N.Z. Publicist “Sold” Tommy Steele To Fleet Street

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28750, 22 November 1958, Page 13

N.Z. Publicist “Sold” Tommy Steele To Fleet Street

LONDON. November 21. ’’Of all the publicists who have taken the community for a ride, a 30-year-old New Zealander. John Kennedy, stands out." the “News Chronicle" says today. Kennedy "discovered" Tommy Steele—and led him to a pinnacle of hysterical acclamation never before attained by a youth in Britain. Todav Kennedy reveals in his book “Tommy Steele" how he blatantly manipulated the national press for publicity. "I missed no opportunity to put out stories on Tommy,” he says, “Most of them were greatly exaggerated. I doubled the salary he was paid, trebled the size of his fan-mail, said he owned a motor-car when in fact he could not drive. “If a thought came to me, I blandly announced it as an establisbed fact.”

Kennedy attributes 90 per cent, of Steele’s success to newspaper stories—many of which he candidly admits be faked, the “News Chronicle” said. When he wanted to lift the new rock ’n’ roll star from the Soho coffee-bar level into hiSih society, he set up a "debutante party" in Wansworth at which Stoolp entertained. “A dozen girls from shows and model agencies agreed to come and give phoney, aristocratic names if they were quizzed by reporters. ’

Kennedy says. There was not a debutante in the place. But the next morning, Steele's picture appeared on the front page of a mass circulation Sunday paper. The guests were described as "society" _ from “Britain’s plushest homes." Steele's first West End engagement was at £2O a week. Kennedy hired a photographer to get a picture of the Duke of Kent leaving a theatre—and told Flee t l street it was the Duke corning out of the night club. The Duke, who had not been near the show was quoted as saying Steele was "great, great." Behind the fakery, however, there emerged a sharp portrait of Tommy Steele as a decent and likeable young entertainer with a great sense of humour, the “News Chronicle" added.