News & Opinion The (Civil) Society Column
The stars according to Bobby Zarem
OCT 19-25, 2016
His orbits were in full effect on the recent occasion of his 80th birthday at the Tybee Island Social Club. Owners Sarah By Jessica Leigh Lebos and Kurtis Schumm tended a spread of jll@connectsavannah.com Lowcountry Boil and steamed oysters as childhood buddy and car czar Dale Critz It’s 3 P.M. on Yom Kippur, and the first shook hands with Londoner Charles Frathing Bobby Zarem does when I walk into zier, circled by power couples India and his Ardsley Park living room is offer me a Robert King, Karen and Kurt Oelschig piece of chocolate. and Drs. Carmela and Chris Pettigrew. “Oh that’s right, you’re fasting!” he Savannah Philharmonic conductor says apologetically, pointing me to a chair Peter Shannon lounged on the patio next instead. to actress and Tybee resident Diana ScarI look at the candy longingly and sit down, wid while nephew Robbie Zarem waxed determined to stay focused on interviewing on about fuel cells with Foss and Chris the legendary publicist in time for SavanHodges. Overseeing hostessing duties were nah Film Festival season, even with a Beth Vantosh, Lisa Kaminsky and Karen grumbling stomach. I’m probably already a Guinn of the group of doting women I call heretic for working on the Day of Atonement “Zarem’s Harem.” anyway, but I’m in good company, since As the couple of hundred other guests Bobby confesses he hasn’t observed Jewish schmoozed, the honoree sat in the middle holidays since he was a little pisher. of the room, grinning from one tuft of “I used to sneak out of synagogue serwhite hair to the other. vices at the BB Jacob to get an egg salad “It was the ‘who’s who’ of my Savannah, sandwich,” he laughs, slapping his knee. my world, even if some people couldn’t make God must’ve been in on the plan, ‘cause it,” he reflects a week and a half later as we sit those egg salad days were the fulcrum of in the living room, pointing out the birthday the maven Bobby Zarem was to become. bouquet sent by Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas on the coffee table. After an illicit snack with the other All around his childhood home is eviHebrew school dropouts, he’d head over to A few members of “Zarem’s Harem” celebrate the 80th birthday of the PR legend. dence of his world, from signed movie the Weis Theatre on Broughton to take in posters to framed photos of him with Tom the latest Errol Flynn or Rita Hayworth Hanks and Christy Turlington. Also on flick, seeding an unstoppable passion VIPs for the premiere of the Who’s Tommy. employee to light, but the BZ machine conthe wall is a glowering portrait of the pubfor the transformative and transportive (Turnabout for that shitty stock broker tinues to thrum. licist as a young man painted by his late power of the silver screen. job, no doubt.) As I sit drooling over the box of chocolates, brother, Danny, the famous stylist credMost of us can relate (hosannas to Another columnist once described him as he takes calls from Page Six columnist Rich- ited for inventing men’s casualwear. Eisenhower Cinemas for offering refuge “more connected than a set of deluxe Legos,” ard Johnson and negotiates a cameo on His other brother, Harvey, a renowned and free showings in the days after Hurribut his ability to network also extended to the Bravo reality show “Southern Charms” Hollywood plastic surgeon, passed away in cane Matthew!) But the remarkable thing places. He claims the “I Love New York” as assistant Jeremy Scheinbart handles 2015. The youngest Zarem mensch carries about BZ’s love of movies is how it grew campaign that brought the city out of its ter- the Comcast rep and AC guy who have come on, insisting that he’s already planning his into a 55-plus year career of making audirible tourism slump in the 70s, and his small around after the hurricane. 90th birthday party. ences love them, too. “I feel like I’m finally reaching puberty! Southern hometown has received its share While he’s no longer the manic nightBorn and raised in Savannah, he folI’m serious!” crawler depicted by Al Pacino in People lowed his older brothers on the nice Jewish of press over the decades. If you’ve ever hung out with BZ, you might “I realized how fantastic Savannah was I Know, BZ still goes to the movies a few boy path to Andover, Yale and then New recognize some items missing from this tabbut the rest of the world didn’t know it, so times a week and doesn’t discount taking York, where there was a short-lived gig on early on in my career I started getting colin a screening or two at the festival. He’s on leau. But the thing about interviewing pubWall Street before he chucked the idea of licists is they’re very clever to tell you what’s umn items and stories in New York and the phone constantly—the same landline law school. “If I had to spend one more morning wait- international papers,” he crows, citing men- his parents installed in the 1930s—stoking off the record. Cross him and he’ll see you next Tuesday, if you catch my drift. tions of the Hostess City in the NY Times, relationships near and far, though these ing for the subway, I was going to jump in But all anyone really needs to know Vanity Fair and the Paris Herald Tribune. days he’s less of a star nebula and more of a front of a train,” he recalls with a grimace. is that though Bobby Zarem may have And of course, there’s the Savannah bona fide planet. Providence provided a dream job at a PR exchanged the Hamptons for Tybee Island Film Festival, which he helped SCAD launch Celebs like Michael Caine and Eric agency, and so BZ began honing the art and and Elaine’s for Circa and Cotton & Rye into the stratosphere by using his Legos to Idle come to visit on the regular, and craft of creating stars. Countless household (and The Grey and The Vault; seriously, bring big, HUUUGE names to town every Savannah folk of all ages gravitate to him names—including John Travolta, Anndon’t ask him to pick a favorite restaurant), Margaret and Arnold Schwarzenegger— October for 15 years. In 2010, the same year for his stories and—admit it—maybe a his star is shining bright as ever. he moved back home for good, life made one sprinkle of that famous stardust. (I mean owe their professional arcs to Bobby Z, who As I’m leaving to get back to synagogue of those amazing circles when he accepted who doesn’t want to sit next to Gerard snared the editorial attentions of Life and and finish atoning for the year’s sins, I ask the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award Butler at Mrs. Wilkes?) Time with earnest eight-page pitches and him if wants a ride, just for giggles. onstage at the Trustees Theatre—formerly But the real reason people love Bobby handwritten thank you notes. “Nah, what for? I don’t have a single the Weis, where he’d ditched Torah study for Zarem is because he’s still wicked fun to be “I would have a vision for every person around, gossiping with unadulterated glee regret,” he chortles, eyes twinkling. and project, and I knew what would attract matinee idols all those years ago. “But here, take some chocolate with His partnership with the festival ended and introducing people to each other with people,” says the man Newsweek once abruptly in 2014 after he tried to bring genuine eagerness to see what comes of the you. You might want it for the movies later. dubbed “Superflack” after he filled a NY 12 subway station with 500 celebrities and allegations of sexual assault of a SCAD connection. You’re going to the movies, right?” cs