Mr. Donald Rosenblit
I have been working like a dog my entire career.
I found my writing chops at Syracuse University—highlighted by my involvement in co-writing an ambitious musical, which LIFE magazine covered and voted the ‘Best College Musical of the Year’.
After I graduated from Syracuse University, I headed to New York to begin my writing career. My first paid writing gigs were with several network children’s shows. As a production coordinator, I worked on several “talk” and late night TV shows.
Hollywood then beckoned me, but so did Philadelphia, where I had a chance to became a partner in a start-up advertising agency. I was confronted with an agonizing decision, and I chose to move to…Philadelphia. I never stopped speculating, “where would my career have taken me, if I would have headed west instead?” But I guess I did okay. Clients like McDonalds Restaurants helped us grow our business to become one of the most successful agencies in the region. Ahh, McDonalds— I wrote commercials for McDonalds and supervised the account for 24 years. I even dressed up as Ronald McDonald to make a personal appearance at a restaurant opening.
The seed for my world of COLLYWOOD was planted many years ago, when I wrote a series of commercials for a dog food company. The hero, who chased the big bad wolf away from the chicken coop, was a private eye dog. That prompted me to contact several studios about developing a television series. I got a bite from CBS Films. They assigned an animator to work with me on the project, but low and behold, the big bad wolf in the executive suite killed the show.
Years later, when we sold our advertising business, I had lunch with my childhood friend and first writing partner – Bill Persky (5 time Emmy winner, 10 nominations). Bill encouraged me to start writing again and that’s when I went to the dogs. I created a website —collywood.com —and wrote several screenplays starring Rod Weiler, Private Eye Dog. But once again, life, (and other projects) took me away from COLLYWOOD until the Coronavirus took over our lives.
While isolating this past year, I dug in and wrote a book about Rod Weiler’s son, Roddy Weiler, and his adventures in my first novel…THE LUNATICK. (at amazon.com).
With all the demands of growing an advertising agency, I still managed to take the time to volunteer my tail off:
* President/Chairman: the Philadelphia Theatre Company
* President: Marketing Communications Executives.
* Founding member and president: Delaware Valley Stroke Council
* Captain: “Race for the Cure.” Received Komen’s “20-year visionary award.”
* Member of Broadcast Pioneers
* Co-Founder/Vice President/President: Procrastinators Club of America
I’ve got to stop here and explain this period in my life that was so off-the-wall crazy, yet deliriously rewarding.
With the founding of the Procrastinators Club of America, I was elected Vice President, but we never got around to having another election. Sadly, our president passed away, so now I’m president of the Procrastinators Club. The Procrastinators’ Club of America describes its purpose as “promoting the philosophy of relaxation through putting off until later those things that needn’t be done today.”
At one time, we had over 100,000 members worldwide—although only 8 members paid their dues, and they were hustled off of our membership roles as soon as we got around to it.
We had great parties—Christmas in July, 4th of July in January, Halloween in April (Best costume winner—The Invisible Man). We also traveled to the White Hall Bell Foundry in London where we demanded our money back because of the crack in the Liberty Bell. Can you believe that they refused to pay up because we didn’t have the original carton?
So, how far does Collywood go? More books, a TV series for Roddy and his Wonder Pups, Rod Weiler’s PLAY DEAD in movie theaters or streaming on Netflix and Disney.
I can dream, can’t I?
