Archives for posts with tag: Rolf Dolina

ONCE BITTEN FOREVER SMITTEN

February 26, 2015 //
1

It’s Not Enough To Dream

Haresh Shah

warsaw
There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. Oscar Wilde

It’s not unusual for small but ambitious publishers to be bitten by the idea of adding Playboy to their stable of publications. Bitten even harder are the ones who have had no familiarity with the publishing business. But they have dreams and the desire and some money to spare that drive them to near obsession, do everything in their power to buy the Playboy license. Because in their dreams and the desires what they are thinking is: If only I can get to publish Playboy! At this point they are not thinking what it really takes to undertake such a project. Their psychological business plans have no provision for what if it doesn’t quite work out?

The letter came forwarded from Andreas Odenwald – our editor-in-chief in Germany. Guess, this is for you amigo, said his scribble. It’s an inquiry letter from Poland from the company called Elgaz. Attached to it is a recommendation letter from their German partners, a PVC window manufacturers, vouching for the serious intent and the solid financial standing of this Polish company involved in various businesses, among them the international video distribution.

What is this with video distributors wanting to be magazine publishers? Accompanying the inquiry is a video cassette giving you a virtual tour of Elgaz businesses and facilities in Gdańsk. Quite impressive, considering that this is 1991 – years and years ahead of the virtual tour ever came into existence. I reflect upon the fact that I have also had a similar inquiry from Video Vision from South Africa. The owner, Anant Singh had actually stopped by my office one evening. After I explained what was actually involved and once he understood, he let it pass. Quite the contrary with Janusz Lekztoń – the young entrepreneur of Elgaz. For him, wanting to publish Playboy is not just a business proposition, it is his lifelong dream.

Following my meeting with Beata (Milewska) that January morning, I meet with Lekztoń’s designate, the journalist Jerzy Mazur (Jurek) for coffee and agree to have lunch with his boss  Lekztoń and his associates the next day.

Boyish and pudgy, Lekztoń doesn’t speak any English. Neither do the ones accompanying him, except Jurek, who also spoke Spanish. From what I understood, Elgaz, as the name suggests was once a company that supplied household and industrial natural gas in Poland, the company Lekztoń had come to inherit during the shuffle at the fall of the communist era. No longer in gas business, his main income stream currently is international video distribution. That is, to acquire territorial rights, have the foreign movies dubbed in Polish and distribute them to the households through retail outlets.

Of the five of us sitting around the table, the interchange takes place only between Jurek and I. He is the communicator for Lekztoń, and if we were to reach an agreement, it would be him who would become the editor and the publisher. Though he would later tell me that he too had in mind Tomasz Raczek as his editor. I spend a pleasant lunch with Lekztoń and his associates. We stroll around the old town square with his photographer trailing us. They are gracious hosts and want to show me the past and fortunately undestroyed glory of one of the Europe’s most beautiful town squares.

The square is garlanded by the rows of three to five stories buildings butted together, each painted individually in vibrant colors that wear the sunny glow of the warm fall leaves – yellows, oranges, reds and pinks and the cooler but equally a s vibrant aqua marine and green. Those fairy tale houses remind me of the canal front row houses in Amsterdam and also the houses on  Prague’s Old town Square. To see them within a day of having saddened by those dour panaleks as the Czechs call their pre-fabed clapped together wall panels communist housing complexes and juxtapose them with the Old Town houses make for a quick history lesson in the country’s recent past. Paved cobblestones, the square takes me to what must have been the glorious past of Poland.

We eat at one of the traditional Polish restaurants, table bedecked with crisp white table clothes under the bright yellow ones, propped on which are turquoise napkins. Antique wall hangings and all. They are trying to show me the best that their country has to offer, which makes for a very pleasant and laid back afternoon.

Even though it’s clear to me that other than his dream and the intense desire to be Playboy publisher, Lekztoń and his people don’t have a clue about how magazines are made. And yet, Lekztoń has already produced a “test issue” in the form of a complete prototype dummy which they present to me. It contains basic Playboy layout with lot of crudely photographed “original” nudes, assigned and produced by Lekztoń himself. His personal vision of Playboy. In his book Jurek reports Lekztoń saying, he spent several hundred million zlotys to create the “sample issue”. Even though Jurek warns him that Playboy rarely allows it’s international editions to publish domestic photos. The majority of the Playmates are born in U.S.A.. Only a few are models from other countries and they usually apply for American citizenship.

