Bobby Zarem, the famed leisure business publicist who represented stars akin to Cher and Diana Ross, died Sunday in Savannah, Ga., in keeping with the New York Occasions. He was 84.
Zarem’s colleague Invoice Augustin confirmed to the New York Occasions that he died of problems associated to lung most cancers.
Zarem was born in Savannah in 1936. He grew up there, then attended Yale College earlier than transferring to New York Metropolis. After a brief stint engaged on Wall Avenue, he moved into the leisure business. Zarem was first employed by Columbia Artists Administration and found his affinity for publicity whereas working for producer Joseph E. Levine. His PR profession bloomed at Rogers & Cowan, a agency he joined in 1969, the place he developed a consumer base that included Dustin Hoffman. In 1974, he based Zarem Inc. Zarem jumpstarted the careers of a number of now-A-listers. Together with Cher, Ross and Hoffman, his clientele included stars like Alan Alda, Ann-Margaret, Michael Caine, Michael Douglas, Sophia Loren, Jack Nicholson, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.
Past his roster of celebrities, Zarem was identified for a lot of well-known initiatives, notably the “I Love New York” tourism marketing campaign (although his precise stage of involvement within the marketing campaign is debated). His different notable work contains publicity for “Saturday Evening Fever” — the studio had uncared for the movie, anticipating it to underperform till Zarem stole manufacturing stills of John Travolta to generate buzz — and “Tommy,” for which he hosted a black-tie gala in a Manhattan subway station. His repute additionally lended itself to the 2002 movie “Folks I Know,” as Al Pacino’s character Eli Wurman was based mostly on Zarem.
To many within the business, Zarem was a extra sophisticated determine. He as soon as employed publicist Peggy Siegal, who accused Zarem of throwing a typewriter at her, an allegation he denied. He additionally feuded with late gossip columnist Liz Smith, who he claimed wrote a column repeatedly bashing his purchasers beneath the byline Robin Adams Sloan. In retaliation, Zarem aired the information of Smith’s wedding ceremony to associate Iris Love.
Zarem by no means married, preferring to dedicate his life to work. He publicly spoke on the significance of remedy and was a consumer of Czechoslovakian psychiatrist Samuel Lowy.
“I believe that’s why I did what I did,” he as soon as advised Hamptons journal, in keeping with the Occasions. “Not feeling that I had something to speak, I felt that if I made the remainder of the world settle for Dustin Hoffman and Ann-Margret and Cher, and all these individuals, then I might be accepted.”
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