Sporting his grandfather Paul Press’ 1969 custom J. Press tuxedo, my son Ben, Head of Film and TV for Coldplay star Chris Martin’s Outlyer Entertainment, attends the circuit of Oscar soirées with Emmanuel Kelly.
Kelly was found as an infant in a box on a battlefield on the border of Iraq. Raised in an orphanage in Baghdad, he was then brought to Australia by humanitarian Moira Kelly, only to become an Australian X-Factor sensation. Since then, he has performed with many artists, including Coldplay.
He ended up becoming quite good friends with Chris Martin, singer, singer-songwriter, and musician, Chris becoming a mentor now heading Outlyer Entertainment Advisory Board. “The differently abled entertainment business is aiming to create an industry accreditation for film productions,” reports @variety, “with the aim of achieving a new industry standard for the minimum level of differently abled cast and crew that are hired per production.”
Ben received my dad’s tuxedo after his passing in 2006. As a Hollywood talent agent and producer it has been worn to many Tinseltown formal events over the past 17 years getting him named one of the evening’s best dressed according to the London Daily Mail at the 2012 Golden Globe Awards accompanying his client Elle Macpherson.
Family pride coheres with the generational continuity intrinsic to J. Press. My own 1985 off the rack shawl collar dinner jacket travels unfettered to the few formal events I now attend, retaining its original 44 Regular size minus any requirement fostering for re-alteration.
My grandfather, the eponymous Jacobi Press’ Golden Rule still holds forth at the company bearing his name:
Promote the long-term value of the product
relentlessly policing the quality of craft.
3 comments
Mr. Press,
Was your grandfather that eloquent?
I am still wearing the tuxedo I bought at J Press in 1980.
My uncle Bill was the President of our family
carpet company that was purchased in 1986, the same year that Press was sold.
I had worked several years for Gene Thorne in Boston
before carrying a bag for the family firm.
Bill called me one day to say he had spent an enjoyable day with you and purchased a tan gabardine suit, button down and a bright madras
tie. Since was retired, I asked when he’d have a
chance to wear it. He laughed and said, “I plan
to be buried in it.” He was.