The Day I Didn't Meet Dave Grusin

© Variety

I knew I could do it. 

In the early seventies I’d arrived in California. I tired of working a steady job, and I knew I could do advertising work. I made a list of local advertising agencies and owners, then wrote to them.

“I’m nineteen years old, I have no experience, but I’m willing to work for a low wage, and learn.”

I wanted to learn how ads were produced first, then move on to creative work.

I heard from three agencies, and took the offer from the one that was offering exactly what I wanted.

So I did learn how ads were created, and within six months I was responsible for producing ads running weekly in nine newspapers in seven cities across California and Texas, and monthly in Car and Driver, and Road & Track.

After a year and a half, I moved on to an account executive position at an agency that specialized in promoting consumer products, mostly food and automotive.

By the early nineties I’d returned to the East. I was in my early thirties, I decided that I wanted to do entertainment advertising. In fact, I knew I could do entertainment work. I now had a home in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and two young children, and ran a small ad agency. It was small, but it was mine.

So once again I made a list of film production companies, and record labels, and set out making calls.

I was a modern jazz fan, so I first called on GRP Records, 555 W. 57th Street, New York. It was great! This was well before 9/11, so I walked into their reception area. There were all their Gold Records on the wall. Lee Ritenour, Yellow Jackets, Jerry Mulligan, and many more. I had some of those albums. But then none other than the great Dave Grusin! You see at the time GRP meant Grusin Rosen Productions. This was where Dave Grusin came to work!

Since I was there unannounced, I made my pitch, dropped off my promo sheet, thanked the receptionist, and left.

They didn’t hire me, but it really didn’t matter. I had taken the first step towards entertainment work.

Years later, I had become a film publicist, and I heard about the Dave Grusin documentary Not Enough Time.

Now PBS has it available to the public here, and here it is.

Enjoy it, and let me know what you think!

Steve Thompson

sct2391@outlook.com

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