How a Remarkable Woman's Career Began
Denise Donlon has been presented with the Humanitarian Award at a gala dinner during Canadian Music Week. Some of you may find what follows an interesting look back at the beginnings of a stellar career.
Ferbruary 2006
I first met Denise in 1981; she was chair of the annual conference of the Canadian Entertainment Conference, a position she'd achieved after booking countless gigs at the University of Waterloo.
The conference, which showcased a number of where-are-they-now acts, was held Waterloo Motor Inn. My memories have faded now, but there was some late night skinny-dipping in the hotel pool, many drinks in the bar, and some day-time seminars which very few people attended.
As chair of this event, Denise made her mark; tall, authoritative, hustling, bustling and constantly on the move, she was clearly in charge. She also wore a T-shirt which read "For Sale" - she was busily trying to involve herself in the entertainment business. Rob Bennett (now with House of Blues but then operating his own company, RBI Productions) offered a job, as I recall, and my company, had it been big enough, would have hired her in a heartbeat.
Rob Hoskins, attending the event from Vancouver, went back to his boss, Sam Feldman, and said: "There's a girl out there you've got to hire. Dunno what we can do with her, but we have to have her." Feldman flew her to Vancouver, interviewed her and offered her a job - and gave her two weeks to close down her life in Ontario.
Uncertain, since it involved publicity and promotion, she asked my advice. "If you fall down out there, nobody in Toronto will be any the wiser so it doesn't matter.", I told her, and I know I wasn't the only one, and off she went.
It was an exciting time. There was a full-scale support system in the form of then-publicist Susan Rosenberg (who now works in marketing for The Next Adventure, Arthur Fogel's Clear Channel company based in Toronto), there was a heady period working with Doug & The Slugs and Trooper and road-managing Darby Mills and Headpins. And the word from out west was universally positive; she was confident, able, smart, memorable and funny. And she could make tough decisions quickly.
And then John Martin called. MuchMusic needed a music business reporter, and Martin asked her to come back; this was a job she could do. She called her friends in Toronto, once again uncertain about a career move that could possibly end in disaster; was she really cut out to be a television reporter? All of us told her: Come home.
Since I had a large apartment in Cabbagetown at the time, I offered her a room in my loft. She moved in, returning each night (occasionally close to tears at how badly she felt she had done that day) and she stayed for more than a month. As roommates go, she was a winner - quiet, considerate, and increasingly confident as she began to get a hang of her job at Much.
When she found her own place, she gave me a coffee percolator. I've still got it, 20 years later, and whenever I brew a pot, I remember her as she was then, and I'm proud that we're still friends.
