. The New Yorker
recounted that "The first columnist they tried this on was Larry Fields of the Philadelphia Daily News
, whose wife fainted when Sinatra kissed her cheek. 'Take care of it, Lee,' Sinatra said, and he was off." After the concert, Fields wrote a glowing review. Solters used the same technique in succeeding cities and built much positive press for the singer. When he returned to Las Vegas, Sinatra's attorney Mickey Rudin told Solters that "You're taking over" Sinatra's publicity. The professional relationship with Sinatra lasted for 26 years.
. His efforts led to Pope John Paul II
being named in 2000 as an honorary member of the Harlem Globetrotters
in a ceremony orchestrated in front of a crowd of 50,000 in Saint Peter's Square
. In the 1970s, Solters won a competition over several other agencies for an account with a Detroit automaker by waving his client list and stating "That's my presentation".
. He is survived by a daughter and a son, two grandchildren and a great-grandson.
In an account related to The New York Times
in 2004, Danny Goldberg, later founder of Artemis Records, led the article by recounting that "One of my big influences was Lee Solters". Solters hired Goldberg in 1973 and gave him jazz saxophonist Stan Getz
as a client. Goldberg struggled with his promotion efforts, as Getz didn't have a new album out and he couldn't get music writers to cover him. At the suggestion of Solters, Goldberg staged a birthday party for Getz and other musicians, an event that was covered by three television networks. Later, as the only person on the company who had ever listened to the group, Solters assigned Goldberg to represent Led Zeppelin
, which gave him the contacts and persona he needed to succeed in the rock business.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
press agent
Press agent
A press agent, or flack, is a professional publicist who acts on behalf of his or her client on all matters involving public relations. Press agents are typically employed by public personalities and organizations such as performers and businesses...
who used his flamboyant style to represent celebrities from stage, movies and sports including 26 years with Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
.
Early life and career
Born Nathan Cohen in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
on June 23, 1919 to Jewish-American parents (Jacob and Gussie), Solters attended New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, where he studied advertising and journalism. After being drafted into the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, he became a writer for Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes (newspaper)
Stars and Stripes is a news source that operates from inside the United States Department of Defense but is editorially separate from it. The First Amendment protection which Stars and Stripes enjoys is safeguarded by Congress to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers' interests,...
, the official newspaper of the United States Armed Forces.
After leaving military service, he went into the public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
business with his own company in 1948, achieving early success with stories about clients planted in the columns of Army Archerd
Army Archerd
Armand Andre "Army" Archerd was a columnist for Variety for over fifty years before retiring his "Just for Variety" column in September 2005. In November 2005, Archerd began blogging for Variety and was working on a memoir when he died.-Life and career:Archerd was born in The Bronx, New York, and...
, Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper was an American actress and gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.-Early life:...
and Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell was an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator.-Professional career:Born Walter Weinschel in New York City, he left school in the sixth grade and started performing in a vaudeville troupe known as Gus Edwards' "Newsboys Sextet."His career in journalism was begun by posting...
. He had as many as 60 employees working for him, resisting offers to be bought out by other firms over the years with his insistence that he remain his own boss. Solters began to gain success as his firm Solters & O'Rourke (with partner James J. O'Rourke) gathered clients. Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
publicist Harvey Sabinson joined the firm, adding his theater division, changing the company's name to Solters, O'Rourke and Sabinson. When Sabinson left to head the League of N.Y. Theatres and Producers, the firm was renamed Solters/Roskin (later Solters/Roskin/Friedman) with Solters heading the west coast branch (in Los Angeles) and Sheldon Roskin heading the east coast branch (in New York City). Monroe Friedman was added to the firm's partnership, assisting Solters on the west coast.
Promotion of plays and musicals
Solters worked on promotion of some 300 plays and musicals, such as the original Broadway theatreBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
productions of Camelot
Camelot (musical)
Camelot is a musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe . It is based on the King Arthur legend as adapted from the T. H. White tetralogy novel The Once and Future King....
, Funny Girl
Funny Girl
Funny Girl is a musical with a book by Isobel Lennart, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill. The semi-biographical plot is based on the life and career of Broadway, film star and comedienne Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein...
, Guys and Dolls, The King and I
The King and I
The King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...
and My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...
. When one of David Merrick
David Merrick
David Merrick was a prolific Tony Award-winning American theatrical producer.-Life and career:Born David Lee Margulois to Jewish parents in St. Louis, Missouri, Merrick graduated from Washington University, then studied law at the Jesuit-run Saint Louis University School of Law...
