This & That
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Taking time out to vogue with Morris Day during Club Benson & Hedges in New Orleans circa 1997.
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From the early 90s with the dynamic Charlie Wilson, leader of The Gap Band at that time (right), and Bill Vaughan, CMPR's very first employee. On Club Benson & Hedges 100 Nights Live Tour. 
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WBGO's New Year's Eve celebrations were always a blast. Every year, Dorthaan Kirk drafted me to help with the seating chart. My office was on West 53rd Street and she would come over from Newark to work on the task of seating 600 - 1000 people. No computer programs, just hand-drawn charts and a big stack of reservations. We would spread the forms across the floor and carefully go about our task. After all were seated, wined and dined, we would stand back and enjoy our work. Here I am following a set with Illinois Jacquet, whose big band lit up the night at the Hyatt Hotel ballroom December 31, 1994.
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The great HERB SNITZER took photos of Satchmo, Duke, Sarah, Coltrane, Mingus, Monk, Miles and ME -- getting my groove on behind the main stage at the Newport Jazz Festival 1981.
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CMPR 25th Anniversary Memory: Country music star Vince Gill and me at a Marlboro Music Festival, NY's Beacon Theater, 1989 or 1990. 

Philip Morris' Marlboro Music Tour was our first national gig, and we had great fun promoting tours for 9 years. We had landed some wonderful gigs, such as WBGO's 10th anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall and doing PR for Jon Faddis and Donald Harrison, among others; but I was about to exhaust my savings and was considering accepting a job with a record label. Then, my former secretary at KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Susanne Pearson, called to say that Lauren Lazinsk from Philip Morris wanted me to bid on a project. Although Susanne and I hadn't talked for months, she tracked me down and told me to call Lauren right away. Oddly enough, I didn't really know Lauren. I met her while I was still living and working at KDKA. Lauren was standing in the freezing cold at the backstage door of the Beacon Theater waiting for Festival Production's John Schreiber to bring her a backstage pass and ticket to a Najee concert. I had a pass from Najee, so I was able to bring her in from the cold to retrieve her credentials. While we waited for the concert to start, we were chatting about our jobs and I told her that I planned to open a boutique PR agency in New York in a couple of years. We exchanged business cards, and she actually remembered and used that card nearly two years later. I wrote a proposal, delivered a presentation and won the bid. From that day on, Carolyn McClair Public Relations marched boldly and happily into the future with no thoughts of any other job. Isn't it cool that the concert with Vince Gill was at the very same venue that led us to many fabulous business relationships? Sending thanks and lots of love to Lauren, Susan Moore, Mary Jo Gennaro and others who produced special events at the company formerly known as Philip Morris.
Join us as we celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Carolyn McClair Public Relations!

Over the past 25 years, we have had the pleasure to work with some great people.  We would like to take a moment to thank our clients, the office staff, independent contractors, interns, friends and family who have helped us reach this milestone.  You've made all of this a pleasure ... never just a job. Thank you!