Memories of David Cardwell

Co-founder of CPL, a friend and mentor to many and, without a doubt, one of the industry’s founding fathers.

The passing late last year of David Cardwell meant that the licensing industry lost one of its true visionaries and entrepreneurs, as well as a great friend and a someone who, with his business partner Richard Culley, was a true mentor to many in the industry today. David and Richard met whilst Richard was at ATV in the early 1970s and David took a license to put on a Rupert theatrical production. Richard already had plans to open his own agency and it wasn’t long before they both realised the opportunity that lay ahead. Of course, the initial years were tough. As Richard explained, “The first three or four years were sheer slog getting everything off the ground.” But once these years passed, as Richard explained, they entered the company’s ‘purple patch.’ “The following years were the time that was most fun,” he explained. “We had properties including Noddy, Rupert, the Mr Men and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. David became the financial head of the business – he was very good at taking on accountants and lawyers – and I took on the sales/dealmaking. We worked hard but we played hard too, both of us really enjoying the business.” David was, without doubt, the visionary that so many people now call him. “David opened offices in Europe – really against stiff opposition from other agencies in Europe,” continued Richard. “But we did it!” The company continued to grow and whilst David and Richard steered the business, they also found time for fun which many look back on fondly. “Our Christmas parties were legendary,” said Richard. “The middle years of CPL were tremendous, both in terms of business and in the sheer fun we had through it all.” Talking to those who worked with Richard and David through that period, not only do certain stories recur (David’s inadvertent meeting with the Queen is one, and tea trays are another) but you soon realise the genuine fondness so many people had for David. Whilst the tea trays are mentioned in the following pages, we can’t really continue without talking about David’s encounter with The Queen. As Richard continued, “At the time we handled Star Wars. We hadn’t actually seen the finished film but we managed to get hold of a preview tape. Lord Brabourne, CPL’s Chairman at the time was a huge Star Wars fan and David volunteered to drop the tape into his country house a few days later. So, on a Saturday morning, David drove up to Lord Brabourne’s home, knocked on the door and when nobody answered, he wandered into the kitchen garden where he spotted a lady in a headscarf. He explained to her why he was there and she very kindly agreed to take the tape and give to Lord Brabourne. At that point, David left and it was only afterwards that he realised that the ‘lady in a headscarf’ with whom he chatted, was none other than Her Majesty the Queen.” Many of us have humorous or other- wise memories of David. And whilst Richard knew David, of course, better than anybody else, others who worked for them, remember their CPL time with fondness, particularly their smoking assignations! To understand this better, we talked to a few friends and former-colleagues to see how they remember this remarkable man.

David Scott: “David offered me a job in 1992 with a struggling company called Rainbow Productions, which was a subsidiary of CPL in those days. He interviewed me on a Monday and I had the job of Managing Director by Friday (David was not one for hanging around) despite my not knowing what a costume character was, nor ever having visited the Rainbow premises. He was a hard taskmaster but always kept faith in myself and the Rainbow team until, in 1995, he went one step further and sold me the company – in the process changing my business career immeasurably for the better. Rainbow was the poor relation, and most underperforming part, of the CPL family when I joined. I therefore inherited some fairly substantial sales targets imposed by CPL which I was told we had to reach. We weren’t even close to them for many months and so I had a pretty hard time at the monthly meetings with the group Directors at Metropolis House. That September David asked me if we would hit the target by Christmas, to which I replied that ‘with a fair wind’ we’d make it. David was not to be fooled by my apparent confidence.

‘A fair wind’, he said, ‘ you’ll need a f***ing hurricane!’. When I reminded him of this exchange during our annual lunches after he retired, he smiled and reminded me that I never did hit that target. During our monthly meetings with the group Directors I was always under a lot of pressure from David to increase sales but I did learn a strategy that protected me from most of his ire. Alongside him at the Boardroom table were his business partner Richard Culley and fellow board member Ellis Iddon. They were a little more relaxed about how Rainbow fared and, after I had described a recent order for a Pepperami costume – a 6 foot phallic-looking sausage in Union Jack underpants – both Richard & Ellis, like toy schoolboys, collapsed into so much laughter that David struggled to carry on his critique. Thereafter I mentioned all kinds of bizarre costumes for which we were pitching, the weirder the better, so that Richard & Ellis would have fun with them and thus save me from my monthly grilling. Some of them may even have been real!

Jane Garner: “When I joined CPLG (then CPL) as Head of PR in the ‘ahem’ early 90’s it was my introduction to Licensing and to PR or that matter. As a former entertainment journalist I was used to colleagues who knew how to have fun but is soon became clear that at CPL we worked hard and partied in the same way! During my time there there were some fantastic Christmas parties but one stands out when it comes to memories of David Cardwell, this particular one was held at Shepperton Studios and as ever everyone was done up to the nines and the Champagne was flowing it was a brilliant evening but my abiding memory will always be of my boss David joyously careering down a fancy staircase on a tea tray!”

