Sunday, October 14, 2012

RIP, James E. Burke

The world lost a bright light – and I lost one of my heroes – with the recent death of former J&J CEO James E. Burke.  Ironically, he passed away right around the time that marks the 30th anniversary of the TYLENOL crisis, the event for which Burke was best known.

In September of 1982, seven people died in the Chicago area from ingesting TYLENOL that had been tampered with, the capsules opened and the acetaminophen replaced with deadly cyanide.  To date, no one has ever been convicted of this reprehensible crime.  The event – and Johnson & Johnson’s public response to it – has been cited as a textbook case of crisis management.  Soon after its return to the market, TYLENOL regained its place as the market leader in the pain reliever category. 

Plenty of people take credit for their roles in this well-known case, but it was Burke himself who called the shots.  Not armed with a “crisis manual” – they didn’t exist at the time – he relied on his instincts, his heart and on the Johnson & Johnson Credo to do the right thing and guide his actions, which included recalling all bottles of TYLENOL and damn the cost (which added up to about $100 million).

But it is not the Jim Burke that brought the business back who left an indelible mark on me.  It is the Jim Burke who, during a nationally televised press conference from our New Brunswick headquarters, choked up in mentioning the seven victims.  It is the Jim Burke who allowed “60 Minutes” to sit in and broadcast strategy sessions with senior management, and the Jim Burke who won over a live audience of mostly women, and, in the process, a national audience, by appearing on the daytime talk show hosted by the king of daytime, Phil Donahue.  There, viewers got the measure of this remarkable man, his humility, his humanity, his sincerity.  That was the Burke I knew.

Mr. Burke became chairman in 1976, and I worked closely with him on presentations until he retired from J&J 13 years later.  I was young and too far down on the org chart to meet one-on-one with the CEO, but that happened frequently.  When his executive assistant – my still-good friend and fellow graduate of Somerville High School, Helen Hughes – would summon me to his office, I always asked if I should bring my boss, because that was proper protocol.  No, she’d say, “he said ‘Just Tina.’”  To this day, she calls me “Justina.”

Burke was an exceptional and inspiring leader, a brilliant businessman who combined a creative streak and business acumen, and who considered the ideas of others and sought their input but who was not afraid to make a decision.  You could not outthink him.  If I came up with a dozen ways to illustrate something, he’d suggest another one that I hadn’t considered.  Not that I always appreciated his input, especially during long days, night and weekends revising and revising and revising his presentation to the shareholders, but you could not get mad at this man, because he wanted the best and always delivered on his end.  Once, after we finished a rehearsal of his talk for the shareholders, J&J President Dave Clare got up to speak.  He had no sooner uttered, “Good morning, Jim,” when Burke interrupted him to make a change.  Hmm, I thought, if he’s changing, “Good morning, Jim,” we are in for a LONG day.

After a grinding stretch, which required countless hours of preparation, and finally the culmination of that work, when he would deliver his speech, Burke would send me a note or give me a bone-crushing hug.  I would feel the warmth and gratitude of that man as his arms enveloped me.  Now, we’d worry about sexual harassment, but then, it was like was two friends who had worked together in triumph, sharing a victory. 

Jim Burke was about as down-to-earth as a major business leader could possibly be.  Once we went on the company plane to California, where he addressed a group of West Coast employees.  The next day, he wanted to check out the packaging on the diaper boxes in a local supermarket.  He bought a few boxes, but, since he didn’t need the diapers, he stood at the cash register and offered the diapers to the other shoppers.  I could feel their eyes follow us out of the store as we got into a huge stretch limo.  “Who was that masked man?” they must have thought. 

The most profound impact Jim Burke made on me was in 1979, when he ended his presentation to a major management conference by telling everyone in the room that they should be having fun.  Fun was something I hadn’t considered much at work since I was usually too busy working.  But Jim Burke gave me license to have fun, and that is advice I not only followed but also have passed along to everyone who ever worked for me:  Work hard, do your best and have fun, and if you aren’t having fun, you are in the wrong place.  I even consoled my nephew with those words of wisdom after he would be the goalie on the losing soccer team.  I hope the people to whom I provided this advice will pass it along to the next generation as I did.

I have been fortunate to have some great role models and heroes in my life: My parents, my high school English teacher, Larry Foster (the man who hired me and helped me flourish and who knows more about public relations than ANYONE), my next boss (Bill Nielsen) and, last but not least, Jim Burke.  I’ll remember him in his prime, handsome and robust, the smartest man in the room and certainly, the most fun.  RIP, Mr. Burke.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Tina's September Movies

Here are the few movies I had a chance to see in September. Numbering picks up from previous months, and movies I had not seen previously are marked with an *.  Movies are rated on a scale of 1 to 5 cans of tuna fish, with 5 being the top of the scale.

