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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Valley’s Storyteller

Marty Cooper surrounds himself with artifacts that reflect the interests in his life. His desk dates to his days working at Playboy Enterprises; he bought it and a small table for $5 from his former boss, the late Hugh Hefner. On the walls are photo collages of famous writers with their typewriters compiled by the staff of the Los Angeles Valley College Museum, which held two public exhibitions of Cooper’s typewriter collection a few years ago. Cooper’s first job after graduating from UCLA was at Disneyland, where he did promotional work for the theme park and which put him in contact with Walt Disney. He also worked for Universal Studios, a public relations firm and Playboy before opening Cooper Communications in 1982. His small firm handled clients such as the Los Angeles Times, Mattel Inc. and Merrill Lynch. Meanwhile, Cooper developed an interest in the history of the San Fernando Valley; he has published four books, including “North of Mulholland,” a collection of columns that originally appeared in the Business Journal. Cooper met with the Business Journal at his office in Encino to discuss his time working for Disney and Hefner and his thoughts on the future of the Valley. Question: What motivates you? Answer: Sadly, I think it’s perfection. And I say sadly because it’s a tough task mistress. Whatever I am involved in, I give it everything. When I join an organization, I am often told that I will be president or chairman in a couple of years. It tends to work out that way, which is not a compliment to myself. It’s a personality trait. Is that reflected here in your business? Yes, it’s reflected in my business. If we don’t think a company is ethical to our particular standards, we choose not to represent them. We had a very potentially lucrative client come to us, a cigarette manufacturer; it would have been the biggest client I’ve ever had in terms of revenue. I slept on it for two nights and decided I just couldn’t represent a cigarette company. That’s how I do business. How did you get into public relations? When I graduated from UCLA one of my most beloved professors, Robert Rutland, set me up on a number of interviews. I had been editor of the Daily Bruin. I had writing and journalism in my blood as it were for a long time. I was offered a couple of positions and one of them was as writer for all the promotional materials at Disneyland. I took that job and was eventually promoted to advertising and promotion manager, which sort of took me away from journalism. You personally knew Walt Disney? I am the only person, as far as I know, who ever reported directly to Walt Disney and Hugh Hefner. What was Disney like? He was not always the jolly Uncle Walt that people perceive him as. He was a perfectionist. In many ways he had the enthusiasm of a kid. At the same time, he was a very, I wouldn’t say shrewd, but a good businessman. His brother Roy was really the businessman. They formed a very good pair. Roy was the businessman, the financial guy, not creatively oriented at all. And Walt was always, “What can we do next?” I was there when we took four attractions to the New York World’s Fair and he was just thrilled. He knew he was Walt Disney. He’d come out to the park, he’d be very friendly and smiled with the kids. He had an interesting relationship with kids. I don’t think he was as comfortable with kids as they loved being around him because of his image and reputation. Do you have a favorite story about Disney? We opened the Pirates of the Caribbean in New Orleans Square in the mid-1960s. The then-mayor of New Orleans came out of for the opening. We started by going around on the Columbia ship that we had turned into a pirate ship that went around the Rivers of America. We get off and we are walking toward New Orleans Square. I am in the middle, Walt is on one side and the mayor is on the other side. Walt says to him, “I hope you like what we have here, it’s nice and clean. It’s cleaner than your New Orleans.” A rare faux pas on Walt’s part. The mayor of New Orleans says without skipping a beat, “Wait until your city is as old as mine.” Title: President Company: Cooper Communications Born: 1941 Education: Bachelors in English, UCLA Career Turning Point: “I don’t think I’ve had a turning point. I’ve gone from position to position in my career, most of them more lucrative and more responsible than the previous one.” Most Admired Person: Winston Churchill Hobbies: Writing, reading, collecting antique typewriters and travel What was Disney like as a boss? I enjoyed working with him. I didn’t see him every day, I don’t want to imply that. We traveled on the Disney plane together several times. He was an interesting, one of a kind guy. What do you remember about Hugh Hefner? Perfectionism. I sat in the library of the den at the Playboy mansion once going over the cover of the annual report with Hefner once. In the upper righthand corner, it said the year, annual report, Playboy Enterprises. He said, “Move it down, Marty.” I said, “Hef, I know you want to move it down because you’re concerned that with the trim it will be too close. We’ve left plenty of room not to worry about that.” He said, “No, I just think it will look better. Move it down a quarter of an inch or half an inch.” “It’s going to cost thousands of dollars.” “Just do it.” That’s how he was. He didn’t care about the money, he really cared about the final product. How did you end up working for Playboy? After Disneyland I went to Universal Studios and then to Harshe-Rotman & Druck, which at the time was one of the three largest independent PR agencies in the country. I was there for almost 10 years. My two best-known accounts were the Tournament of Roses Association and the Motion Picture Academy and the Academy Awards. While I was at the PR agency I was contacted by a headhunter telling me about this organization. We had a few meetings, they introduced me to Hef, I had a good meeting with Hef at the mansion and they offered me a job. Any thoughts on Hugh Hefner’s recent passing? In many ways, Hefner was two or three people. One part of him was the parties at the mansion, you can smell the pot in the air, nude women, all that stuff. A second part of him was lifestyle. There used to be something called “What kind of man reads Playboy?” It was the stereos and fine cars and all of that. I was in a discussion once with several people on that topic because we were doing away with it. And Hefner pointed out it was an aspirational magazine. “We aren’t read by the guy with the hot blonde on his arm and the bachelor pad and Corvette. We are read by the man who wants that.” I thought that was a very insightful thought. The third guy is the one who believed in