When I met him, I thought Jurek was quite knowledgeable and an earnest journalist. Where he got the above notion and the information is a mystery to me. Perhaps his own perception of how things worked at Playboy. But what I do believe to be true is him saying that Lekztoń’s mind the text in the magazine existed just to fill the pages and therefore not worth his while to pursue. He thought that Jurek could write most of it, if not all. At least he didn’t even pretend to have his readers buying his version of the magazine for the interviews. Lekztoń had enough financial backing – he had everything that Polish Playboy could buy for money, continues Jurek. But I am getting ahead of myself. I thank Lekztoń for his hospitality and tell him that we weren’t yet quite ready to launch in Poland, but would certainly meet with him once again when the time comes.

Ten months later I return to Poland and hop a plane from Warsaw to Gdańsk and visit the offices of Elgaz. I no longer remember the offices as such, but what I remember very distinctly is their warehouse size space furnished with large industrial bare metal shelves. Piled onto them are hundreds and hundreds of VCR machines. Masters and slaves. Rolf (Dolina) defines them for me. He has accompanied me to Gdańsk. Seeing question mark on my face, he explains: the ones on the top contained the master tapes and the bottom ones – the slaves were there to copy them, one at a time. All those machines, hissing and blinking in chorus!

As we stroll down the wide aisles of the masters and slaves operation and hear Lekztoń talk and explain and watch the expressions on his face, no longer sure of being considered for the license, I notice a certain sadness color his face. His lifelong dream of publishing Playboy in Poland fading, he seems lost. That’s how much smitten he is. I wonder if he ever realizes that he would be far from being qualified to publish any magazine, let alone Playboy. Had he by a fluke of nature ever gotten to do Playboy, what a tragedy would that be?

Months later we would sign with Rolf – form a joint venture company with additional participation of Beata (Milewska) and Tomasz (Zięba).  It takes another year before we’re ready to launch in Poland with the first issue coming out in November of 1992, with the December cover date.

It’s a big success. While Hungary and Czechoslovakia bring in minimum to fair revenues, Poland being the much larger market, turns out to be quite profitable business venture. The magazine becomes talk of the town. Lekztoń and Jurek are obviously distraught and disappointed, but Jurek certainly understands why we would choose Beata over Lekztoń as our publisher. Still, I give Lekztoń the credit for being the first one from Poland not only to envision Playboy in the Polish market,, but also pursue it till the end.

A year later, I receive a press clipping of an excerpt from the book Jurek is writing about his experience working with Lekztoń. The excerpted chapter is titled: How the Gdynia Playboy Was Not Created. Enclosed also is a cover letter from Jurek. He is kind enough to have translated the contents of the clipping for me. Mentioned in it is something Tomasz Raczek supposedly said in an interview: Beata Milewska won the editorial contest organized by the American editors. Interesting. I wonder how and from where Jurek got such a notion? Plain old gossip machine? Sour grapes?

I guess even before Jurek started working with Lekztoń, he too was as bitten and smitten by the idea of brining Playboy to his country, as he narrates in the opening paragraph of the excerpt: In 1986 I was standing at the Playboy building in Chicago and I thought that the socialist system will fall some day and Playboy will enter East Europe. But I knew that only a man with big financial background may talk about the license with Christie Hefner. For him Lekztoń turned out to be that man with big financial background – and therefore a perfect man to team up with to make his dream come true. But fortunately for him and for us, the flamboyant Lekztoń would run through his fortune. Now on his own, Jurek returns back to journalism and ends his letter with telling me: It (the book) will be published at the end of this year – probably at the same time as when Lekztoń will face a trial for financial abuse.

© Haresh Shah 2015

Illustration: Celia Rose Marks

SISTER SITE

http://www.downdivision.com

Related Stories

THE STORY OF MY TUXEDO

PORK, CABBAGE AND DUMPLINGS

THE TRADER OF EVERY PORT

THOSE EYES

Next

DON’T GO AWAY

No, it’s not the title of the next post. But I feel I need bit of a break to mull over the next several posts that I hope to write. I don’t want to promise the exact date of the return, but hope to make it a short break to last between two to four weeks. By then, the spring will be just around the corner. Stay tuned.

Tags , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Entrepreneurs, Memoire, Playboy, Poland, Publishing

THOSE EYES

February 19, 2015 //
2

I Went Home And Cried

Haresh Shah

bea
Sitting across from me in a small windowless meeting room of the Holiday Inn in Warsaw is stunningly beautiful Beata Milewska. She is dressed in a conservative grey dress with the sharp U shaped neckline, trimmed with black satin ribbon. Underneath the geometric U are black brass buttons that run down to and below her breasts. Blonde, she wears fashionably shorter hair, reaching down just a little above her neck. Her eyes are sparking blue and smiles are amused but slight and measured. I guess her to be in her late twenties or the very early thirties.

