Wyatt Earp has been one of my favorite "real-life heros" of the Old West since I watched Hugh O'Brien portray him in the "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" TV series. Since then, I've sought out and read numerous books and articles to learn the real story of the Wyatt Earp and sort out the facts from the fiction and from the legends. I was, therefore, delighted to see this book described on its dust jacket as "A biography and more -- a smart and informative look at how myths and legends are forged."

From a public relations perspective, the opportunity to learn how Earp's life was transformed into a legend and how his reputation continued to grow after his death in 1929 and even moreso in the last 50 years due to the impact of television and movies was tremendously appealing. And, I'm happy to report that the author delivered on this promise, although it's later in the book and less-detailed than I would have liked.

Readers who are not already familiar with Wyatt Earp and the controversy that surrounds his actual role in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral and its aftermath -- One group of scholars sees Earp as a noble, strong-willed, law-enforcing "good guy" while another equally reputable group sees him as a corrupt, power-hungry vigilante and murderous "bad guy" with a badge. -- will be well-served by and appreciate the book's structure and emphasis. Almost 350 of its 400+ pages painstakingly chronicle and analyze Earp's life and the conflicting interpretations that have been applied to it. Only the last 50-60 pages focus on the image-making efforts of Earp's biographers, novelists, screen-writers, and motion picture and television producers. While that's probably an appropriate balance for most readers, given my interests in public relations and image-building, as well as my previous familiarity with the conflicting interpretations of Earp's role in history, it was a bit disappointing. I don't object to any of the author's interpretations. I think he did an excellent job of making sense of Wyatt Earp and the people who have recounted conflicting versions of his story. I just wish he offered more insight into the image-making process and the people and companies behind it.

For me, it was fascinating to think about the ways Wyatt Earp's legend has changed over the course of time. It's summarized in the chapter titled "Hollywood Gunfighter" where the author says: "As police and the FBI battled gangsters and gunmen in the 1930s, Earp emerged as an inspiration for a return to frontier justice; after World War II and Korea, he represented the Cold Warriors who held the line against the enemies of democracy; and now, by 1970, he was seen as a point man for the military-industrial complex."

Don't, however, read this book expecting a to learn a lesson in image-building public relations skills. Although it describes what happened to Earp and his image/legend, it doesn't approach it in a how-to-do-it way. There is little, if anything, you could take from this book to help a current public relations client. But, if you're interested in Wyatt Earp or more generally in the Old West, I recommend it. As an Earp fan, I'm glad someone is still paying attention to both the life and the legends of Wyatt so they, in the words of the TV series theme song, "forever will live on the trail."
[9/24/08]

This book is cast in the mold of the now-outdated Dartnell Public Relations Handbook and Lesly's Handbook of Public Relations and Communications that tried to encapsule everything a communication practitioner needed to know in a single volume. It and they are meant to be desktop references that are rarely read cover to cover but are kept handy to be consulted when unfamiliar situations arise.

In recent years I've used it as a study guide to assist communication professionals preparing to take the IABC accreditation exam and, without exception, the accreditation candidates agreed that it is an excellent and very useful resource that was well worth reading. Taken as a whole, it provides a great overview of the knowledge, skills, and expertise that are expected of an experienced and accredited communication professional.

The biggest differences between this and earlier handbooks are (a) this IABC Handbook covers a much broader spectrum of the communication industry and incorporates all aspects of organizational communication while the earlier handbooks focused almost solely on public relations and (b) the earlier handbooks featured lots of how-to-do-it articles and step-by-step directions while this book offers very few how-to-do-it techniques but includes lots of conceptual explanations.

Topics include: the evolving nature and scope of communication; communication management; internal organizational communication; dealing with external audiences and publics; media relations; government relations; investor relations; marketing communication; planning and measuring success; and communicating during a crisis. In total, there are 41 chapters by 46 authors, many of whom are highly active and well known in IABC circles.

Article by article, every chapter offers solid, well-thought-out, and clearly presented ideas. Each is worthwhile in its own right, but few are truly outstanding. They're worth reading, but they aren't star-quality. Few would be cited as the best or most definitive article written about their topic. In most cases, given a little time to think about it and/or look through files, well-read and up-to-date communicators could probably come up with better articles about most of the topics in the book, but they would be hard-pressed to find a more informative collection of articles on all these topics in a single volume.

Ironically, this book is an almost perfect example of the philosophical paradox that the whole is often more than the sum of its parts. Although few of the articles are noteworthy as stand-alone pieces, taken together they become an excellent overview of contemporary communication practices. For new communicators, they can be a fine introduction to the broad range of organizational or corporate communication. And, for experienced communicators, they can be an effective refresher about basics that were once known but haven't recently been thought about, or they can be a helpful alert to some of the ever-changing trends in professional practices. I highly recommend it.
[1/11/08]

This book was not intended to address public relations and, in fact, never mentions the term. Nonetheless, awareness of its analysis and projection of current media and audience trends is likely to be critical to communicating and working with all publics in the years ahead.

