How To Be Suzie Howie, Showbiz Publicist

The Age

Wednesday February 15, 2006

PAUL EDWARDS

I HAD no creative ambitions but from my early teens I knew that I wanted to be surrounded by creative people. So, when I decided to leave the convent and look for work I went looking at situations vacant with advertising agencies. I was 15, and in those days when employers could afford to take on and train kids, it took me just two weeks. Berry Currie Advertising hired me as a general PA to the creative department. I adored the job. It was the '60s, I was working with talented people such as John Singleton and Murray Bail, two copywriters I sensed were going places, and it was heady, mostly fun times.

Then Singleton left to set up his breakthrough agency, SPASM, and offered me a job as account executive in the Sydney branch. It was there I learnt that the long lunch or even the hour-long lunch isn't necessary: it slows you down for the rest of the day.

I moved on, and at 20 I was casting director for one of the multinational agencies, DDB. Full of confidence, I left to go travelling, presuming I would pick up in advertising when I returned from Europe. But on a quick visit back home I heard that Michael Edgley, the country's leading theatrical entrepreneur, was looking for someone to do a few days' work.

If I had thought advertising was high energy and fun, the atmosphere generated by four people - Michael Edgley, Andrew Guild, Wayne Stevens and Miriam Hooper - working in a very small one-room office at Her Majesty's Theatre was showtime! It was electric - this was where I belonged.

The event I was asked to help out on - a tour of Russian gymnasts - held little interest for me, the attraction was the working atmosphere in that office. I had been hired as a short-term office girl Friday, expected to do everything, but I stayed on and quickly began to take most interest in dealing with the media. In those days there was no published media guide, just a few names and phone numbers of media who had shown interest in performances. I began compiling a media list, something I do to this day.

Edgleys presented the Moscow Circus, all the major Russian ballet companies, tours of Disney on Parade, scores of rock tours, and movies - The Man from Snowy River and Phar Lap among them. It was all-encompassing and the best grounding I could have had. Though my area was primarily publicity, all of us needed to be across all aspects of the business.

I left Edgleys because my 10th anniversary with the company was approaching and I knew that if I wanted different experiences I had to move on.

I launched my freelance career with Cameron Mackintosh's production of Cats. In its production, marketing and publicity strategies this first mega-musical established the benchmark. Cats is the mother of The Lion King. Though I handled many glamorous and fascinating projects through the '80s and '90s - the Papal visit, Crocodile Dundee, Barry Humphries, Cher - the big musicals were the constant.

In 1990, I was neck-deep publicising the Melbourne Arts Festival, Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera and called on my husband, Paul Taylor, to join me as a writer. A former journalist, he had gone over to the dark side and turned advertising copywriter. Paul came in the belief that he would be on the golf course more than in the office. He was misinformed, and together we've enjoyed working on about 350 shows.

Towards the end of 2004 I found a lump in my breast. My doctor warned me that it was probably cancer and arranged tests for the next day. That evening I went to an opening night, wondering if my life was going to take a new direction.

It did. I had eight months' treatment for breast cancer: surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, and discovered that most people are at their best when you really need them. I ran my business throughout my treatment and only at its completion, when I could holiday in Italy, did I throw off the red wig, show off my new-grown curly silver hair, and decide to change course again.

Paul and I have now set up a home office. Thank heavens for new technology. We still have a wonderful mixture of jobs: if it's an exciting project, if it's creative, we want to be involved. And I still love piecing together the parts of the publicity campaign jigsaw. But these days I walk into my garden and smell the roses while I sort out the pieces.

CV

Born: July 16, 1949

Educated: Presentation Convent Windsor

Jobs: 1965-69 Berry Currie Advertising; '69-'70 SPASM; '71-'72 DDB; '74-'84 Michael Edgley International; 1985- present Howie & Taylor Publicity.

Career low: I am such an optimist that I dismiss and refuse to acknowledge any career lows.

Career highs: World premiere in Mansfield of The Man From Snowy River; Australian premiere of Phantom of the Opera; the Papal Tour of Australia.

Influences: Michael Edgley team for teaching me everything; Cameron Mackintosh for encouraging me to use my imagination and stressing that the most important thing was to be in love with what you are doing.

© 2006 The Age

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