Sitting next to her is Tomasz Raczek – supposedly to translate from English, but Beata herself is quite proficient in the language, so other than some whispered consulting, Tomasz is there more as an observer who would eventually be the editor-in-chief of the Polish edition. On my left is our Hungarian Publisher Deszo Futasz and on my right is Rolf Dolina, the man who has gotten us together in hopes that I would be positively impressed by Beata and her ability to gather a qualified team of professionals to create the Polish edition of Playboy.

After landing in still the old and the dilapidated Warsaw-Okecie Airport, as we drive into the city, I witness the remnants still of the city heavily bombed first by the German Luftwaffe in 1939, and then by the Russians in 1944 to quell the Warsaw Uprising. Both sides of the road are lined with the communist era’s drab and dark harsh apartment blocks. Making them further sinister is the shroud of the cold and the cloudy month of January. I cringe at the thought of the lives lived and of deaths and destruction and the dismay that still must permeate the day-to-day lives of its citizens. After all, it’s just little over a year since the fall of the Berlin wall.

Up until then, this is what I know about Beata. She is from Danzig – once the autonomous city state on the Baltic Sea, Gdańsk, nearby to the port of Gdynia . She is currently publishing a woman’s fashion magazine, Bea, in the image of Germany’s Burda Moden, named after its editor and publisher Aenne Burda – likewise she has named the magazine after herself. It speaks of her definite self confidence. Beata is publishing her magazine with very limited or no resources at all. Rolf has come to know of her through his regional manager Wlodzimierz Trzcinski. Beata had approached Wlodzimierz in hopes of selling ad pages to Fuji in her magazine. Instead, Fuji offers to supply all the films Bea needs in exchange of the byline that would say: shot on Fuji films. Not exactly what she is looking for, but the money she would save on films is still substantial – a sort of win-win situation. Rolf is impressed by this young, tenacious and hard working “businesswoman,” – as much as he is with her looks, smarts and sophistication.

The meeting proceeds well. With exception of the others present making their small contributions here and there – it’s basically Beata and me interacting while the rest look on. As we go through issues of Playboy page by page, me explaining and defining them, then throwing questions at Beata. She answers them with earnestness and precision. She seems not only to understand and know the nuts and bolts aspects of building a magazine from cover-to-cover, but also has a genuine feel for the product and its target audience. She has studied various editions of the magazine and has given serious thought to what kind of Playboy she would help create for her country.

As relaxed as the meeting seems, with Tomasz and I drinking beer and everyone else sipping on their coffees, the general air in the room is somewhat tense. Like that in an examination room. Me playing the part of a serious academician conducting orals to Beata’s doctoral candidate. While I am being my natural professional self as I a try to make important points, I am equally as aware of the fact how attractive the woman sitting across the table from me is. She exerts a certain aura that blends in well with her professionalism and very serious business woman demeanor. Her total attention to the every word I utter and her precise responses to my questions and the comments are refreshing. She has certainly done her homework. I can’t help but admire this young woman.

As much as we try to be discreet, frequent eye contacts are inevitable. Every time it happens, I see in her eyes a certain spark and a purple burst of light rays flashing across the table like from the old fashioned revolving flash cubes of the Kodak Instamatic camera. And yet, I know, and Beata is well aware that whether or not we would do Playboy with her hinges upon if I am impressed by her and her answers and have positively gauged her ability to pull it all together.

At the end of our meeting, that lasted a little over two hours, I feel drained. But I still have a long day ahead of me – a quick visit to Rolf’s Fuji operation in Warsaw. Have initial chat with the rep of another Polish prospect, Jerzy Mazur, who has flown in from Gdańsk. Rest of the day, I spend with Deszo and Rolf, have dinner with the Fuji crowd and by the time I return to my room late in the night, I am totally and positively wiped out.

As I hit the sack and think of the busy busy day and the people I have met, is when I realize how impressed I am with Beata. And how I am also taken by her overall beauty and the intelligence – what keeps flashing in my mind is the sparkles of her eyes and their penetrating gaze piercing through mine. As if we two were alone in that room shrouded in the darkness like that of the double apertured camera obscura with twin cones of lights rushing towards each other and colliding mid stream in a fusion. I suddenly feel spent by the undercurrent of the intensity of those two hours.

●●●

In Rolf’s opinion, Poland has the potential of being the bigger and the better market than already existing Hungary and soon to be launched Czechoslovakia. But we are in no hurry to move yet. This is January of 1991 and we have ahead of us the launch in Czechoslovakia. And Rolf’s focus is still to first strike an accord with the Czech license holder Vladimir Tichý. We have actually snuck out of Prague for a day just to get a feeling.

