P.R. Pioneer From Silent Film Days, Maynard Nottage's Existence Challenged by London Times

P.R. Pioneer From Silent Film Days, Maynard Nottage's Existence Challenged by London Times

Family and Biographer Borkowski Offer Proof from Personal Papers

LONDON, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Contrary to claims in the London Times last week, the descendants of the famed silent movie era publicist, Maynard Nottage, and his biographer have expressed outrage at the article and promise that Nottage did, indeed, exist. His heirs claim that Nottage's own personal papers, which are the source of the Nottage biography in the best-selling book, The Fame Formula: How Hollywood's Fixers, Fakers and Starmakers created the Celebrity Industry by Mark Borkowski, released in Britain and the U.K. in August this year, prove it beyond doubt. Nottage's personal papers, which have never been published, were given to Borkowski for his research on Nottage for his book by his heirs in early 2007 after lengthy negotiations.

On Friday, The Times reported that:

"As a hard-drinking Hollywood publicist," the Times said, "Maynard Nottage was linked to some of most dramatic stunts of the silent movie era. But in the smoke-and-mirrors world of public relations, one central question remains unanswered: did the larger-than-life celebrity-maker really exist?" Journalists Evans and Brown challenged Nottage's very existence by citing the U.S. Census of 1920 and the archives of the Los Angeles Times which, they claim, make no mention of his name. Their article was an insult to Borkowski's account of Nottage, questioned the veracity of his book and therefore challenged his work of nearly seven years.

Borkowski, himself one of the world's leading publicists, whose P.R. firm has represented in Europe such famous clients as The Bolshoi Ballet, Cirque du Soleil, Michael Jackson, Mikhail Gorbachev, Michael Moore and Harrods owner, Mohammed al Fayed, responded to the Times reporters with some facts from his years of research. His book contains the very last interview given by one of Hollywood's mega-agents, Freddie Fields, a most rare interview and the last before he died. Fields was known for his association with The Beatles, Barbra Streisand, and Frank Sinatra, among many other great stars.

According to Borkowski and his documentation from several sources including the P.R. pioneer's own papers, Nottage worked in the early silent movie industry and in vaudeville and helped create fame for many silver screen luminaries.

Joseph Drosd, Nottage's great-grandson, expressed outrage at the Times' articles partly because he had been interviewed by the Times and the articles seemed to ignore the facts as he related them. The two Times reporters never even quoted him after interviewing him at some length.

Drosd said of the articles, "They question not only the authenticity of material presented in a book by Mark Borkowski but also the very existence of my great grandfather and his professional legacy. David Brown called us the day before the article appeared, posing questions, verifying facts and requesting a photograph (which I mailed to him that day), but none that of that conversation appeared in the article. It seems to us that Mr. Brown and Mr. Evans wish to discredit Maynard Nottage along with author Borkowski, and I'm not sure why. As a matter of fact, the Times articles are false. The article states that the name of Maynard Nottage appears nowhere on the U.S. Census of 1920. That's not surprising, for two reasons. One, my great-grandfather traveled constantly and was rarely in one place long enough for the dust to settle. He never struck me as the sort of man to fill in forms if he could avoid doing so. That was the life of the itinerant publicist. He never lost that wanderlust and many of his strange writings are scrawled on the back of hotel and railway paper." Drosd said that his father changed his name because he didn't want to cause embarrassment to his religious relatives.

"Maynard Nottage left a number of dubious, self-aggrandizing stories behind in his archive," Borkowski said. "At the end of his life, he was quite bitter and felt that he had been abandoned by the industry he helped create. He had a short run of brilliance in the movie industry, between 1907 and 1920, and then his freewheeling ways fell out of favor in the new moral climate that began with prohibition."

Borkowski said that Nottage "served as a lesson in the dangers of hubris," and wanted to write about him for that reason and others, which led the family to let him make use of this rare and only archive of his life. "Maynard Nottage was not actually a nice man," Borkowski said. "He caused his descendants, and a lot of other people, much grief and consternation. Out of respect for the family, however, I feel obliged to set the record straight."

Contact: Stephen Jaffe, Jaffe & Co., Inc., (310) 275-7327

Source: Jaffe & Co., Inc.

CONTACT: Stephen Jaffe of Jaffe & Co., Inc., +1-310-275-7327

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