Harry Brand

Brand was born in New York to Austrian immigrants Louis Brand, a tailor, and Celia Berry Brand. He moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1900, and in 1902 broke his leg. Set improperly, he walked with a limp and was in pain for the rest of his life.

Brand went to Los Angeles High School, where he edited the school paper and served as the treasurer for the debate team. He briefly attended the University of Southern California.{{cite book|last1=Foote|first1=Lisle|title=Buster Keaton's Crew: The Team Behind His Silent Films|date=October 31, 2014|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0786496839|page=189|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xl-QBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA282}}

File:Betty Grable 20th Century Fox.jpg]]

Brand began his career as a sports writer and editor at the Los Angeles Express. Interested in politics, he left the paper to become the secretary to Los Angeles Mayor Arthur "Pinky" Snyder, where he saw to it that the sometimes drunk mayor did not make an "official fool of himself" and had "all the reporters and correspondants keep his greatness in the public eye."{{cite news|title=Archives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R18wAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA6-PA9|access-date=9 October 2015|issue=7|work=Saturday Evening Post|year = 1913|volume = 185}} Brand was then hired by Warner Bros. Pictures, where he served as the press agent for Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton, among others. In 1925 he was president of the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers,{{cite journal |last=Jackson |first=Joseph |author-link= |title=Telling the World |journal=Exhibitors Herald |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=52 |publisher=Exhibitors Herald Company |location=Chicago, Illinois |date=June 27, 1925 |url=https://archive.org/details/exhibitorsherald22unse/page/n81/mode/1up |access-date=May 21, 2022}} which selected the WAMPAS Baby Stars each year. He worked on several films with producer Joseph M. Schenck, and in 1935, when Schenk founded 20th Century Pictures with Darryl F. Zanuck, he hired Brand as the studio's publicity head.{{cite news|title=Former Fox publicist Harry Brand Dies at 92|newspaper=Los Angeles Herald Examiner|date=February 23, 1989}} He played an essential role in the career of the famously abrasive Zanuck; he advised him on "all problems related to his personal contact" with the public and often played 'good cop' to Zanuck's 'bad cop' to resolve disputes with 20th Century Fox stars.{{cite news|last1=Bush|first1=Nireem|title=Close Up: Daryl Zanuck|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qEwEAAAAMBAJ&q=zanuck+harry+brand&pg=PA105|access-date=6 October 2015|work=Life|date=April 14, 1941}}

As was common at the time, Brand invented backstories and added fictional embellishments in his efforts to promote actors and films. For example, to enhance Tyrone Power's masculinity, Brand said that the 5'8" actor was six feet tall, and linked him romantically with actresses Loretta Young, Janet Gaynor, and Sonja Henie.{{cite book|last1=Madsen|first1=Axel|title=Stanwyck|date=June 30, 2015|publisher=Open Road|isbn=978-1504008815|page=118|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=294iHPNA2FEC&pg=PA118|access-date=4 October 2015}}{{cite book|last1=Johns|first1=Howard|title=Palm Springs Confidential: Playground of the Stars!|date=December 24, 2005|publisher=Barricade Books|isbn=1569802696|page=152|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vghoe9wz3ewC&q=%22harry+brand%22+rex+harrison}} To promote Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto, a Japanese secret agent, a press release stated that Lorre was a "stickler for realism" and, as such, had immersed himself in Japanese culture. According to Brand, Lorre had interviewed Japanese laborers in the field, read Japanese fiction and poetry, and studied Buddhism and Shintoism to prepare for the role.{{cite book|last1=Youngkin|first1=Stephen D.|title=The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre|date=2012|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=9780813136066|page=152|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kAeSxjYazhEC&pg=PA152}}{{cite book|last1=Scwartz|first1=Ted|title=Marilyn Revealed: The Ambitious Life of an American Icon|date=January 16, 2009|publisher=Taylor Trade Publishing |isbn=978-1589793422|page=180|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5_l8j-AYJX0C&pg=PA179}} It was a practice which was looked upon with affection rather than derision; columnists wrote anecdotes about Brand's tactics, and the Los Angeles Times praised him as "tirelessly inventive."{{cite news|last1=Sullivan|first1=Ed|title=Looking at Hollywood|url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1938/07/08/page/17/article/looking-at-hollywood#text|access-date=9 October 2015|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=July 8, 1938}}{{cite web|last1=Albertanti|first1=Frank|title=Special Dispatch to the New York Post|url=http://fultonhistory.com/newspaper%2011/New%20York%20Evening%20Post/New%20York%20NY%20Evening%20Post%201938%20Grayscale/New%20York%20NY%20Evening%20Post%201938%20Grayscale%20-%200108.pdf|newspaper=New York Post|date=January 19, 1938|quote=The livest wire in town is Harry Brand, 20th Century-Fox exploitation chief...}}{{cite news|last1=Benson|first1=Sheila|title=Life Photos: Holding a Mirror Up to Hollywood|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-05-14-ca-2023-story.html|access-date=9 October 2015|work=Los Angeles Times|date=May 14, 1991}}

