Bobby Zarem

Zarem died in his native Savannah on September 26, 2021, aged 84, from complications of lung cancer, the same disease that claimed his father. He was 4 days shy of his 85th birthday.

When Zarem moved back to Savannah in 2010, he held his farewell party at Elaine's. Less than a year later, Elaine died of emphysema and pulmonary hypertension. "I just don't know what to say", Zarem said after Kaufman's death. "We were best friends and extremely supportive of one another." Elaine's closed within months of Kaufman's death.

Al Pacino's character, Eli Wurman, in the 2002 film People I Know takes inspiration from Zarem. Director Daniel Algrant had met Zarem in the early 1990s and said that the idea for his film came from watching Zarem, confined to his apartment by a broken leg, conduct his business over the phone against the backdrop of the New York City skyline. Pacino insisted on spending time with Zarem to prepare for his role.

These charges peaked in January 2001, when President Bill Clinton issued a number of pardons on his last day in office, including one for Marc. Zarem dismissed claims that Denise had taken any direct action to bring about Marc's pardon. Days later, news broke that Denise had written a letter to Bill Clinton asking for clemency for Marc, contradicting what Zarem had been telling the press (and what Denise had told Zarem). Zarem claimed that it was he who exaggerated Denise's surprised reaction into a denial, but when Denise invoked the Fifth Amendment at a congressional hearing, many in the press portrayed Zarem as duped by Denise.

In 1998, the Savannah Film Festival was a year old and based at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) when Zarem took over its program, a job he would maintain until 2013. Every year, the festival honors excellence in film and rewards prizes to nurture young talent. Zarem was responsible for drawing A-list names to the event and often met with SCAD students in an advisory capacity. In 2010, Zarem moved back to Savannah and received the festival's Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 1994, Zarem was sent 10 copies of John Behrendt's true crime book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by the publisher, Random House, in hopes that he would spread the word to his contacts in Savannah, where the book is set. The book quickly became a hit in the city. Zarem wrote an item for Neil Travis's column in the New York Post about the stir the book caused, which he said secured the book's international bestseller status. The book went on to break sales records for the non-fiction novel genre, spending 216 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. Today Savannah enjoys tourists drawn to the city by the book and its landmarks, and there are many options for guided tours of the locations immortalized in the book.

Before she met Zarem, Denise Rich had primarily been known as the wife of disgraced commodities trader Marc Rich, who had been accused of owing millions of dollars to the United States government and fled the country for Switzerland. Baby Jane Holzer introduced Denise Rich to Zarem in 1991, hoping that Zarem could help Rich crawl out from the shadow of her ex-husband and gain recognition as a songwriter. Zarem and Rich grew close and he helped her in her career which allowed her to become more known on the New York social scene.

Arnold Schwarzenegger owed Zarem for his success. Zarem had watched an early screening of the documentary, Pumping Iron, starring the then-unknown Schwarzenegger. Zarem secured the documentary's first national coverage on his own initiative and was hired to promote the film. At Schwarzenegger's request, Zarem scheduled a meeting between Schwarzenegger and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. A picture from the meeting gained significant media attention and earned Schwarzenegger a spot on 60 Minutes, cementing his fame. Schwarzenegger and Zarem would collaborate again on the Planet Hollywood restaurant franchise in the early 1990s. Schwarzenegger was one of the principal celebrity investors; Zarem, who had previously promoted the Hard Rock Café, was hired to promote the new restaurant chain. Zarem claimed that he came up with idea to make Planet Hollywood a national chain, conceived the signature aesthetic of the restaurants, and put together its financiers, Keith Barish and Robert Earl. But he ultimately feuded with Barish and Earl over credit, and parted company a year later.

