jay/day

This got forwarded to me, in a roundabout way, from Chuck Phillips. It's a three-year-old article from the New York Times about Jay's last wife, Edwina and her efforts to preserve Panama's eco-diversity ...

EDWINA VON GAL, a garden designer based in East Hampton, N.Y., first saw Panama five years ago, while cruising down the Panama Canal on a yacht owned by Jean Pigozzi, an Italian investor. She and her husband, Jay Chiat, the co-founder of Chiat/Day, the advertising agency, were heading for Bahía Honda, a quiet bay where Mr. Pigozzi was buying thousands of acres. "I loved Bahía Honda," Ms. von Gal said. "But I had no plans to return."

The full link to the article is here.

Posted by alburty at 07:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yet another alum has popped up in my email ...

Hello,
I just saw your C/D alumni site and thought i'd throw my info forth.

I spent two memorable years in the Venice office 92-94 as an account guy, on the Nissan account. I was part of a small entertaining group that (re)started the direct marketing department at C/D. I worked with wonderful folks like: Gary Madonna, Maggie McDermott, J. Shawn Freedberg. Chris Mike, Laura Vielbig, Karen Knowles among many others. I have fond memories of futily trying to get C/D art directors (used to network TV spots), excited to create the new #10 envelope we needed designed ASAP for the new mailer campaign... wonderful years indeed.

My wife diana is an educator in the Pasadena Unified School District and we live in the hills of Altadena. I'm 4 years into working for Oversee.net in downtown Los Angeles, where I manage acquistions of domain name portfolios.

Cheers!

Chris Sivertsen

Posted by alburty at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, here's my odd contribution for jay\day 2008.

Of all of the links I've discovered on YouTube, I think this is my all-time favorite. It's an excerpt from Lena Horne's show she performed at the Nederlander Theatre beginning in the summer of 1981, my second year in NY. It was amazingly hot and she didn't like air-conditioning, so everybody in the theatre was in agony. She seemed to thrive. The show, which was a concert, ran for over a year. I can't imagine anybody doing that today.

This is the finale. I don't know if you ever saw it, but she performed "Stormy Weather" in the first act very simply, just as she always did. Then, at the end of the second act, she sang it again, this time ripping the ceiling off of the theatre. Despite the memory of the heat in the theatre, I still get goosebumps watching this.

I went to see this with Eve Luppert. I was working at C/D at 666 Fifth Ave. and on this night, I was so grateful for being alive and in NY (thanks to Jay) so I could see this. I knew this was why I had come to the big city.

She was 67 when she did this. She turns 91 on the 30th of June.

The jay\day message? "If you believe, just as I believe in you."

Steve

Posted by alburty at 01:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of my very own employees has turned up in my mailbox. The lovely and perky Karen Gross worked in the MIS department in NY. Welcome, Karen!

Hi Steve,

How are you? I haven't spoken to you in ages. I've reconnected with Rosann Calisi since I moved out to LA for 3 months. Also, reconnected with Scot Blakeley and Lauren Slaff on Facebook.

I saw that you and JP got certified. I'm a diver too and Fishpix is my site for my underwater photography. I just wanted to say hi and see how you were doing. You look happy. I'm VP of Advertising and Sales Operations at Move.com. It's an exciting opportunity for me and I get to live in LA for a while then back to NY.

Posted by alburty at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This ad reportedly ran in the WSJ in early June. The body copy beneath promises:

No 1st or 2nd Checked Bag Fees

No Change Fees

No Fuel Surcharges

No Snack Fees

No Aisle or Window Seat Fees

No Curbside Checkin Fees

No Phone Reservation Fees

Posted by alburty at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just spoke with Yvonne Smith, who was an art director at C/D going back to the days on Olympic Boulevard and I believe was still there when we moved from the Biltmore to the warehouse. (I could be wrong about that.)

At this moment, her contacts are glued to her eyeballs as she is a judge for the Primetime Emmys and she's watching reel after reel of comedies and dramas.

She says she's in the "Witness Protection Program" (she's joking, of course) and living a very happy life in Malibu. She is deeply involved in animal rescue programs, having rescued everything from a thoroughbred horse to a skunk. ("You only rescue one skunk in your career," she said. She says she has so much dog hair in her house, her housekeep blew up their Dyson vacuum cleaner!

Posted by alburty at 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This is indeed a sad week here at Jay\Day ...

I regret that I must be the bearer of bad news, but I wanted to let Mark's friends and associates from Chiat/Day know about his current situation.

Mark Doyle, former Creative Director and Vice-president of Chiat/Day, my beloved father, was diagnosed with advanced and terminal cancer earlier this month. He is currently in hospice, in reasonable comfort and surprisingly good spirits, but he will not be with us for much longer.

He worked until the very end, turning in his last project for Canon/ UNICEF only days before he left home. We are about to lose a fine talent and a loving, generous man. I hope that those who worked with him and considered him a friend will keep him in their thoughts.

Anyone wishing to drop him a note may send it to me via ...

... and I will make sure he receives it.

Regards,

James E. Doyle

Posted by alburty at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This just in from Chuck Phillips ...

tom groener has passed away. tom was, in hy's estimation, the best radio talent ever. hy didn't realize this was the 40th anniversary of the agency which he helped found. we reminisced about the folks who were there when the doors opened. to our list he added the following: doris' last name was bell. dieter's last name was eichleman. blake hunter was there and his name should be put back on the list. add also tom phalert, who nudged his way from production artist to art director and subsequently went on to stardom in cincinnati. hy couldn't remember the receptionist either... i think we got everybody else.

Posted by alburty at 09:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A treatise on the lowly cubicle.

Posted by alburty at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And in today's email came this thoughtful email from an alum who is now in sunny Spain ...

Hello,

I was an intern at Chiat/Day New York in 1999 working for Bill Hamilton right when the agency was named agency of the decade by Advertising Age.

Because I was just an intern I never really had the chance to work directly with Mr Chiat, but he was a hero for me at that time and I will always admire him. I was collaborating with TBWA, Madrid when he died and I proposed them to do an ad just like the famous "think different" Apple press campaign an his picture on it, but I think it never went through.

Congratulations for your website.

Regards,

LORENZO BENNASSAR

Posted by alburty at 06:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)