A cover blurb from media/computer/sociology guru Howard Rheingold compares the author, Henry Jenkins, to Marshall McLuhan, an assessment that may be right on in more ways than one. McLuhan was widely talked about and highly controversial during the 1960's and `70's but wasn't given wide academic credibility until decades later. Similarly, because much of Jenkins' work focuses on fan involvement in popular culture, video games, and reality tv, he also runs the risk of being dismissed as an intellectual light-weight or as someone with interesting things to say about relatively trivial matters. That, however, would be a mistake.

The final chapters of this book illustrate how the lessons and patterns Jenkins found in years of studying fan-involvement, cross-media convergence, and audience participation in creating media content for fun/entertainment purposes have been manifesting themselves in politics and elections since the breakthough campaigns of 2004. Today, according to Jenkins, all media audiences are demanding opportunities for greater participation and at least shared control of their media content. When they don't get it, they respond negatively and sometimes with devastating impact on the media or the producers or the sponsors/originators of the unsatisfying content. To the extent that public relations practitioners hope to continue using the media to help maintain their relationships with key publics, it will be critical to be aware of these trends and adapt to them.
[12/07/07]

Little-known outside of scholarly circles today, Amos Kendall, depending on one's politics, was revered or reviled as one of the most influential Americans in the 19th century. As a newspaper editor and political publicist, he was an ardent partisan who helped Andrew Jackson get elected as President. As an adviser and member of Jackson's cabinet (and later Martin Van Buren's), he helped reshape federal government and the modern two-party political system. As Postmaster General and later a business partner of Samuel Morse (inventor of the telegraph), he helped establish the first high-speed communication networks to span the nation. And, in his old age, he founded and funded what became Gallaudet College, the first school for the deaf in the country.

My interest in Kendall was first sparked by the short, vague references to him that appear in several popular public relations textbooks. They're usually only a sentence or two with little detail, but they invariably refer to him as the first, unofficial presidential press secretary. (The actual title "Press Secretary" wasn't used until the 1930s. George Akerson, under President Herbert Hoover, was the first to have it, but it was only one of his duties, not a full-time responsibility. A few years later, Steve Early, working for President Franklin Roosevelt, became the first full-time presidential press secretary.) However, after extensive research during a summer/fall 2002 sabbatical, I concluded that Kendall was far from being a press secretary. He was definitely a great publicist for Jackson, and he wrote lots of stories and editorials supporting Jackson. He also wrote -- or helped write -- many of Jackson's important speeches and proclamations. But, he never wrote "news releases," issued presidential statements, or distributed material intended for any/all newspapers to use. He only wrote for, and was published in, newspapers owned and operated by him, his colleagues, and/or other Jackson supporters. Nor was he a resource, intermediary, or facilitator for reporters or editors. What Kendall did was tell the President's story to people who read his and other Jackson-controlled newspapers; he never worked with or through other newspapers. He spoke only to his own readers, rather than trying, as today's press secretaries do, to get messages disseminated to all media users by speaking to reporters/editors who then convey the story through their media.

Consequently, this book has little to offer those seeking insights into public relations or the role of the President's press secretary. It is, however, a fascinating look at an important historical figure. I just wish it had been published in 2002 when I was researching Kendall. I was fortunate to have talked with Professor Cole at that time, and he was generous in sharing insights from his research up to that point, but having the entire book finished would have been even more helpful.
[5/21/06]

Eliot Ness is, as Tucker describes him, "an established icon in the American psyche" and our image of a dedicated law enforcement officer. Though most people today don't realize it, he was the inspiration for Chester Gould's cartoon character Dick Tracy, created in 1931 at the height of Ness's prominence. Ness was also "a glory-grabber, seeking his own publicity - at times at the price of endangering the effectiveness of his raids by telling reporters when and where a strike would take place."

Personally, I've been trying to understand Ness from a public relations perspective since my earlier research uncovered photographs from the 1930s which showed him standing, axe in hand, with one foot resting on an overturned whiskey barrel. His pose was identical to newspaper photos of prohibitionist Carrie Nation taken three decades earlier when she was smashing saloons in her anti-liquor crusade. The images were so alike that I had to wonder if Ness intentionally copied Nation's stance. And, I found further irony, or perhaps truth, in the fact that this same pose was recreated by both Robert Stack and Kevin Costner in publicity photos for the 1959 Untouchables TV series and the 1987 movie.

Expecting this book to provide a detailed treatment of the real Eliot Ness with references to how he was portrayed on television and in the movies, I was deeply disappointed. The book is the exact opposite of what I expected. It focuses more on fiction than reality. Only one chapter, a scant 18 pages, discusses "The Real Eliot Ness," while 135 pages are devoted to an episode by episode treatment of the two TV series (which were almost entirely fictional except for the names of historic figures and a few headline events) and the movie (which, like the TV pilot, was only loosely based on actual events). While it may be of interest in terms of television/movie history and the re-making of a classic series, it has little to offer students of biography or of public relations.
[2/11/06]

After the disappointment of reading Larry McMurtry's The Colonel and Little Missy, it was delightful to read about the fabulous adventures of Ned Buntline, an even more fanciful but less well known contemporary of Buffalo Bill's. Although Buntline, whose real name was Edward Zane Carroll Judson, never achieved the "superstar" status of Buffalo Bill and was never as much of a household name, either in his own time or now, it wasn't for lack of trying.