Now months later, smitten and encouraged by the success in Czechoslovakia, Rolf and I once again begin to talk Poland. In the meanwhile, on a quick visit to Gdynia in October with Rolf, I have a chance to see Beata again and meet her  partner Tomasz Zięba, whom she would eventually marry. I feel quite comfortable with them. Once again, should we go with it, through his Autraco Holdings, Rolf would bankroll the edition. This time around, now I no longer remember, but believe at Rolf’s suggestion we discuss and for the first time Playboy agrees to go into a joint-venture with Autraco Holdings as one of the two major share holders – Beata and Tomasz would manage the company and would also become its minor shareholders. All the logistics in the place, we begin to work on creating the Polish edition.

Of all the editions I have been a part of launching, the early days are the fun most. There are no pretentions, no pressure. No real deadlines. Something I always insist upon  – it’s a NO GO until we are well and ready. I want us to work simultaneously on three issues. Agree on the details and the definitions of the contents, assign the contributors, make dummies and then revise everything. Plan promotions and advertising campaigns, work on the launch details. This is the time when I excel in my role as the teacher and this is when the team is its most enthusiastic. This is when the adrenaline flows and the creativity takes place. This is when I am hardest on them. The suggestions turn into heavy discussions and the discussions into serious arguments. All work for the good of the magazine, because when we’re ready to launch, almost everyone is in sync. Nothing is more satisfying than the feeling that we have done the best that we could. We have created something we all could be equally as proud of.

This is when we all spend most of the time together, we bond or not, crowd the restaurants and taverns. Brain storm all the while. Still in the formative stage, we barely have proper offices. The publisher finds a space, a few desks and a couple of phone lines, a fax machine and we begin to buzz.

What they have found as our offices is a quaint single family row house on a quiet curved street away from the hubbub of the city center. The two story house is renovated with wood paneled sky lighted loft and exposed beams and the brick walls. The roof is red tiles. The admin offices are on the main floor and up above is editor-in-chief Tomasz Raczek’s office, which is where I am usually parked. Frequently joined by the celebrated artist and the art director Andrzej Pągowski. I love the cozy homey ambience. Once in a while I would climb downstairs and talk with Beata and Tomasz Zięba and their associates about the details of the launch.

Intense, and yet, they would be nice and easy days. The afternoon I still clearly remember as if it were only yesterday is when Beata and I are sitting at the edge of her desk, oblivious to the hurried steps crossing the hallway outside her office door, we are talking in whispers. Not exactly the business. And somewhere along the line we are holding hands, not unlike lovers. We have developed a special kind of rapport in which I wrote in my journal during one of those early days – we are becoming to be good friends – buddies if you may. Now she has longer hair that billow over and caress her shoulders. She is dressed in casual slacks and a loose fitting top. Her face wears her usual friendly and seductive smiles. Things are moving along fine and we’re relaxed – sitting side by side on the edge of her desk. We are reminiscing about that first time when we had sat across the table from each other at the Holiday Inn conference room, now a year and a half in the past.

‘Do you remember still?’ Beata asks.

‘How can I forget? I had immediately fallen in love with you, you know? I was so taken by how beautiful you were! And the blinding sparkle of your blue eyes! But I had to maintain my professional demeanor and concentrate on doing my job.’

‘While I was a nervous wreck.’

‘I know, it was tense. But nervous?’

‘And then your intense gaze! As if you were looking right through me. Your deep dark brown eyes, penetrating like two sharp arrows. It was difficult controlling myself.’

‘No!!!’

‘Yes.’ She responds. And then there is sudden silence between us.

‘I came home and cried!’ I hear her whisper.

© Haresh Shah 2015

Illustration: Celia Rose Marks

SISTER SITE

http://www.downdivision.com

Related Story

THE TRADER OF EVERY PORT

Other Profiles

STORY OF MY TUXEDO

FEEL GOOD SISTER

THE BOSS’ DAUGHTER

THE TRAVELING AGENT EXTRA ORDINAIRE

TABLE OF CONTENTS – The list and the synopsis of all 90 published blog posts.

Next Friday, February 27, 2015

ONCE BITTEN FOREVER SMITTEN

Yup! That’s the power of cuddly Bunny for you. A story of the young man’s falling in love with the idea of publishing Playboy in Poland, while having no clue what it really takes to create a magazine. But when you’re in love?