what he wrote in the interminable Playboy philosophy. When I was there he started the Hugh Hefner First Amendment Awards. He was a strong believer in First Amendment rights, not just as it related to him but generally. Why did you leave Playboy? I was senior vice president of marketing and communications at Playboy. I had one of the best-known jobs in town. I had complete access to the Playboy Mansion. I started the Playboy Jazz Festival, which is still going at the Hollywood Bowl. I had what appeared to be the dream job. But when the company lost its gambling licenses in London, we had to fire a lot of good people. That bothered me a lot. Firing someone is the toughest thing you can do in business. So, I decided it was time for me to leave. How did you end up starting your own firm? I went out to see my father. I said, “I’m thinking of opening my own business, what do you think?” And he said, “You are not the entrepreneurial type.” I said, “Why?” “Because you’re not a risk taker. Every good entrepreneur is a risk taker.” He was right. I am not a risk taker. I am a very conservative business person. But it seems to have worked out OK. I very much enjoy having my own business because I enjoy being master of my own fate. If it goes right, I don’t mind taking the credit; if it goes wrong I don’t mind taking the blame. What were the challenges? The problem with being an entrepreneur is you paint on a small canvas. When I was at the PR agency my clients were the Tournament of Roses, the Motion Picture Academy, Del Monte, Hertz, City of Hope. Big well-known companies. When you are an entrepreneurial firm you tend to get smaller companies. Clients, whether it is a client of PR agency, a law firm, a CPA firm, any other entrepreneurial firm, tend to go with the larger firms because those are the better-known ones. Now I’ve been lucky. I’ve had very large clients like the L.A. County art museum and the L.A. Times, Burlington Air Express. It was lucky for me and pretty unusual. What advice would you give someone thinking of starting their own business? If you aren’t willing to empty your own waste paper baskets for a year, don’t be an entrepreneur. That’s what I did. Let’s talk about the Valley. Is the San Fernando Valley still this idealized version of the American suburb? No, not in my opinion. It was after the war. I’ve written two books about the Valley. In both of them I explore that myth. It was that way after the war when the big growth spurt happened here, probably until the late 1970s and early 1980s. Then it became homogenized in a way that was not that different from the rest of the world, except for two things – aerospace and aviation and the entertainment industry. Other than that, I don’t see it as what it used to be. What is the future of the Valley? The future of the Valley is always going to be the handmaiden to Los Angeles. Always going to be in the eyes of other people the bedroom community of Los Angeles. That is going to be the perception. I don’t think it’s a valid perception. It cannot be much more independent than it is. We don’t think of ourselves as being part of “the city.” We talk about going “over the hill.” That’s why I called my first book, “North of Mulholland” because it seems one needs a visa to go south of Mulholland. There is a mental divide that will always be there. What do you think the Valley lacks? We sadly don’t have civic leadership. There is a generation passing with the (Galpin Motors chairman) Bert Boeckmanns and the (attorney) David Flemings. I don’t see their replacements. When a David Fleming walks into a room, even today, people know who he is, people are impressed by what he has accomplished, people pay attention to what he says. I don’t think we have that civic leadership today and I think it’s sad. David Fleming was very involved with the Valley secession movement. Do you think that was a good idea? Was it a good idea in order to raise your profile and say, “We’re here” and in order to say you can’t take more money than your giving in city services? It was a good idea from that standpoint. It was never a realistic idea. Frankly I chose not to be active in it because I didn’t think it was realistic and I didn’t think the Valley could sustain itself as a successful city because of the burdens of the population given what it had in terms of infrastructure. Are the issues that created the secession movement still around? Absolutely. You ask anyone here. We give more to the city than we get back from the city. So, the Valley isn’t getting its fair share? No. Since I‘ve lived here, and I’ve lived in the Valley since 1970, I don’t think we ever had our fair share in all those years. I think that’s natural. Government takes as much as it can in taxes and gives back what it must. There are parts of Los Angeles that are a lot poorer than we are. I understand that, and I am OK with that. If we have it to give, why not? Do I wish it was more equitable? Yeah, that would be nice. Do I wish we got more attention from the people in City Hall? Yes, I do but I don’t lose sleep over it. What is your opinion of William Mulholland and his legacy? His legacy, combined with the city fathers who underwrote the water and blackmailed the Valley’s 22 or 23 independent townships into joining the city, made the Valley what it is today. I don’t think just bringing the water did. I think it was a confluence of many things. William Mulholland was in the first ranks of people who shaped the Valley. What advice would he give to business owners? Think about your business seven days a week, 24 hours a day. You have to be open to new ideas for your own business and for those you serve, your customers or clients. Thinking creatively is the foundation that all good businesses are set on. And have a goal. I’ve always had a goal no matter what I did. Sometimes I reached it, sometimes I didn’t. Who is person you admire the most that isn’t a family member? Winston Churchill, easy. Why is that? I’ll tell you how I came to my interest in Churchill. I went to Cambridge University one summer and took classes on World War II and Churchill. The professor had us write a paper. I realized as I was going through the course that what Winston Churchill was was a PR man. He was a PR man for Britain’s fighting in World War II. I wrote a paper on that and got a nice A on it and a nice note from the professor. Churchill was once asked by a reporter at the end of the war how did it feel to be leader of the British people and bring them through the dark days of World War II. He said it was the British people that won the war. Here’s the part of the quote that’s relevant: “I was privileged to give it its roar.” That is one reason why I admire him so much.

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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