Videoage International October 2017

58 October 2017 V I D E O A G E Int’ l TV Distribut ion Hal l of Fame I was selling pre-48 Paramount features, the Universal film catalog and their television series. At that time we had only one buyer from ORTF.” The Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF) was the national government agency charged, between 1964 and 1974, with providing public radio and television in France. In 1974, ORTF split into seven successor institutions: TF1, Antenne 2 (now France 2), France Région 3 (now France 3), SFP, INA, TDF and Radio France. Perrier further explained, “TF1, Antenne 2 and, later, France 3 had two buyers each: one for feature films, the other for TV series, which was very nice [not stressful]. Then, like mushrooms, the channels started to multiply and the ‘joy’ of having many buyers started to complicate our lives.” Indeed, for Perrier, those were the most challenging times. “Trying to keep buyers at TF1 and France 2 happy when I had to tell one of them that they could not get the series they both wanted wasn’t easy, “ she recalled. “Neither was taking care of the television department and at the same time being involved in movie-making and looking after the stars.” Perrier attended the very first MIP-TV in Lyon in 1963 for which she was recognized by the market’s organizers during MIP-TV’s 30th anniversarycelebrationat thePalmBeachCasino in Cannes in 1993. Here’s how she remembered it: “I was in Lyon briefly to find out about this new market. I sensed that it had potential and recommended that MCA-Universal pursue it should there be further exhibitions. But I’m glad it went to Cannes!” From 1962 to 1995 MCA was the parent company of Universal Studios and in this regard there is an amusing anecdote recounted by Colin Davis: he didn’t like the name MCA TV because it “wasn’t clear to all that it was actually Universal Studios,” and at every occasion during trade shows, hewould place a Universal sign under MCA TV on his stand. When Perrier retired from MCA-Universal in 1988 with the title of vice president (“I’m not sure if it was SVP, I never cared about titles,” she said) she went to work first at TF1 with a two-year contract, then she went to the second channel Antenne 2 with a six-month contract (Antenne 2 became France 2 in 1992). In 1991 Perrier started CSP, her own company in partnership with her younger daughter, Valérie, then 22 years old, to represent program sales from French and American companies. Perrier has an older daughter, Laurence, now 55 years old. When Valérie did not want to continue in the partnership, CSP was closed and Perrier fully retired in 2000. Her younger daughter, now Valérie Piazza, elaborated: “The business was changing with producers wishing to deal directly with buyers. Plus, the old way of working had disappeared, ‘sharks’ freshly out of school were appearing with a lot of ‘political connections,’ so we decided it was time to close our distribution company and for me to create my own communication company.” Subsequently, Valérie took two years off to deal with her father’s illness and when he passed away, Claude moved in with her. In 2012 she joined a production company specializing in ads for luxury goods. “Those 10 years at CSP,” recalled Piazza, “served also to spend time together, which we never did before because she was working so much. Claude was often away and when at home on the phone at all hours of the day and night. But it was fun when I could travel with her and meet the Hollywood stars. Also it made me realize how, as a woman in a man’s world, she also had to deal with ‘funny’ circumstances. “When we worked together, we even opened a restaurant in Paris (Champagne bar with Scandinavian tapas) and produced a theatrical movie, Nous Resterons Sur Terre .” Looking back, Perrier recalled when in 1956 she received a telegram from a top-level MCA executive in Hollywood requesting, “that I buy as many old cobble stones as possible. They were being taken out of Parisian streets because they were too slippery. I managed to buy them from the city and shipped them from the port of Le Havre to the MCA studio, where they were used to build the pavement of a European square with a French cafe. The leftovers were used to build Stein’s driveway and he even invited me to his Hollywood house to see it. “After that, the studio asked me to ship to Hollywood all kind of items... from French police uniforms to an old Parisian bus. At one point I had to supervise a music film recording in Paris during the musicians’ strike in the U.S. I also sent to Hollywood some fabrics that Mr. and Mrs. Sheinberg had bought in France.” [Sid Sheinberg was MCA Inc. president from 1973 to 1995] The first time she was asked to go to the Los Angeles headquarters was to screen Universal movie Sweet Charity on March 26, 1969. “Stein chartered a Pan Am airplane and flew all the European executives to Hollywood for the screening,” recalled Perrier. After that, she attended all editions of the L.A. Screenings (up until 1983 they were called “May Screenings” before VideoAge created the new name) until 1990. About the Screenings, Perrier liked the fact that competition made stations “buy entire series; no more cherry picking, and contracts were signed on the spot.” Reached on the phone in Las Vegas, where she was vacationing with her daughter Valérie (after visiting Lake Powell, on the Utah border), for this feature’s final fact-check, she asked to include her recollection of “that time I sent a film reel to Tunisia and the custom officials, not knowing what it was, completely unspooled it and sent it back all tangled up.” About the Las Vegas visit, her former boss now retired, Robert (Bob) Bramson lamented that, “Claude and Valérie still come to Las Vegas for a three-week vacation and each year they call me, but unfortunately I can’t make the trip. As for Claude, I can tell you that she ran the Paris office pretty smoothly and quite differently from all of our other offices, and that speaks well for her.” Perrier attended the very first MIP-TV in Lyon in 1963; she was recognized by the market’s organizers during MIP-TV’s 30th Anniversary celebration at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes in 1993. (Continued from Page 56) Perrier, next to the poster, at the Screenings for the 1975-76 season With the 1969 MCA team on the Universal lot; to the left of Perrier (third from the right): Ralph Franklin, Lew Wasserman, Sid Sheinberg At the Screenings for the new 1972-73 U.S. TV season. Michael J. Solomon is recognizable on Claude Perrier’s right