Tags , , , , , , , ,
Categories Eastern Europe, Entrepreneurs, Memoire, Playboy, Poland, Profile

THE TRADER OF EVERY PORT

December 4, 2014 //
1

Always Ready For A New Business

Haresh Shah

chickenbiz2

Must have been early 1990 when landed on my desk is an impressive corporate brochure of Autraco Holdings based in Vienna, Austria. In the cover letter signed by its CEO Rolf Dolina, he expresses his desire to want to publish Playboy magazine in Czechoslovakia. But we are already in negotiations with Vladimír Tichý of the Gennex Corporation, the publishers of magazines, books, films and video that included the Czech language edition of ComputerWorld. That in itself wouldn’t have stopped me from entertaining another option, especially because the Autraco Holdings boasts of its wide reach in the former eastern European countries that include Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland. The countries where they are sole distributors of Memorex USA, Honda automobiles and Fuji films. Enclosed with the letter are some issues of the Czech language version of Germany’s Burda Moden, widely distributed and hugely popular women’s magazine – similar to the Simplicity patterns in the United States. The magazine he was publishing with Hana Wagenhofer – his Prague based business partner in several joint ventures. And it is mainly for Hanna that he is so keen on doing Playboy. It would give her a stronger presence on the Czech publishing scene.

From the look of it, the corporation seems to be financially healthy and thriving, with dozens of entities spread over ten European nations. Looks more like a department store of consumer products, up until then deprived to the communist block. Also included in their portfolio are Palmer’s and Elizabeth Arden fashion and beauty products. A far cry from really creating a high quality magazine. But I realize that for any successful entrepreneur like Rolf Dolina, everything is a “product”, as it is for our group President William Stokkan. I remember when International Publishing was absorbed by Bill’s Licensing and Merchandizing division, me often chiding him that magazines don’t have customers, they have readers. He would smirk and say, whatever! And yet, smart enough to know the difference.

For the businessmen aspiring to be publishers, the thinking must go; They can find some good translators, sign up with a printing company and distributors and voila! Other details are just logistics. That is, until they meet me do they realize that you can’t make a successful local edition of any magazine just by translating the content. Unlike other products, it doesn’t come pre-produced. That they really need to create it issue by an issue of their own, month after month, for which they need an entire editorial staff, advertising and distribution arms.

Ditto, the small independent publishers. Even though they do have some idea of what sort of infra-structure making of a magazine takes. And still they think soon as they put Playboy logo on the cover, it should fly off the newsstands like the pigeons off Piazza San Marcos in Venice. Suddenly it would become their flagship and above all they would be known as the publishers of the local edition of Playboy – Hugh M. Hefner reincarnate of their countries.

Up until the opening up of the previously closed markets of the eastern Europe, Playboy had signed up with the major local publishers, some even larger corporations than PEI in Chicago. Once the agreement was signed, they would have a team devoted exclusively to Playboy, and one more title would be absorbed into their wider network of other publications. Not so with the emerging markets such as Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland – the first of the three viable eastern European markets. There are no established publishers for us to hook up with. There is no tradition of free journalism. The people with some professional knowledge of the media had emerged from the state’s propaganda machinery who worked within the stringent constraints of communism. The field is wide open to anyone who wants to explore. Suddenly there are small time hustlers with BIG ideas. Some of them, serious contenders, others without a clue.

And then there are the Western entrepreneurs – the expats returning home and some like Rolf Dolina, well established businessmen across the driving distances of the Eastern borders. Rolf is already doing business in several of those countries and is the go getter – the kind who grabs an opportunity when he sees one. And he knows how to make and cultivate contacts. He is a quick study and learns ropes incredibly fast. Never mind the product. In India, they would call him sub bunder ka vepari – the trader of every port. He is smart, shrewd and calculating, not to mention, charming. Making money is his passion and of many business cards he carries, the one of them is an illustration of the rooster just having settled his hen in the process of laying eggs, turning around and chasing another chick before she gets away. The tag line at the bottom says: always ready for a new business.

You can’t help but respect their daring and tenacity. Even so, the first thing I do is to try to dissuade them, because as Jorge Fontevecchia of Editorial Perfil in Argentina once put it: only to your enemies do you suggest publishing as a business. Another argument I make is that asking for Playboy’s hand is like wanting to marry a rich man’s totally spoiled daughter and it takes more than money to keep her in the style she is used and aspires to. I have gotten some laughs out of it, but you can’t dissuade someone who has hopelessly fallen in love with the idea.

In such cases I try my best to avoid meeting face-to-face with such prospects. What if I end up liking him or her? But when he sets his heart on something, Rolf is not that easily dissuaded and he is not the kind to give up that easily. After some months of fax correspondence Rolf seems to have understood that doing a serious magazine was a different ball game altogether. Not too long after, he calls my office in Chicago and casually mentions that he is in Florida, and wouldn’t mind flying to Chicago and talk with me personally. During his visit, we have a pleasant Indian lunch at my favorite of the time, Bombay Palace. Even though I had forgotten all about it, Rolf still fondly remembers that meal.

