Boxoffice-June.1995

"FROM WHERE I SIT... 99
Our Forum For Readers Just Like You
A LOOK
BACK AT
BOXOFFICE
This month's column, a sample ofthe warm response
we received to our 75th anniversary issue (which
prompted many readers to write oftheir fond memories
from BoxOFFiCE's long history), comes from a long-ago
employee of the magazine, who recalls his days as West
Coast editor and where he's gone from there.
By Dale C. Olson
nation's theatre owmers, who needed to
know all about the pictures they were going
to book and also how to sell them. As pan
of our reviews, we had to tell them if a
picture looked as if it would attract an audience,
and we also had to give them general
ideas— what we called Exploitips— ofhow to
promote a picture.
So I spent my first weekend before starting
work poring over years of earlier
BOXOFFICE issues. It was like cramming for
a test, but it was a test I passed—and it was
die real basis for everything I've done in this
business. TVvo years of Boxofhce, in the
shadow of Ivan Spear and his famous
"SpearHeads" column (in wliich he told it
like it was and never let anyone get a^vay
widi an\tliing), was like going to mo\ie
college. It got me noticed by everj' studio
and every distributor and exhibitor
Later, it got me another job as a reporter
and reviewer on Daily Variety for six years
and then a spot as publicity director for
Mirisch Corp., which had become tlie top
independent production company of its day
and was owned by former exhibitors who
liked my knowledge of tiiat area of the
business. My first assignment— the public-
75
YEARS OF
I :!•>.(•] L^'
BOXOFFICE Magazine may have
marked the most important step in
my lifelong career in the entertainment
business. As a youngster, fresh
fi'om pemiing a teenage column for The
Oregonian, Portland's daily paper, I answered
an advertisement in The Hollywood
Reporter calling for a new West
Coast editor of BoxorncE— a magazine
that, until then, I'd never even heard of
Ben Slilyen, founder and publisher ofthe
magazine, liked my writing samples suf-
Hciently to hire me on first meeting. I
was to fill the shoes of Ivan Spear, one of
the fabled trade journalists of that or any
era. Ivan— tough, crusty, cynical and diabolically
clever where the movie business
was concerned—had unfortunati-l\
become incapacitated. Boy, was I to find
out the kind of shoes I was to fill.
In those days, the position involvc:d
writing all the. West Coast news of the
tihn business, as well as selling ads,
which I had never done before. Wasn't
surprised, then, to find that the first ad I
solicited
for the annual edition was from
Fred Astaire— and he immediately came in
for a page. But working for Boxoffice meant
mark(;ting. So tliank you, Ben Shiyen.
A 20-year-old Dale Olson (right) gives producer Irwin Allen
„ and diank you, Boxoffice. Without \'ou.
a Blue Riblxn Award lor "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
I
1 also had to leam production, distribution,
exhibition and marketing, and I had to learn
them right away. We were serving the
ity and advertising responsibilits' (in association
with our distiibutor. United Artists)—
was for "In tire Heat of the Night," which
received seven Oscar nominations and
five awards, including best picture and
best actor (for Rod Steiger, who today is
one ofmy clients). I could only go down!
When Harold Mirisch passed awa\', it
came time for me to move on. Witii all
that experience, I became president ot
the motion picture dixasion at tlie public
relations company Rogere & Cowan and
developed t:ampaigns tor more than 1 50
major films, including launching the
"Rocky" and "Supc:rman" series.
Ten years ago, I moved on again, tbmiing
my own public relations firm, Dale
C. Olson & Associates. The company
does business in all areas of entertainment-oriented
publicity, promotion and
I wouldn't be here— and I reall\' liki- it
here. 1 still r(;ad I^ixomci: caretiilh- cx'ciy
month—and I still like it, too. .Ami will lot
die )i(j.Y( 75 years.
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