ALAN ABRA/vIS
Special to the Jewish News
Photos by Kris ta F lt
T
Margery Krevsky, left,
and partn&liarriett
Fuller have changed the
auto shows.
wo Bloomfield Township women who rewrote the manual for
depicting women at auto shows have been honored by Women
in Communication with the 1999 Diamond Award for their
efforts for the advancement of women.
Harriett Fuller and Margery Krevsky are co-presidents of Productions
Plus, a nationwide talent agency headquartered in Bingham Farms with
gross annual revenues in excess of $6 million.
The Wall Street Journal credited the pair with convincing automobile
companies to make one of the most drastic and important model
changeovers in history. The women who model at auto shows are now
product specialists. Their job is to communicate useful information to
consumers. And men have joined their ranks.
But Fuller and Krevsky's business is based on much more than just auto
shows — although they provide the talent for 84 of them, including
Detroit's North American International Auto Show. Productions Plus is
among the top three suppliers of talent to auto shows in the country.
They also book talent for hundreds of other events through their spe-
cial events and entertainment department, mainly for blue chip corporate
clients like MGM Casinos, DaimlerChrysler, Toyota, Nissan, Infiniti,
Izuzu, Mercedes, Volvo, IBM, MCI and Pepsi Cola.
"A corporation will come to us," said Krevsky, and they may be auto-
motive people who want product specialists to tour around the country
for up to nine months. We may have another automotive company that
does 'ride and drives,' and wants a six-month time frame.
"Right now we're doing a Toyota golf skills event that is traveling
around the country for a year-and-a-half," said Krevsky.
Productions Plus has nearly 4,000 names of "talent" in their computers.
They match individuals' qualifications to the client's needs.
The agency collects a percentage fee from the client for services such as
et0.42,.. coordinating the project, booking the talent, auditioning and wardrobe
services. A percentage is also deducted from the talent for coordi-
nating their end of the business. That includes such factors as
tio
wardrobe fittings and insurance and, said Krevsky, "prob-
lem solvinab • Agency commissions vary depending
4f;
upon the scope, time frame and the project.
"Zoze,
Earlier this spring, Fuller and
Krevsky
P>iz
began the
41-e
th e
selection process for
MGM Grandettes, the
goodwill ambassadors who will greet
and entertain guests when MGM Grand Detroit opens its temporary casi-
no this summer. The Grandettes will eventually go on to the permanent
Detroit hotel/casino/entertainment complex, scheduled to be the largest in
the world, which MGM will open in 2003.
Several weeks earlier, hundreds of wanna-be Grandettes responded to
Fuller and Krevsky's advertisements in Detroit's daily papers. The candi-
dates ranged from working mothers to graduate students. Those selected
had to squeeze themselves into the figure-revealing uniform of the
Grandettes.
But Fuller and Krevsky said MGM's choices were being predicated on
more than beauty.
"MGM is different because they are not looking for freelance actors
and actresses. They want full-time people ... Many of them will be able to
sing, dance, even be a ventriloquist," said Krevsky.
Said Fuller, "If they have the talent, if they have that sparking MGM
;
ling
a ismnd
o i ustr,
6/2
19'
Detroit Jewish News 51