A month earlier, I had hosted the Czech team in Chicago and over that beautiful fall week sat down with them at my home around the dining table and taken them through the nuts and bolts of making of Playboy magazine – with as Ivan (Chocholouš) still remembers, Beethoven’s Symphony #9 playing in the background. Ivan couldn’t help but ask: whether there was any significance behind me playing that particular music? Not really. But it gave me an idea to use it as an example for what I was just then trying to communicate. I was taking them through the making of Playboy, page by page, and one of the things I always want to hammer into the minds of a new team is the concept of pacing.

To make it simple, you don’t place a cartoon behind a cartoon, non-fiction doesn’t follow another non-fiction, ditto the pictorials. You can’t have every illustration as a two page spread or a single page opening. The magazine, like a symphony has to have a certain rhythm which segues from one note to another. The fan of classical music, Ivan immediately understood it, something he still brings up in conversations. At the end of our weeklong orientation and the brain storming, we had agreed on the next steps. For them to go home and begin to put together the first few issues. I would take several trips to Prague and work with them and we would shoot for the early 1991 launch.

●●●

Well before the Berlin Wall crumbled on November 9, 1989, Hungary was already wiggling out of the tight ropes of the Soviet Union. Popping up were many young entrepreneurs and starting up private businesses. Among them, Dezsö Futász, the suave and dynamic publisher of the Hungarian edition of Scientific America and ComputerWorld.

Approached me on his behalf were the Hungarian expats and venture capitalists, John and Eva Breyer of Invent Corporation, based in Hillsborough, California. The breathtaking story of their escape across the border into Austria and on to the United States during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in itself would make for an incredible and thrilling love story. But for the time being, I would stick to the story of Playboy’s arrival in the eastern Europe.

After the initial exchange of information, my boss Bill and I met in my office with Eva and Dezsö in the early spring of 1989. Over the next several months we work on the details of launching of Playboy’s first edition behind the Iron Curtain. As we had just began to put together the pages of the first issue of the Hungarian edition, I remember how our entire team had put everything away and rushed over to the Kossuth Lajos tér to join the jubilant crowd gathered outside Hungary’s Parliament Building to witness the historic moment of Matyas Szuros, Hungary`s acting president declaring Hungary to be an independent nation.

It was Monday, October 23, 1989. Sixteen days ahead of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The exuberant crowd and the joy that rippled through us took me back forty two years to the night of August 15, 1947 to Bori Bunder in Bombay, and to the jubilant crowds celebrating India’s independence from the British. I still can feel the exhilaration and the thrill of that night. Seven years old, perched on the shoulders of an adult, I was surrounded by an euphoria with beating of the drums, screams of joy, chanting – the fireworks lighting up the sky and the Indo-Gothic façade of the Victoria Terminus lit up like a bride was something I still cherish like a distant dream that’s still well and alive in my memory. The Hungarian edition of Playboy launches on November 28, 1989, nineteen days after the people began to carry bits and pieces of the Berlin wall home as souvenirs.

It’s almost a year later that I am sitting with Rolf Dolina in Chicago’s Bombay Palace restaurant. It is clear to me that he is smitten with the idea of publishing a Playboy in the eastern Europe, where his businesses reign supreme. I tell Rolf about how far along we already were with the Czech edition. Nothing I could do.

But I am thinking, perhaps he can team up with Dezsö in Hungary. A whole year in publishing Playboy there, the economy and the weaning optimism of the country is setting in and the magazine is not doing as well as anticipated. Though it has already established itself as the class in itself against which others are measured. They are struggling. What the magazine needs is some infusion of cash and someone like Rolf’s expertise and the business acumen.

Over the next month or so I speak with Dezsö, Eva and Rolf, resulting in Dezsö, his partner Andras Toro, Rolf and I meeting in Budapest. Rolf is willing to land helping hand in Hungary, but his heart is still set on Czechoslovakia. Dezsö is connected with Vladimír Tichý in Prague through their common thread of ComputerWorld. The next day, Dezsö and I drive to Prague and meet with Vladimír and his right hand man Ivan Chocholouš. A day later, Rolf drives in from Vienna and the three of them reach an accord. Rolf gets to help Dezsö as well as gets to participate in Czechoslovakia. Eventually he would buy out Vladimír. Mission accomplished!

When we launch the Czechoslovakian edition on April 25, 1991, I am on the stage of Lucerna  Palace with Playmate Christy Thom (February 1991) by my side, announcing the arrival of the Czech Playboy. Standing on the side are: the publisher Vladimír Tichý and the co-publisher Hana Wagenhofer, while Rolf is hobnobbing in the crowd, feeling like a million dollars, smug and with a big smile on his face. Like the German Playmate Barbara Corser (July 1975) once said to me: Haresh, if you want something bad enough, you somehow manage to get it.