File:Marilyn_Monroe_photo_pose_Seven_Year_Itch.jpg]]

Brand has been described as a "master of the game" of publicity stunts. He had Fox insure actress Betty Grable's legs for $1,000,000. The massive press coverage related to 'Betty Grable's million-dollar legs' helped Grable to become the top female star of the 1940s. The 1943 publicity still of Grable in a swimsuit was the #1 pin-up for American GIs during World War II; it was later included in Life Magazine's list of 100 Photographs that Changed the World.{{cite news|last1=Triggs|first1=John|title=Hollywood on the Fake|url=http://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/55368/Hollywood-on-the-fake|access-date=7 October 2015|newspaper=The Express|date=August 4, 2008}}{{cite book|last1=Sonneborn|first1=Liz|title=A to Z of American Women in the Performing Arts|date=November 2001|publisher=Facts on File|isbn=0816043981|page=88|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yf2741A_BkYC&pg=PA88}}

In 1949, when it became known that Marilyn Monroe had done a nude shoot for a calendar, Brand said that she would "look good in a potato sack" and provided photos of her posing suggestively in one.

Brand was the first to know about Marilyn Monroe's 1954 wedding to Joe DiMaggio.{{Cite news |title=Meeting Marilyn and the Wedding |work=American Experience |publisher=PBS |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/dimaggio-meeting-marilyn-and-wedding/|access-date=2020-08-31 |language=en}}{{Cite web|date=2007-08-29|title=Marilyn Monroe's Later Career|url=https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/marilyn-monroe-later-career.htm|access-date=2020-08-31|website=HowStuffWorks|language=en}}

In 1955, he created a frenzy on the streets of New York City when he invited photographers to shoot Monroe as her skirt was raised by the wind of the subway during the filming of The Seven Year Itch. (The pandemonium which ensued required that the actual scene used in the film be reshot in the studio.){{cite web|last1=Munter|first1=Pam|title=The Secret Keepers|url=http://www.classicimages.com/people/article_dec6056a-6d08-51b9-823c-229984328c59.html|website=Classic Images|publisher=Classic Images|access-date=3 October 2015|date=July 22, 2005}}

Brand formally retired as the head of publicity for Fox in 1962. Given an office on the studio lot, he continued to work for Fox as a consultant until his health failed in 1982.

Brand and Sybil Morris were married in 1933. She was a successful activist for the rights of women in American jails; the Sybil Brand Institute was named after her. Sybil died at the age of 104 in 2004.{{cite news|last1=McLellan|first1=Dennis|last2=Oliver|first2=Myrna|title=Sybil Brand, 104; Fought for Jailed Women|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-feb-19-me-brand19-story.html|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times|date=February 19, 2004|page=B10|access-date=1 November 2015}} Brand's stepson, George, was a composer who worked on films including The Godfather Part II and Dune.

Brand was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 1959, and died of a heart attack following a bout of pneumonia in 1989. At his request, there was no funeral or memorial service.

• Eddie Mannix
• Howard Strickling

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Category:1895 births

Category:1989 deaths

Category:American public relations people

Category:Businesspeople from New York City

Category:20th-century American businesspeople