I just realized that in one month it will be 1st anniversary of PrittieHartPress and 17 years since my dad died. It’s been both a great year and a bad year and, being the “glass is overflowing” type of person I am, I’ll focus on the good stuff first. The best part of working with all of my dad’s pictures (which all of us kids truly hated having taken the older we became) is that now, at the age of 55, I am so grateful that he did take them. He preserved our family memories in a way that not many people have the capability of doing. I am just now realizing what a talented man he was and I so wish he was alive so that I could tell him.
I think he would be so pleased that his photo collection from the set of the 1957 movie "Band of Angels" with Clark Gable and Yvonne DeCarlo was just sold to the Warner Bros. Museum in Burbank, CA. It’s a huge 7000 square foot museum built in 1996 and they wanted the collection for posterity’s sake.
I also think my dad would be happy that one of his photos that he took of me when I was four years old is now on a greeting card that is presently being sold. I mean, how cool is that? A picture of me on the front and dad receives photographic credit on the back of the card. As a matter of fact, I just received my first royalty check today from Design Design, Inc. and it was “Prittie” (get it?) exciting.
O.K…now for the bad part of the last year. I put a ton of effort and time into marketing and, like I mentioned above, just received my first check. I feel like I have been a floundering fish because I just delved right into this without really knowing what I was doing. As a matter of fact, when the creative director at Design Design, Inc. called to say she was interested in licensing the image, I didn’t even know what she was talking about. She then said “Well, isn’t that why you were sending the images?” Duh…
Working with a small family-owned company for 33 years has not prepared me for dealing with huge corporations and the glacier-like pace in which they move. It reminds me of exactly why I went to work for a small company because I remember having to fill out a requisition form for pens at a huge corporation…and all I wanted to do was say “Give me a darn pen so I can do my work!” I have learned that you really have to “put yourself out there” and sometimes make yourself look like a fool. I am sure that some people I have sent proposals to wonder why in the heck I sent them a proposal. And I’ll tell you…it’s because of this:
Fun Busses
In 1977 when I moved out to California and didn’t have a car, I hopped on a bus to go to a job interview at that huge corporation. After quite awhile of riding around, I realized that I had inadvertently hopped on a “fun bus,” one of those busses that only takes you to Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, etc., instead of a public transportation bus. After realizing this, I got off the bus and walked, and walked, and walked and ended up at a large corporation but not the one I was supposed to interview with. By that time I was so tired of walking that I just asked them if there were any openings…and here I am 33 years later still doing some work for the people that I met there at that large corporation.
So, to answer any questions about why I might have sent you a proposal, it goes way back to “fun busses”—you never know where something might lead you :)
I think he would be so pleased that his photo collection from the set of the 1957 movie "Band of Angels" with Clark Gable and Yvonne DeCarlo was just sold to the Warner Bros. Museum in Burbank, CA. It’s a huge 7000 square foot museum built in 1996 and they wanted the collection for posterity’s sake.
I also think my dad would be happy that one of his photos that he took of me when I was four years old is now on a greeting card that is presently being sold. I mean, how cool is that? A picture of me on the front and dad receives photographic credit on the back of the card. As a matter of fact, I just received my first royalty check today from Design Design, Inc. and it was “Prittie” (get it?) exciting.
O.K…now for the bad part of the last year. I put a ton of effort and time into marketing and, like I mentioned above, just received my first check. I feel like I have been a floundering fish because I just delved right into this without really knowing what I was doing. As a matter of fact, when the creative director at Design Design, Inc. called to say she was interested in licensing the image, I didn’t even know what she was talking about. She then said “Well, isn’t that why you were sending the images?” Duh…
Working with a small family-owned company for 33 years has not prepared me for dealing with huge corporations and the glacier-like pace in which they move. It reminds me of exactly why I went to work for a small company because I remember having to fill out a requisition form for pens at a huge corporation…and all I wanted to do was say “Give me a darn pen so I can do my work!” I have learned that you really have to “put yourself out there” and sometimes make yourself look like a fool. I am sure that some people I have sent proposals to wonder why in the heck I sent them a proposal. And I’ll tell you…it’s because of this:
Fun Busses
In 1977 when I moved out to California and didn’t have a car, I hopped on a bus to go to a job interview at that huge corporation. After quite awhile of riding around, I realized that I had inadvertently hopped on a “fun bus,” one of those busses that only takes you to Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, etc., instead of a public transportation bus. After realizing this, I got off the bus and walked, and walked, and walked and ended up at a large corporation but not the one I was supposed to interview with. By that time I was so tired of walking that I just asked them if there were any openings…and here I am 33 years later still doing some work for the people that I met there at that large corporation.
So, to answer any questions about why I might have sent you a proposal, it goes way back to “fun busses”—you never know where something might lead you :)
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