© Haresh Shah 2014

Illustration: Celia Rose Marks

SISTER SITE

http://www.downdivision.com

You May Also Like

LIVIN’ LA VIDA LOCA

THE STORY OF MY TUXEDO

DESIGNING IN HIS DREAMS

PORK, CABBAGE AND DUMPLINGS

Next Friday, December 12, 2014

THE ARABIAN NIGHT

Of the multitude of PR events sponsored by Playboy across the world, Playboy Germany’s 20th anniversary’s BIG BANG party sticks out the most in my memory. And then there was a low key event just a year before.

 

Tags , , , , , , , ,
Categories Czechoslovakia, Eastern Europe, Entrepreneurs, Friendship, Hungary, Playboy, Profile

THE STORY OF MY TUXEDO

March 28, 2013 //
3

What Good Is A Teacher If His Pupil Can’t One Up Him?

Haresh Shah

bowtie3b

I am talking to Ivan (Chocholouš) on the kitchen phone, looking out at the first tulips that have popped up in the flower bed in the backyard of my house in Evanston. It’s Wednesday the April 17th, in the year 1991. It’s been hectic as can be. I have taken off half a day to stay home and work on the final details of the launch in Czechoslovakia – only eight days away, Based on what Ivan reports from Prague, everything seems to be going smoothly with organizing of the launch events. The press conference, welcoming of the  European editors, catering, transportation. And the most importantly, now that I have signed off on every single page, the first issue is now ready to roll off the presses.

Normally what they could have sent to me via courier;  had to be faxed for my final approval. All 120 pages of the issue. Mary and I stand by all through the transmission, hoping that the telephone lines between Chicago and the printing plant in Vienna wouldn’t break down. That the fax machines would hold up for this continuous hours long transmission. As the machine spews out the pages after pages, I sit down to put them together in order. Pasting and folding and trimming to the size  with Xacto knife.  Finally I could look at the black and white mini version of the first issue of our Czechoslovakian edition. We had of course discussed all of it just a couple of weeks before in person during my most recent visit to Prague. We had kept some pages open to accommodate the last minute ads coming in. Which I had not seen.  But of what I had seen,  they have followed my instructions to the T.  Now I am giving it one last look before giving them my final okay. I am pleased at the job they have done, but with one small exception. I am not quite happy with the placement of an ad visually clashing with the facing editorial page. I page through the issue several times and decide that its something we could easily fix by swapping the offending ad with another one in front of the book. And voila, we would have a perfectly balanced issue. I communicate this to Ivan, who in turn passes it on to the people at Gistel Druck. The next day, we’re on the phone again.

‘You know, the Gistel people tell me that to switch those pages is not as simple as you told me it would be.’

‘Why is that?’

‘Because it would take a lot of work and time, which we don’t have.’

‘Lot of time? It shouldn’t take more than an hour, if that!’

‘They say it will take several hours.!’

‘Several hours? They are bullshitting you.’

‘Of course I don’t know as much about the printing process as you do, but they sound quite convincing to me.’

‘That’s precisely why printers do it – knowing that you’re sure to be lost once they begin with their technical mumbo-jumbo.’

‘I don’t know. Honestly, I am lost. Perhaps you want to talk to them?’

‘I will if you want me to.  But just tell them that I really don’t understand why it should take so long. Tell them it’s something I can do with my left hand.’

At that point I am not thinking that they had probably gone ahead and stripped everything together in signatures and may even have made sets of plate ready flats. Worse yet, already  burned the plates. Something they weren’t supposed to do before the customers have given their final okay. Squeezed between me in Chicago and the printers in Vienna, Ivan agrees to push them one more time. Since now I have challenged them and their professionalism, however grudgingly, they do it.

Ivan reports back to me during the conversation I am now having with him.

‘We have now made changes as you wanted.’

‘Thanks Ivan. I really appreciate it..’

‘I am glad to have been able to satisfy you.’ As he says this, I sense a bit of hurt in his voice mixed with a mild sarcasm and realize it must have taken some doing on his part to have the printers make the swap.

‘I hope you’ll agree with me that now the issue looks as perfect as we can make it. I know it wouldn’t have been as big a deal, had we left those pages the way they were. But as long as it was still possible to correct them, I don’t see why we shouldn’t.

To which Ivan mumbles something like; ‘of course you’re right.’

I can’t help but still hear in his voice a man placed between a rock and a hard place. Considering the limitations he must face, he has done a great job and I love him for that. Plus our relationship is beginning to evolve into a friendship.  So I try to further smooth things over.

‘You know Ivan, it may seem like a lot of work right now, but in the end what matters the  most are small details, because at the end of the day the difference between good and excellent are little things.’

