Putting words into mouths
Sep. 17th, 2008 09:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisI used to be a speech writer. I was a good one and I loved it. I loved all of the trappings that came with it. I wrote speeches for executives at IBM.
I got to sit in on secret conferences and learn about 'the plans' before most everyone else. I was courted by all of the middlemen and their minions. People trying to get their ideas/products/processes visibility by having my guy (and, yeah, they were all guys) mention them in his next speech.
That's how I met my friend, John. His boss sent him to get some kind of lame program into a speech. I remember it like it was yesterday - I can remember what he wore. And I can remember that I shot him down so fast that my secretary (this as the olden days) came into my office after saying 'did you not notice how gorgeous he is????' I actually had noticed but he was also arrogant and his program was one my boss thought was still too immature to talk about in a general address.
In those days, speeches were written all caps in line lengths of about 40 characters, double spaced on the page. The pages went into a speechbox which when laid out on the podium allowed the speaker to easily move through the pages without the audience seeing the pages flip by. I still have one of those boxes.
The beauty of being a speech writer is that generally, when the speech bombed, the speaker got the blame. When the speech was great, the speaker got the credit but he lavished most of that onto me in his gratitude. It was a great, fun game.
I managed to squeeze a dozen or so years out of it before I got caught in the corporate web and was promoted to manager of speech writers. While being a manager wasn't as horrible as I had always imagined it would be - in fact it was kind of fun - it was not as fun as actually doing the job.
I have not clue what made all this pop into my brain today but at least I know where to put it!
I got to sit in on secret conferences and learn about 'the plans' before most everyone else. I was courted by all of the middlemen and their minions. People trying to get their ideas/products/processes visibility by having my guy (and, yeah, they were all guys) mention them in his next speech.
That's how I met my friend, John. His boss sent him to get some kind of lame program into a speech. I remember it like it was yesterday - I can remember what he wore. And I can remember that I shot him down so fast that my secretary (this as the olden days) came into my office after saying 'did you not notice how gorgeous he is????' I actually had noticed but he was also arrogant and his program was one my boss thought was still too immature to talk about in a general address.
In those days, speeches were written all caps in line lengths of about 40 characters, double spaced on the page. The pages went into a speechbox which when laid out on the podium allowed the speaker to easily move through the pages without the audience seeing the pages flip by. I still have one of those boxes.
The beauty of being a speech writer is that generally, when the speech bombed, the speaker got the blame. When the speech was great, the speaker got the credit but he lavished most of that onto me in his gratitude. It was a great, fun game.
I managed to squeeze a dozen or so years out of it before I got caught in the corporate web and was promoted to manager of speech writers. While being a manager wasn't as horrible as I had always imagined it would be - in fact it was kind of fun - it was not as fun as actually doing the job.
I have not clue what made all this pop into my brain today but at least I know where to put it!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-17 05:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-17 06:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-17 07:18 pm (UTC).
You still have one of those speechboxes? Does it have some kind of odd sentimental value for you or does it continue to serve some practical purpose?
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-17 11:18 pm (UTC)