Albert Podell (born February 25, 1937) is a magazine editor and writer, advertising executive, trial attorney, and documentary film producer and director. Podell has served as a good-government lobbyist and as a theatrical investor and producer.
Career
Editor and Writer
While in high school, Podell served as editor-in-chief of the ''Survey of Brooklyn Technical High School''. He won two Columbia Scholastic Journalism gold keys for his paper as well as the Metcalfe Prize as the best scholastic feature/humor writer in New York State. He relocated to Chicago to become the graduate fellow of the Committee on International Relations at the University of Chicago, where he became an editor of the ''
Chicago Review
''Chicago Review'' is a literary magazine founded in 1946 and published quarterly in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago. The magazine features contemporary poetry, fiction, and criticism, often publishing works in translation and ...
''. When the University censored and suppressed an issue featuring
Beat Generation
The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...
writers, Podell resigned and became a founder of ''Big Table,'' a literature publication.
When the U.S. Post Office impounded and banned ''Big Table'', as "obscene and filthy," Podell, with the help of the
ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
, won a landmark decision for
freedom of expression
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
in ''Big Table v. Schroeder'', and his magazine became the nation's second-largest-circulation literary quarterly. In late 1959 Podell joined the editorial staff of ''Playboy'', where he edited all non-fiction except jazz and cooking. He simultaneously reviewed books for the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
''. In 1960 he left ''Playboy'' to edit six magazines for Publishers Development Corporation, and went on to write more than 250 articles for
men's magazines
This is a list of magazines primarily marketed to men. The list has been split into subcategories according to the target audience of the magazines. This list includes mostly mainstream magazines as well as adult ones. Not included here are autom ...
, specializing in true-life adventure, sports, war, espionage, women, sex and exotic travel. After Army service, where he edited the official manual on how to build and where to locate latrines, Podell moved back to New York to become the picture story editor of ''
Argosy'', then the oldest continuously country's published magazine. In March 2015 St. Martin's Press published Podell's book ''Around The World in 50 Years: My Adventure to Every Country on Earth''
which became an immediate ''New York Times'' best seller, was reprinted in paperback in July 2016 and has been translated into five languages.
Adventurer
From 1964 to 1966 Podell was co-leader of the Trans-World Record Expedition, which made the longest, direct, non-repetitive automobile trip around the world. His book about this expedition, ''Who Needs A Road'', is still in print after 48 years. In December 2012 Podell completed a five-decade mission to visit every country in the world and became, it is believed, the first American to achieve that goal. His book about this quest is titled ''Around the World in 50 Years: My Adventure to Every Country on Earth''.
Advertising executive
After returning from his expedition, Podell joined the Don Kemper Advertising Agency and created a department specializing in motion picture advertising. He went on to become the creative director on the
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
account and the account supervisor for
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
. When CBS started Cinema Center Films, it hired Podell as its advertising manager. He served as the chairman of the Motion Picture Advertising Awards.
Good-government lobbyist
In 1971 Podell became the director of legislative operations for the Citizens Union in Albanv and an advocate for legislative reform, earning praise in the press as "the
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes.
The son of Lebanese immigrants to the Un ...
of Albany." He was actively involved in supporting the
No-Fault Auto Insurance law and the Warranty of Habitability. In 1974, Podell became the director of legislative operations for
Common Cause
Common Cause is a watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., with chapters in 35 states. It was founded in 1970 by John W. Gardner, a Republican, who was the former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the administration of President L ...
in Albany, a position he held until accused by political anti-reformers of running a ring of teenage prostitutes in the State Legislature. Podell was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing by
Mario Cuomo
Mario Matthew Cuomo (, ; June 15, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 52nd governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994. A member of the Democratic Party, Cuomo previously served as t ...
, then the
New York Secretary of State
The secretary of state of New York is a cabinet officer in the government of the U.S. state of New York who leads the Department of State (NYSDOS).
The current secretary of state of New York is Robert J. Rodriguez, a Democrat.
Duties
The secre ...
, who investigated the matter. Podell proudly stated that he was the only person in the past century to be censured by the New York State Legislature – in what legal scholars dismiss as an unconstitutional
bill of attainder
A bill of attainder (also known as an act of attainder or writ of attainder or bill of penalties) is an act of a legislature declaring a person, or a group of people, guilty of some crime, and punishing them, often without a trial. As with attai ...
.
Attorney
Podell was awarded a J.D. in 1976 from NYU School of Law, and joined the firm of Rosenman, Colin, Freund, Lewis, and Cohen, where he worked on the landmark case of
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
Studios v. Sony (464 U.s. 417. aka the
Betamax Case
''Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.'', 464 U.S. 417 (1984), also known as the “Betamax case”, is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled that the making of individual copies of complete television s ...
), where he helped Sony win the right to sell the
VCR
A videocassette recorder (VCR) or video recorder is an electromechanical device that records analog audio and analog video from broadcast television or other source on a removable, magnetic tape videocassette, and can play back the recording. ...
and opened up the world of
home video
Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...
sales and usage. Podell then joined Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson as a litigation specialist and never suffered a defeat in court. In 1981 he joined Milgrim, Thamajon, Jacobs and Lee to specialize in cases of intellectual property and copyright. From 1990 until he retired in 2006, Podell ran his own law firm and never lost a jury trial.
Podell says these careers have s common thread of "articulate advocacy." He states that "As a magazine editor you advocate that subscribers see the films and read the books and buy the clothes you recommend, in adverting you advocate that people buy your clients’ products, as a lobbyist you advocate that the legislature do the right thing, and as a trial attorney you advocate that the jury decide in favor of your client.”
Documentary producer and director
Podell formed Far Above Films in 1992, where he produced and directed three feature-length documentaries in music-video style: ''A Class Above'', ''A Class on the Cutting Edge'' and ''Lift he Chorus'', which won, respectively, bronze, silver and gold medals in national competitions. He worked for ten years on a Christmas Eve TV special.
Film
He served as executive producer of the films ''The Girl Next Door'' (2007) and ''The Woman'' (2011).
Theatrical production
Podell has been involved as an investor or producer of a dozen
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
and
off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
shows. In 2012, he was the producer of ''The Great Society'', which told the story of the
presidency of Lyndon Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson's tenure as the 36th president of the United States began on November 22, 1963 following the assassination of President Kennedy and ended on January 20, 1969. He had been vice president for days when he succeeded to the pr ...
.
Personal life
Born in Brooklyn, February 25. 1937. He received a BA in 1958 from Cornell University with a major in Political Science. From 1959 to 1960 he was a Graduate Fellow of the Committee on International Relations at the University of Chicago. He received a J.D. from the NYU School of Law in 1976. Podell was married, from 1969 to 1972 to actress and screenwriter,
Stephanie Braxton
Stephanie Braxton (born December 11, 1944 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American television writer, playwright and actress. She married Dan Hamilton (actor), Dan Hamilton in 1976 after meeting him when they were both appearing on ''The Secret ...
. He married again, on December 12, 2012, to Russian journalist and writer Nadezda Dukhina. They divorced in December 2019. He has no children, but supports two in Africa.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Podell, Albert
1937 births
Living people
American magazine editors
New York University School of Law alumni
People associated with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
Cornell University alumni