And we switch back talking about the launch. I tell him that Playboy Products would provide their Men’s cologne to be included in the goody bag. That the US Playmate Christy Thom (February 1991)  was all set to fly in from Los Angeles to be by the side of Czechoslovakia’s own, voluptuous Playmate Šarka Lukešová whom we had flown into Chicago to be shot.

Ivan confirms that Hotel Diplomat would provide accommodation for the visitors and that booked for me was the presidential suite. The press conference too would take place in the ballroom of the hotel but the actual launch would be at Pálac Lucerna – the landmark building owned by the Havel family and located right in the heart of Václalvské náměstí.  That arranged were three black Mercedez Benz stretched sedans to pick up guests from the airport and scurry around the VIPs. And he rattles off who’s who of the Czechoslovakia’s elite guest list to include Václav Klaus, the Finance Minister and soon to be the Prime Minister and eventually the President of the Czech Republic. Pavel Rychetský, the Vice Chair of the Government,  Jaroslav Kořan, the minister of information who would go on to become the mayor of Prague and later editor-in-chief of Playboy Czech Republic. That the stars Myloš Kapecký and Jiřina Bohdalová were going to be the honored guests. That the beautiful television personality Magdalena Dietlová too would be hobnobbing in the crowd. And that the iconic singer Karel Gott – the country’s equivalent of Frank Sinatra would grace the event with his performance. And the highlight of the evening would be the exquisite culinary spread catered by no other than the Michelin Starred Chef, Alfons Schuhbeck from Munich.

Half of those names go over my head. But sensing his excitement, I feel that Ivan has gathered  the crème de la crème of the Czechoslovakian society and politics.

‘How about Václav Havel?’

‘Well, I am not sure. We have of course invited the President and he hasn’t yet declined. Knowing him, he just might show up.’

‘Wow!’ I go. And then pause for a breather. ‘From what you tell me, this sounds like a black tie affair.’

‘It is. Vlado (Vladimir Tichý) went to Vienna to buy his tuxedo. Dolina (Rolf) is planning to wear his white tux and Hana (Wagenhofer) I am sure will be her elegant self as usual.’ (The  three principals of the VIPress Czechoslovakia, a.s., the publishers of the Czech edition at the time. )

‘Hum!’ I mutter. Then pause again to digest the information.

‘Sounds really great. Congratulations to you. You have done really a great job. I don’t remember any launch quite so grand and glamorous as what you have planned.’

I pause one more time, looking outside at the gleaming tulips, I am thinking: And I don’t even have a tuxedo. The only time I was required to attend such an event was Playboy Holland’s first anniversary in Amsterdam. But at the time, our cool service editor Mick Boskamp – who’s still a close friend – had foresight enough  to get my measurements in advance and arranged a rental  for me. The second time was several years later in Hong Kong when we did Miss Playboy International Beauty Pageant and I was to hand out editor’s choice award to the winner on the live television broadcast. The TVB producer insisted that I do it wearing a tux. And then I even had ample time to have one custom made. But I didn’t see any sense in it and I guess I was being just plain cheap! Seeing my hesitance, the producer took me to the prop room and had me fitted with one.

‘Well, that sounds really great.’ I repeat myself. ‘But I am afraid I don’t own a tux and I am leaving for Prague in two days and have our Turkish publisher Ali Karacan in town so won’t even have time to look at renting one.’ My mindset is still fixed on renting  and not just go out and buying one.

The silence on Ivan’s side of the line prevails. But in retrospect, I should have heard the loud screeching of the wheels frantically turning inside his brain.

‘Well, I guess I just will have to wear my best dark suit.’ I say.

‘I guess,’ he echoes.

‘In fact, I have really a good one. Dark rusty brown, almost black. I bought it a little over a year ago just for the Hungarian launch.’

‘I am sure it’s really nice. Especially knowing your taste.’

‘It really is. You will see.’

‘It doesn’t matter. You’ll still be a big hit. We love you with or without a tuxedo. But you know Haresh, someone just told me not long a go that the difference between good and excellent are little things!’

I want to jump up and down and throw the receiver out the window and smash it into those swaying tulips, watching their petals erupt up in the air and scream.  ‘You fucking son of a bitch!!!

© Haresh Shah 2013

Illustration: Jordan Rutherford

SISTER SITE

http://www.downdivision.com

Next Friday, April 5, 2013

MY SPRING VALENTINE

Its Easter weekend already and the sun is shining bright and the temperature in Chicago is creeping upwards, slowly but surely. And I am thinking of the decades-a-go-winter in Amsterdam and the many faces of love.  And then one of them reappearing years later on a beautiful spring day just like today, only warmer – because it’s Santa Barbara, California.

Tags , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Czechoslovakia