Zarem conceived the public relations for I Love New York campaign and helped in its development. On a Saturday in 1975, Zarem was walking home from Elaine's Restaurant on Second Avenue in Manhattan, and realized "you could have rolled a coin down the street and nobody would have stopped it. The city was dying. Something had to be done." Distraught by the decline of New York's reputation as a cultural hub and declining Broadway ticket sales. William Doyle hired Zarem and brought on the advertising agency Wells Rich Greene to implement his ideas for the television campaign starring Broadway stars, which ended up helping turn around tourism for the city. Governor Hugh Carey ultimately raised $16 million for the campaign and when it proved a success, New York mayor Ed Koch started claiming credit for the slogan, as did Wells Rich Greene. But Zarem insisted that, other than the iconic heart-shaped logo designed by Milton Glaser, he was responsible for the campaign.

Zarem was on the outs with his early client, Dustin Hoffman, for years. Zarem represented Hoffman as he was becoming a star in the early 1970s. On December 31, 1973, the last day of Zarem's contract with Hoffman, the actor asked Zarem to get him some marijuana. After hours scouring Greenwich Village, Zarem bought some and deposited it through Hoffman's mail slot. That was the last Zarem heard from Hoffman for years. When the two saw each other again decades later, Zarem said Hoffman asked him if he still hated him.

Throughout the 1970s, 1980s. and 1990s, Zarem would promote the films Tommy, Saturday Night Fever, The China Syndrome, Rambo, Scarface, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and Dances With Wolves. By the turn of the century, his fees were among the highest in the industry, estimated to be upwards of $10,000 a month per client.

Zarem moved on to the PR firm Rogers & Cowan in 1969. There he served some of his first A-list clients, including Ann-Margret and Dustin Hoffman. He began handwriting long, personalized pitch letters and press releases that became industry legend. In 1974, Zarem started his own agency: Zarem, Inc. He promoted Tommy which premiered in the West 57th Street subway station in front of hundreds of prominent New York socialites. He earned the nickname Superflack at a party he threw for Stevie Wonder in the late 1970s. Mick Jagger and New York Times reporter Judy Klemesrud were standing by the elevator waiting to leave when Wonder finally showed up. Zarem reprimanded Wonder for tardiness in front of Klemesrud. She deemed him "Superflack", which was later popularized in a profile on Zarem in Newsweek.

Zarem's first job in show business began at Columbia Artists Management, a job that lasted five years. Zarem noticed that he had an affinity for public relations and artist promotion, and began his career as a PR agent under producer Joseph E. Levine in 1968. Zarem became an agent by accident. The company had seventeen minutes of the film The Lion in Winter starring Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. Though Zarem had been working for the company in a business capacity, he invited a number of his friends to watch the preview of the film, a group which included some journalists. When articles on the movie began to appear in publication, Zarem realized he had become a PR agent. Levine later made him head of magazine publicity.

Elaine's was an Upper East Side restaurant opened by Elaine Kaufman in 1963. Three weeks after its opening, Zarem discovered the restaurant and would frequent the place for the next forty-seven years, eating there at least twice a week. He began bringing his celebrity clients to the restaurant to open it up to them. He and Kaufman became close friends and she encouraged him to open his own agency in 1974.

Though Zarem struggled with attention-deficit disorder (ADD) his entire life, he followed in the footsteps of his brothers and attended Phillips Academy Andover and Yale University. He talked himself off the wait-list at Yale and graduated with a degree in political science. After graduation, Zarem moved to New York City and worked for a year and a half at the United States Trust Company until he received a draft notice in 1960 from the Army, before ultimately joining the Air National Guard for a brief stint.

Robert Myron Zarem (September 30, 1936 – September 26, 2021), known as Bobby Zarem, was an American publicist. After starting his own publicity agency in 1974, Zarem created lengthy, personalized pitch letters, a business style, and many campaigns. His former clients included Dustin Hoffman, Cher, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Michael Douglas, Michael Caine, Sophia Loren, Ann-Margret, and Alan Alda, among others.

Robert Myron Zarem was born on September 30, 1936, in Savannah, Georgia, the son of Rose (Gold) and Harry Zarem. He was raised in an Orthodox Jewish household, and he is the youngest of three sons. Zarem's father owned a shoe company and his mother was a pianist. When he was a child, his parents would travel to New York City and bring him back autographed playbills and menus. He would sometimes accompany them, attending Broadway shows that gave him a taste for glamour and stardom.