Through “rooms” to the top

Press, 29 April 1978, Page 17

Through “rooms” to the top

Blood, Brains and Beer. David Ogilvy. Hamish Hamilton. 118 pp. $3.95.

David Ogilvy’s success as founder and, until his retirement, as chairman of the international advertising firm of Ogilvy and Mather, was inevitable. His autobiography shows that he has a quick mind, is shrewd, did not mind working hard, and has total faith in himself. He also has flair — flair for advertising, for enjoying life, and for getting to know top people. Ogilvy had a flirtation with advertising, in his brother’s London agency, before emigrating to the United States and eventually setting up his own business. But his other, earlier jobs formed a highly improbable combination. His first job, after two years at Oxford, was as a chef at the Hotel Majestic, in Paris, where he rounded out his taste for good food and wine; he then sold cooking stoves to chefs in Scotland: migrated to America after a speH in advertising; worked for Dr George Gallup in the polling business, particularly in Hollywood where they could predict how many people would see a film before it was made; worked

with the Secret Service in World War II; became a farmer after the war with the Amish, from South Germany, in Pennsylvania; and only then went into the advertising business on his own account.

He concedes that his time with Gallup helped him in the advertising world and his chapter on it shows why he was successful.

An inveterate name-dropper, Ogilvy’s paperback is assured of being a best-seller if everyone he names, or their next of kin, buy a copy. He appears to have met top politicians, generals, movie magnates, and tycoons, and made friends with many. He wined and dined with Andre Simon and joked with Harpo Marx. He has a chatty, entertaining style, though his slender volume reads disjoir.tedly, and his childhood recollections add little to the over-all picture. The main reason for the episodic nature of the book is because Ogilvy lived his life in what he calls a sereis of “rooms” — including a Paris kitchen, a Pennsylvania farm, an advertising office, and now a French chateau where he lives a quieter life. — BARRY HOLLAND.