Martin Cooper

Martin Cooper is an award-winning author with five books and more than 150 magazine articles, newspaper columns, and essays, to his credit. He is also a marketing professional with extensive crisis communications and public relations.

His fifth book, The ‘Reel’ Hollywood: The San Fernando Valley, published in late March 2026, tells the story of motion pictures in the San Fernando Valley. The Valley has been – and is – home to more studios, more industry professionals, and more filmed locations, than any other region. Four film studios are located in the Valley: Universal, Warner Bros., Disney, and Radford (originally Mack Sennett), and all are over a century old.

All profits from the sale of The ‘Reel’ Hollywood: The San Fernando Valley, go to the Boys & Girls Club of the West Valley, of which Mr. Cooper is Chairman Emeritus.

Books

Academy Awards 1979. Published by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

North of Mulholland. Essays from the San Fernando Valley Business Journal.

Coping With Crisis in a Complex World. A textbook for universities and corporate use.

Read All About It! The Valley Times: 1946-1970. A history of the post-war development of the San Fernando Valley. Introduction by former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Winner of the 2016 San Fernando Valley Award for Nonfiction, presented by California State University, Northridge.

Untitled. Cooper has been commissioned by the Hollywood Burbank Airport to write the Airport’s official history; to be published October 2026.

His firm, Cooper Communications, Inc., has represented a broad range of corporate, governmental, and nonprofit clients, including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, City of Santa Barbara, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mattel Toys, Hollywood Burbank Airport, and many more.

Cooper’s professional positions include Disneyland’s Advertising and Promotion Manager, Universal Studios’ Director of Marketing of its Recreation Division, and Playboy Enterprises, Inc.’s Senior Vice President-Marketing & Communications. For ten years he supervised communications for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

He is a UCLA graduate, where he was editor of the Daily Bruin, and has studied at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the U.K.