The Sweet Smell of Giorgio’s Success : ‘Reeking Havoc’ Looks at the Making and Unmaking of Perfume Empire

The saga of Giorgio Beverly Hills perfume, arguably the most successful fragrance of the decade, goes on. From the beginning, the tale has been almost too schmaltzy to be true, the type that soap operas are built on. It’s a story with a beginning but no end, told so many times already that even its star players refuse to talk about it anymore.

But author and journalist Steve Ginsberg, whose book on the subject, “Reeking Havoc, the Unauthorized Story of Giorgio “ is in stores this week, expects to attract a wide readership based on “the powerful personalities involved” and the fact that “two people without college degrees could hit a home run twice. First with the boutique and then with the perfume.”

The Rodeo Drive boutique captured national attention when it was used as a location in “Scruples,” the 1980 TV miniseries based on Judith Krantz’s blockbuster novel set in Beverly Hills.

But “Havoc” reaches back to a time before there was a Giorgio--store or fragrance--tracing the development of Fred and Gale Hayman, the names behind the phenomenon, from Beverly Hills hotelier and cocktail waitress to retail wizards to perfume magnates who anointed the wrists of the world with their heady, $100 million product.

Ginsberg also covers the couple’s divorce and the infighting that led to the sale of Giorgio to Avon Cosmetics in 1987 for $165 million.

The West Coast bureau chief of Women’s Wear Daily, Ginsberg describes his version of the events as “essentially a business story.” And he says it was his boss, WWD editor Michael Coady, who encouraged him to write it.

But Krantz isn’t so sure about the book’s broad appeal. She scanned it before it was officially released this week, and says “Maybe fashion mavens and the perfume industry will be interested, but it’s not for the mass market. It’s a story of dividing up assets.”

Let’s face it, suggests Herb Fink about the saga, “it wasn’t the downfall of the Roman Empire.” Fink is Chairman of the Rodeo Drive Committee and owner of the Theodore boutique just up the street from Giorgio. He had a bird’s-eye view of the story as it happened. In retrospect, he says, “their timing was good, the perfume worked, but I don’t see them as celebrities.”

Throughout the book, Ginsberg cites his leading characters’ differing points of view. (Fred wasn’t interested in creating a perfume, Gale was. Fred didn’t want to sell the company, Gale did.) But he leaves it up to the reader to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys, if there are any.

“There are no saints and sinners,” he concludes. “They were all a little crazy, and still are.”

Fred Hayman refused to be interviewed for the book, or most media accounts of the rise of Giorgio. And he still refuses to talk. “He prefers to dwell on the positives of today and the future rather than the negatives of the past,” his spokesperson explains.

Gale Hayman is quoted extensively by Ginsberg, as are David Horner and Jim Roth, the perfume-industry consultants who directed the marketing of the fragrance as it soared to its No. 1-in-America position.

Horner calls the book, “all steak and no sizzle.” Both he and Roth are willing to credit Ginsberg only with reporting the basic story.

Gale Hayman’s only comment is: “I haven’t read the book.”

Finally there is Michael Gould, president and CEO of Giorgio Beverly Hills and Parfums Stern, who is also included in the book.

He has no comment either, perhaps because investors are trying to buy the Giorgio perfume company from Avon.

Ginsberg predicts Giorgio will sell for less than $200 million this year.