WILLIAM (BILL) V. LEVY
Bill Levy has had a distinguished career as an award-winning journalist, contributing editor, nationally-recognized marketing and public relations practitioner, Emmy-nominated video/film producer and best-selling author, who has written nine books.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS SERVICE. Seven years covering major regional news and sport, stories which appeared around the world. Also was a nationally syndicated sports columnist for King Features Syndicate, owned by the Hearst Corporation.
GOODYEAR TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY. Manager of industrial products publicity in Akron, Ohio. Business/Financial public relations in New York City, responsible for placement of stories with major New York dailies and national magazines.
GOODYEAR AEROSPACE CORPORATION. Manager of public relations for the aviation, defense and space subsidiary of Goodyear. Served as the company representative to the Aerospace Industries Association, which often was referred to as the Munitions Lobby.
GRISWOLD-ESHELMAN COMPANY. Vice president of public relations for one of the nation’s largest advertising agency PR departments. Supervised more than 20 professionals in Cleveland, New York, Chicago and Pittsburgh. Major clients included Barney’s Clothes, Fortunoff, National Electrical Manufacturers Association, Bryant Heating and Cooling, Anaconda Aluminum, Compressed Air and Gas Institute, Charter House Hotels, Collins-World Publishing of London, whose World Publishing in Cleveland was the world’s largest publishers of bibles and dictionaries and a major publisher of best-selling novels and non-fiction books.
WILLIAM V. LEVY & ASSOCIATES. In 1969, started own public relations/marketing firm. Clients included Mayor Carl Stokes, first African-American mayor of major American city, U.S. Senate Candidate Howard Metzenbaum and other political candidates. One of his first national clients was the Snack Food Association, for which he has served in many capacities. The agency also handled public relations and advertising for 20 Sheraton Hotels nationwide. In 1980, he began producing videos for the Snack Food Association and Telxon Corporation of Akron, the world’s largest developer of handheld micro computers for retail inventory manager.
BILL LEVY PRODUCTIONS. IN 1983, he started what is now Bill Levy Productions, and also continued to operate the public relations and advertising business. Among the original clients were the Snack Food Association, Telxon Corporation, the National Wholesale Druggist’s Association. Over the years, Bill Levy Productions has produced more than 1000 marketing, training corporate image, product demonstration and other programs, including a wide array of training and image programs for the National Association of College Stores and NACSCORP in Oberlin.
The firm has done extensive international production for Sylvania Lighting, Telxon Corporation and other firms, filming in Scandinavia, England, France, Germany,Spain, Belgium and Japan. Many of the programs have been translated into foreign languages.
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In 2001, BLP produced an award-winning documentary on the history of the Cleveland Indians, entitled INDIAN SUMMERS: CLEVELAND BASEBALL MEMORIES. It later produced a highly-praised documentary on former Tribe third basemen Al Rosen on the 60th anniversary of his winning the American League Most Valuable Player award unanimously.
In 2003, Bill, who had worked with former MIA CEO Gary Distelhorst at the National Association of College Stores, brought his marketing, public relations and video production expertise. Until MIA brought the function in house, he served as communications director and worked to help create some of the association’s most memorable campaigns. On the video side, Bill Levy Productions created many of the association’s training awards and marketing videos. One of the highlights more than a decade of work was the widely-acclaimed “THE HISTORY OF MAN AND STONE: A DOCUMENTARY. The relationship between Bill Levy Productions and the Natural Stone Institute continued.
BLP also has produced a number of videos for the Natural Stone Council and also produced a quarterly video magazine called The Stone News Channel.
FREE-LANCE WRITING. Over his career, Bill has also been a prolific free-lance writer. He was contributing editor of Ohio Magazine and wrote numerous articles for the Cleveland Plain Dealer Magazine and Cleveland Magazine, Among the nine published books, ‘RETURN TO GLORY: THE STORY OF THE CLEVELAND BROWNS,” was a national sports best-seller. “THREE YARDS AND A CLOUD OF DUST: THE OHIO STATE FOOTBALL STORY,” is a collector’s item. Bill was the ghostwriter on Dr. Sam Sheppard’s autobiography, “ENDURE AND CONQUER,” for which the Bay Village, Ohio neurosurgeon was convicted and then acquitted for the murder of his wife, Marilyn.
“KNOCKOFF,” a novel based on international counterfeiting of products was the result of research through the U.S., China and Taiwan.
Bill says one of the most satisfying moments in his career came when, at an open house for parents, his son’s teacher said Michael was having trouble in English.
“I simply stated to her that I had flunked 8th grade grammar and still managed to have a great career as a writer and the author of nine books.
Grace Shaw, who was copy editor for World Publishing for which Levy wrote four books, complained to him one day: “You treat me like a washer woman. I have to clean up your mess.”
“Nothing like a great copy editor to make a writer look good,” Bill says.