Vickie O’Malley: “The first time I met David, we were having a cigarette. I wonder how many of these reminiscences about David will start that way? I was in awe. He’d cofounded the company I’d just joined and he struck me as achingly cool; because he was. During our times in his ‘outside office’ he variously made me think, laugh and challenge myself to approach something differently. He did not mince words. All of us have a lot to thank David for as one of the founding fathers of the licensing industry, a man with ideas and, crucially, the guts to make stuff happen.”

Charlie Day. “You took your life in your hands when you went into his room/office. If you weren’t a smoker before, you were after working at CPG for a short while…walking into David’s office was rather like walking into an ‘old school’ London “pea- Souper”! He gave me my first break in the business….as he did to so many. David and Richard built me an office in the mail room of the office at Tottenham Court Road…after my fourth interview…. when they told me to come back for the job in two weeks! When we started trying to grow our Licensor base, he made me Business Development director with a brief to get to know everyone and anyone who may at some time create a viable Licensable property. Never a question of how much I spent on travel and entertaining…or whatever crazy sounding animation festival I suggested I went to…just to hang out with the Producers and buyers…. He had a strategic business mind…. and was a visionary. He was perhaps the first to see the opportunity for toy-driven licensing/brand extensions. Knickerbocker Toy, which quickly became Hasbro Europe, was a client with My Little Pony being one of the first of those properties to launch in the UK, when I joined in 1984. David quickly saw the opportunity as MLP became a craze which Hasbro could not fulfill/keep up demand for toy products. So licensed merchandise from CPL as we were known then met that demand. Toy buyers were taken by surprise. One I remember calling it “My Little Warthog and refusing to stock it!” David Cardwell was a mentor, a source of wisdom, support and humour... ... and an utterly reliable smoking companion!

Ellis Iddon: “David was a great workmate, serious and funny at the same time and a good pizza eating buddy. Sitting outside the Charlotte Street Hotel, sipping our glasses of wine, we would watch the world pass by as he lit yet another cigarette. In fact my abiding memory of David is of him standing in the rain, in his shorty white mackintosh, looking like the guy in the old TV ad.... You’re never alone with a Strand; naturally I constantly reminded him of this at every opportunity.”

Katarina Dietrich: “In the space of one week, David and Richard agreed to let me open up the first CPLG office in Germany in 1996, after having bought the remaining shares of the ELG operation. In these early days David, Richard and I flew to San Francisco and met with Lucasfilm to discuss representation of Star Wars and Indiana Jones. We met at the BA lounge in London, I was quite impressed and looking forward to a comfortable flight - ending up in row 48, the smoking row. Where else! After our next day’s meeting I schlepped David shopping. That was the first and last time when we travelled together and he was quite good about it for the first 30 minutes, than it dawned on me that this was not my best idea. All was well, however, when we found a great place for a drink and smoke after this expedition. It was always great fun to travel with David and Richard, I have very fond memories of the CPLG dinners and drinks at Bologna Book Fair, our bar man still remembered some of us after 15 years, a testament to our lively tables and generous hospitality.”

Angeles Blanco: “I have many fond memories of David, aside from him accidentally meeting the Queen, one that always makes me smile is our morning cigarette in the Percy Street office whilst we waited for the kettle to boil and David describing how he made a swiss Roll over the weekend. Only he forgot to remove the tea towel and rolled the towel with the sponge! I will hold these little stories and moments in my heart forever, along with his random texts to check in over the years.”

Bettina Koeckler: “David Cardwell has been to many people a fabulous mentor, a source of wisdom, support and humor - and a reliable smoking companion! I remember him as a person whose word was worth even more than a contract and who loved his properties, the deal making - the whole licensing industry and everybody in it. One memory I am particularly fond of was after the dissolution of the European Licensing Group and the opening of the German CPLG office. Most people think that at some point in my career I worked for CPLG, which I actually never did. In fact, I was a competitor for a short amount of time - until I worked with David and Richard and the CPLG family again as a licensor. But according to David, I was regarded as part of the team and one year he made me an honorary member of CPLG and invited me even to the London Christmas Party. I will always cherish this very lovely memory. David Cardwell was a visionary of the industry and was highly respected by his peers around the world - but more importantly, to me (and many others) he was a true and loyal friend. Licensing just got a little bit more boring without him.”

Kirk Bloomgarden, “I don’t have one lasting memory of David, I have many, and they certainly have blurred together over the years. However, when I reflect on the time we spent working together, which was well over 10 years, I would say David’s voice of reason, support and mentoring are what I recall with great fondness. David was always there, he never left the office, to listen, to give advice and to provide support when needed. It was not always easy, being an agent has its daily challenges, but David always seemed to come up with the right recommendation at the right time.”

Clearly from everything said, David Cardwell was not only a brilliant businessman and a bold visionary but also a great friend to many of colleagues and the others of us that knew him. His passing leaves a hole in the industry that will be hard to fill and his impact, together with that of Richard Culley, will be impossible to match.