Art for Those Who Know What They Like: Celebrity

Behind every successful promotion lies a great strategy.

--Corporate letterhead, Worldwide Promotional Productions Inc.

Sergio Franchi first entered Tony Paleno’s life a generation ago, when Paleno saw him during one of Franchi’s many appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

“I loved his voice the moment I heard it,” recalled Paleno, now 59. “I started following his career, and he’s just tremendous.”

In the years to come, the engineer from Villa Park would see many of Franchi’s Las Vegas concerts and, in 1969, have the rare pleasure of observing a Franchi recording session at Liberty Records in Los Angeles.

At that session, Paleno said, Franchi gave him a personal copy of the music to “Stay” from the 1969 picture “The Secret of Santa Vittoria”--which was “Sergio’s only movie,” Paleno noted.

But it wasn’t Franchi’s acting skills, nor even his voice (which many remember for the mellifluous life it gave to the Plymouth Volare TV commercials of the mid-1970s), that brought Paleno to the lobby of the Irvine Marriott hotel Monday afternoon.

Rather, it was the chance to buy a reproduction of one of Franchi’s watercolor paintings for $225.

“I love the color and the warmth. It bespeaks Italy,” Paleno said of Franchi’s “Villa Angelica,” which--like all of Franchi’s works on display at the hotel--depicts an Italian villa.

“He’s such a great singer, it’s amazing that he paints so well,” Paleno said.

The sale of Franchi’s paintings--along with those by such celebrity artists as the late John Lennon, comic Phyllis Diller, actress Elke Sommer and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)--was part of an Irvine firm’s effort to tap what it sees as Orange County’s growing cultural sophistication.

“This is a happening that adds to the culture of Orange County,” said Stephanie Golper, a public relations specialist hired by the company, Worldwide Promotional Productions Inc. “Orange County is looking for things like this.”

The Marriott and Worldwide are splitting about 20% of the sale’s proceeds, according to Worldwide’s chief executive officer, Mike House. Local charities will receive 25% of the proceeds, with the balance going to the celebrity artists, he said.

“The (donations to) charities are a marketing tool and something that’s good for the community,” said Worldwide’s Margaret Kurko, who called the show “Celebrity Art of the Stars.”

The desired clientele, she said, “is the older yuppies who are decorating their houses. We figure if they can afford a house in Southern California, they can afford this.”

Most of the celebrity art is priced below $1,000 per piece.

Kurko said future plans would bring “Celebrity Art of the Stars” to other wealthy areas, such as Palm Beach, Dallas and Houston--”We heard they had an economic resurgence” in Texas, she said.

Worldwide would like to take the sale to Hong Kong and Japan because, Kurko said, “we’re sure American celebrities would go over very well there.”

House acknowledged that the careers of the five “multitalented Hollywood entertainers” featured in his show had declined since the late 1960s. He said he would seek to find younger celebrity artists for his future sales, such as “Brooke Shields or (Sylvester) Stallone, who’s been in the press with his paintings lately.”

Despite the apparently random assortment of celebrity artists in the Worldwide show, there are several interesting connections among them. Diller and Sommer, for example, both appeared in the 1966 film, “Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number.” Franchi and Kennedy both sought to defeat President Carter in 1980, with Franchi contributing to Ronald Reagan’s Republican campaign as Kennedy tried to deny Carter the Democratic nomination. Additionally, both Franchi and Lennon rose to fame as singers after appearing on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

The celebrity-art dealers said they were particularly impressed by the works of Kennedy, Massachusetts’ senior senator and chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, and Diller, the wild-haired TV comic known for her cackling laugh.

The Kennedy works ($1,450) are reproductions of his 1969 painting “Hyannis Port Compound,” which depicts his family’s home in Cape Cod.

“It’s a mix between Impressionism and the Wyeth style,” said Irving Golper, who is married to Stephanie Golper and is another Worldwide promotional agent.

“It has a bit of his fury in it,” Stephanie Golper noted.

“Winston Churchill was a painter too,” added Irving Golper, although “Celebrity Art of the Stars” does not market any of the late British prime minister’s work.

Painting “is sort of a cathartic experience for them,” he said about politicians.

Diller’s works ($45 to $600) might remind one of a Matisse style, but the Golpers shied away from placing the comedian-painter among any one artistic movement.

The Diller celebrity art “is an extension of her personality,” Irving Golper said. “It’s kooky, it says, ‘I’m Phyllis Diller.’ ”

House noted that “Celebrity Art of the Stars” is the first public offering of Diller’s works. Diller called the works her “egghead series,” after the oval shape she gave to the figures on canvas.

Guests who came to see the celebrity art had varied reactions.

The most enthusiastic response came from a celebrity himself, former heavyweight boxing champion Ken Norton, who said he is not a painter at this time.

The celebrity paintings “show very good taste,” said Norton, who attended at Worldwide’s invitation.

Elaborating, he said: “The Ted Kennedy picture--it reminds you of where he’s from.”

Looking at the Diller pieces, the former champ said: “This to me reminds you of Phyllis Diller. When you look at Phyllis, this is what comes out.”

Other were not so charmed by the Dillers.

“I was wondering what kind of art she would do,” said Mary Ann DeCorte, 24, a graphic artist from Laguna Niguel. “So this is it. I don’t like the colors or the egg shape.”

Her husband, Mike DeCorte, 27, agreed with Norton on the Kennedy painting, however: “I like it. It reminds me of where he (Kennedy) lives. You wonder where he finds the time” to paint.

Kennedy, in fact, may have more appeal in Orange County as a painter than as a politician.

“The Ted Kennedy is great!” proclaimed Steve Borgschulte, 33, an accounts manager from Huntington Beach.

“I’m no expert on art, but there are nice pastel colors there,” he said, adding that although he is “a die-hard Republican, I appreciate what Ted Kennedy is doing. At least he says what he believes in and stands up for it.”

Borgschulte, who already owns a sculpture by actor Vincent Price, also examined the Diller works.

“I think she’s a dingbat, but to be honest, it isn’t too bad,” he said.

Only the Franchi art failed to excite Borgschulte: “It’s the typical washed-out, Southern California look.”

Michael Cherry, 22, a Saddleback College student, differed: “That Franchi stuff is the only stuff I might stop and look at in a museum. I wouldn’t want to buy it, though.”

Asked why not, Cherry replied that to appreciate celebrity art, one must feel a certain empathy with the celebrity-artist.

“And I can’t really identify with the Volare commercial to any great degree,” he said.