's plays was struggling to get audiences, Solters placed ads that featured quotes from people whose names had been selected out of the phone book because they matched those of noted theater reviewers.
Notables represented
Among the celebrities he represented were Yul BrynnerYul Brynner
Yul Brynner was a Russian-born actor of stage and film. He was best known for his portrayal of Mongkut, king of Siam, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film version; he also played the role more than 4,500 times on...
, Carol Channing
Carol Channing
Carol Elaine Channing is an American singer, actress, and comedienne. She is the recipient of three Tony Awards , a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination...
, Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...
, Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
, Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
and Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
. After reports spread in 1990 of the death of Bubbles
Bubbles (chimpanzee)
Bubbles is a common chimpanzee, known for being the one-time pet of American recording artist Michael Jackson. The entertainer adopted the young primate from a Texas research facility in the early 1980s. The singer's attachment to the animal led to media mockery and, among other factors, to a...
, the chimpanzee
Chimpanzee
Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
companion of his client Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, Solters told the press that "When Bubbles heard about his demise he went bananas". He represented Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
and would say he knew her "since she was flat-chested". In a press stunt, Solters had a New York City cabdriver deliver a poodle to Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
that she was said, falsely, to have left in his car, creating a great photo of Colbert with the dog.
Las Vegas and Frank Sinatra
While representing Caesars PalaceCaesars Palace
Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, an unincorporated township in Clark County, Nevada, United States in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Caesars Palace is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment Corp....
in Las Vegas
Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...
in 1965, Solters first met Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
. Solters followed Sinatra on his tour to ensure that Sinatra would be connected with the hotel. Solters told Sinatra that he wasn't impressed with his existing publicist and suggested that Solters would invite columnists in each city where he performed to meet the star five minutes before he went on stage to give the reporters a rarely-obtained chance to speak directly with Sinatra. The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
recounted that "The first columnist they tried this on was Larry Fields of the Philadelphia Daily News
Philadelphia Daily News
The Philadelphia Daily News is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The newspaper is owned by Philadelphia Media Holdings which also owns Philadelphia's other major newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Daily News began publishing on March 31, 1925, under...
, whose wife fainted when Sinatra kissed her cheek. 'Take care of it, Lee,' Sinatra said, and he was off." After the concert, Fields wrote a glowing review. Solters used the same technique in succeeding cities and built much positive press for the singer. When he returned to Las Vegas, Sinatra's attorney Mickey Rudin told Solters that "You're taking over" Sinatra's publicity. The professional relationship with Sinatra lasted for 26 years.
Rock groups
He represented the Beatles' Apple Corp., as well as Eagles and Led ZeppelinLed Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
. His efforts led to Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
being named in 2000 as an honorary member of the Harlem Globetrotters
Harlem Globetrotters
The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team that combines athleticism, theater and comedy. The executive offices for the team are currently in downtown Phoenix, Arizona; the team is owned by Shamrock Holdings, which oversees the various investments of the Roy E. Disney family.Over...
in a ceremony orchestrated in front of a crowd of 50,000 in Saint Peter's Square
Saint Peter's Square
Saint Peter's Square is located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave within Rome .-History of St...
. In the 1970s, Solters won a competition over several other agencies for an account with a Detroit automaker by waving his client list and stating "That's my presentation".
Death and tribute
Solters died at age 89 on May 18, 2009 at his home in West Hollywood, CaliforniaWest Hollywood, California
West Hollywood, a city of Los Angeles County, California, was incorporated on November 29, 1984, with a population of 34,399 at the 2010 census. 41% of the city's population is made up of gay men according to a 2002 demographic analysis by Sara Kocher Consulting for the City of West Hollywood...
. He is survived by a daughter and a son, two grandchildren and a great-grandson.
In an account related to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
in 2004, Danny Goldberg, later founder of Artemis Records, led the article by recounting that "One of my big influences was Lee Solters". Solters hired Goldberg in 1973 and gave him jazz saxophonist Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
as a client. Goldberg struggled with his promotion efforts, as Getz didn't have a new album out and he couldn't get music writers to cover him. At the suggestion of Solters, Goldberg staged a birthday party for Getz and other musicians, an event that was covered by three television networks. Later, as the only person on the company who had ever listened to the group, Solters assigned Goldberg to represent Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
, which gave him the contacts and persona he needed to succeed in the rock business.