96. Love Story (1970) – What can you say about a 25-year old woman who died – 42 years ago? That she appeared in a corny, sappy and irresistible movie that even now I adore watching – not all the time, but every once in a while. Erich Segal’s tearjerker involves rich preppie Harvard guy Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O’Neal, looking FINE), who falls hard for poor, smart and snarky Radcliffe girl Jennifer Cavalleri (Ali MacGraw). They meet cute, marry, suffer through estrangement from his incredibly wealthy father and endure poverty as they put him through law school, and just as he is getting himself established with a prestigious law firm in New York, she comes down with movie star disease (you can assume it’s cancer, but they never name it, she has no symptoms, and it will kill her quickly, the doctor advises Oliver). No amount of money will save Jenny, leaving poor Ollie to look forlorn. The memorable score by Francis Lai adds to the melodrama, and I can’t help but think about the Carol Burnett-Harvey Korman send-up of this movie, but, truth be told, I am a sucker for sap and I love “Love Story!” 4 cans and a box of Kleenex, please!
97. Thief* (1991) – James Caan channels his Sonny Corleone tough-guy persona in this story about Frank, a man in the car business by day and the safecracking business by night. An ex-con, Frank is an expert safecracker, but he wants just one more big score so he can get out of the business and on with his life. He marries Jessie (Tuesday Weld) and adopts a young son, but the complicated score he is working on gets more complicated when his “client” (Robert Prosky) changes the terms of their deal. If you know anything about filmmaker Michael Mann, you will immediately recognize his visual style and pounding soundtrack (think “Miami Vice” but without the pastel suits). There is plenty of violence and tough-guy posturing, and Frank, like Sonny Corleone, doesn’t mind taking matters into his own hands. Drop the gun and grab the cannolis. 3 cans.
98. Chapter Two* (1979) – James Caan sheds his tough-guy persona here to star as George Schneider, a New York author who is grieving the loss of his beloved wife Barbara. His friends and his brother Leo (Joseph Bologna) want to set him up with new women, and when he meets actress Jennifer (Marsha Mason), he falls hard and fast. In no time, they get married, but George has trouble allowing himself to enjoy his new life and wife while he hasn’t finished mourning the last one. George can be charming one minute and sullen the next, but Jenny is patient and plucky and in for the long haul. This movie was written by Neil Simon, who based the story on his own experiences and was married to Marsha Mason. It contains some of the witty repartee for which Simon known, but not enough to lift the veil of gloom. I give it extra points for co-starring Valerie Harper as Jenny’s best friend. 2½ cans.
99. Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) – Paul Newman plays middleweight champ Rocky Graziano, whose roughneck style in the ring came from his life on the streets on New York. Rocky Barbella, his real name, was a hoodlum growing up, someone the cops knew by name and sight, always in trouble, hanging out with a gang (including a young Sal Mineo), looking for the next score and backing down from no one. His bleak future grows yet bleaker when he is drafted into the Army. Intolerant of any kind of authority, Rocky simply leaves one day, but eventually he is captured and sent to Leavenworth to do hard time. There, one of the inmates sees him fighting and tells him to come by Stillman’s Gym when he gets out. With nothing better to do, Rocky shows up one day, offers to spar, refuses to train, and devastates opponents with a brutal right hand. Along the way, he changes his name to avoid bad publicity, actually finds a nice girl to marry him, and turns his life around completely. Newman is all twitchy and jumpy as Rocky and scores a knockout performance as the champ. This movie does make you wonder why anyone would want to be a professional fighter, although in Rocky’s case, he would have been fighting in the streets for much less of a payday. 3½ cans.
100. Arbitrage* (2012) – Richard Gere has eased handsomely into silver-fox parts. Here he plays Robert Miller, millionaire head of a family-owned investment firm, a philanthropist and philanderer who is trying to sell his company before it crumbles around him. He is altruistic and generous – and desperate about that little $400 million hole in the books. Like the part he played in “Unfaithful,” he commits a reprehensible act and acts amorally, relying on others for the cover-up, which he professes to do because too many people would be hurt. Never mind the crime and its ultimate end, he’s just ever so thoughtful. I kept waiting for more suspense or twists, but instead had to watch the dogged, Columbo-like detective (Tim Roth) try to crack the case by harassing the young man Miller enlists to help him, who the detective figures will crack. I haven’t seen Gere this emotional and frustrated since Louis Gossett Jr. tormented him as Private Mayo in “An Officer and a Gentleman.” Here, he is neither. 3 cans.
101. Inherit the Wind* (1960) – Esteemed barristers Henry Drummond (Spencer Tracy) and Matthew Harrison Brady (Fredric March) face off in a sweltering Hillsborough, Tennessee, courtroom in this movie based on the Scopes Monkey trial. Young teacher Bert Cates (Dick York) is accused of teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution to his high school classes, much to the consternation of the religious right, led by Reverend Brown (Claude Akins), whose daughter is engaged to Cates. The drama examines every angle of the story, of religious fervor, of scientific analysis, of the relevance of the Bible and the role of religion and in the laws and how they are administered in the court system. Tracy delivers a stellar performance, matched in histrionics by the more volatile March, in this thought-provoking drama. Preachy at times, it nonetheless holds your attention, though I confess I can’t imagine this film having a wide commercial success, given the subject matter. It is a classic that I finally took time to see. 4 cans.
102. A Star Is Born (1976) – Barbra Streisand’s prodigious talents and prominent proboscis are on display in this tale of a singer whose star is on the rise while her husband’s career hits the skids. Kris Kristofferson plays John Norman Howard, a rock star whose performances on stage are fueled by drugs and alcohol and whose life is in free fall when he meets club singer Esther Hoffman. With his help and connections, she becomes a star and marries him, despite his warnings that he’s probably not good for her in the long run. The end of the movie is inevitable, but just seeing Barbra in her curly perm and pantsuits and hearing her sing “Evergreen” makes the movie worth seeing – but no more often than once every 20 years or so. 3 cans.