In the mid to late 19th century, until he was surpassed by Mark Twain, Buntline was the best-selling and most money-making author in the United States. But, like Michael Crichton or Tom Clancey of today, he wrote action adventure tales for mass audiences, not carefully crafted literature for the cognoscenti. He wrote tales of pirates and sea-faring dare and do, graphic and exciting tales of warfare, and legend-building stories of the American frontier. His works are often characterized as "pot-boilers" or "pulp fiction," but he wrote so many of them and they sold so well that Monaghan dubbed him "the ten-cent millionaire" in recognition of the scores of dime novels he penned. He also wrote serials for illustrated journals, newspaper and magazine articles, and stage shows that played on Broadway and around the country. He also produced and toured as the star of a Wild West Show that briefly competed directly against Buffalo Bill's "Wild West." He also undertook other highly successful publicity-seeking activities. In one of the most notable, he arranged with the Colt Firearms Company to produce a special, limited edition pistol known as the "Buntline Special" and then went on a grand tour of the West, where he stopped in such locations as Dodge City and Tombstone to present engraved Buntline Specials to Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Bill Tilghman, and other notable lawmen.

This book wasn't written from a public relations perspective, so Buntline's PR saavy isn't highlighted or analyzed in detail. You have to spot it for yourself and do a little bit of reading between the lines. But, unless you were specifically looking for these insights, you'd never miss them. The book is a scholarly, well-researched, and very readable biography written by a respected scholar and historian. Whether you're interested in the pop culture icons and superstars of 19th century or just looking for an intriguing biography, this book should be on your reading list.
[12/28/05]

Larry McMurtry, who is best know for his novels and movie/television adaptations of them - The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment, Lonesome Dove, Buffalo Girls, and dozens of others - begins this non-fiction work with the assertion: "Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley were, in my opinion, the first American superstars - in the 1880s and 1890s, at the height of their fame, their images were recognized the world over. Bufflao Bill was probably the most famous American of his day; he was easily more famous than any president, more famous even than Theodore Roosevelt." This statement is neither surprising nor unsual. Countless others share this view, especially about Buffalo Bill.

McMurtry's ostensible purpose was to explore and explain the professional and personal relationships that brought William "Buffalo Bill" Cody and Annie Oakley to this then-unprecedented level of stardom. And, he does regale us with anecdotes and episodes related to their various tours, some of the techniques used in their performances, and, in the case of Buffalo Bill, a number of sexual and financial peccadilos and personal indiscretions. Regrettably, it's all very superficial. There's a lot of rambling repetition and a general lack of substance. In both style and content, the book reads more like a fan magazine than a serious work of biography or of scholarship. Very few sources are directly cited, and readers are presumably expected to accept what's being said based on the author's presumed credibility and reputation. In fact, it's my rather cynical assumption that it was only the reputation and name-recognition of the author, not the quality of the content or even of the writing, that convinced the publisher to bring out this book. Reading it was a huge disappointment and, if I were Larry McMurtry, I'd be embarrassed to have my name on it.

Readers interested in learning more about Buffalo Bill and his rise to prominence would be far better served by Buffalo Bill: Last of the Great Scouts, written by his sister Helen Cody Wetmore in 1899 and republished in 1994. Its book jacket begins with the statement: "Arguably Buffalo Bill was America's first superstar."
[11/19/05]

This is another of the numerous books cast in the mold of Jay Levinson's Guerilla Marketing or David Yale's Publicity Handbook that strive to be one-volume how-to-do-it guides to attracting attention and/or customers. Like the others, it's written in a slightly hyped but clear and confidence-boosting style that emphasizes how you or your company, using the simple and easy to understand techniques outlined in the book, can achieve the same kinds of results produced by large corporate public relations or marketing departments. In fact, Laermer boldly asserts: "Most enterprises probably do not need a large PR budget, no matter what people, well, like us tell you. The fact is, many don't need firms to do PR for them. They can do it on their own."

That quote may be a great way to sell a book being touted as a do-it-yourself guide to PR, but it seems a bit disingenuous coming from someone who makes a major portion of his living as a PR consultant. And, it seems to inappropriately undermine the belief that a college education, and especially a major in public relations or communication, is important career preparation for students aspiring to success in public relations.

Despite these reservations, and certainly not accepting the notion that this book is an indispensible key to PR successs, it does have a lot to recommend it to inexperienced practitioners who already have a reasonable grasp of the fundamentals but need tips on applying their knowledge to unfamiliar situations. It's loaded with bulleted lists, guidelines, mini-case studies, and other suggestions for turning abstract theory into action steps that produce practical results. It's great information but, I must admit, I found the writing style a bit annoying at times. It's a bit too hip, too loaded with buzz-words, too edgy, and too overly optimistic for my taste.
[10/11/05]