Book Review: Tubac entrepreneur wins big with first book

If he weren’t a four-time Emmy nominee and most recently, a first-time author, Tubac resident Gary Isaacson might be writing screen plays, television scripts—or even acting.

A master at storytelling, Isaacson painted entire scenes when describing his past and taking about “Game Over,” the first of his trilogy of short novels, published by Flying Fish Books.

Isaacson describes “Game Over” as a phrase that appears at the finale of many electric games, including most slot machines.

It indicates that the player has run out of time or enough money to stay alive in play or has been electronically ‘killed,’ he adds.

A frequent visitor to Las Vegas where he researched his novel, Isaacson sets his story in the city of triple vices, and for anyone who has lost money there, they’ll recognize each casino down to the opulent buffet lines.

The main character is a worldly still attractive middle-aged male iconoclast who designs high definition digital video systems for broadcast stations.

His partner and love interest is an ambitious, beautiful female news anchor many years his junior.

Together they learn there is a huge story and lots of danger associated with their investigation of a Chinese entrant into the slot machine manufacturing industry.

Peppered with Arizona references, Isaacson’s book also highlights his vast knowledge of the broadcasting business.

Witty, fast-based, with believable characters having just enough quirks to make them vulnerable as well as likable, makes for a good action-packed crime book with interesting overtones. It’s good fodder for an action film, I might add.

“Game Over” is published by Flying Fish Books and is on sale locally at The Book Store in the Green Valley Mall, (now Green Valley Village); Tortuga Books, 19 Tubac Road, and the Tubac Center of the Arts, 9 Plaza Road, Tubac; as well as at flyingfishbooks.com and at amazon.com (search box Gary Isaacson).

Isaacson will be having a book-signing soon at Borders in Tucson.

The author took the time to talk about his background.

“I had thoughts of being an actor back when I was young because I thought it was glamorous, although I didn’t exactly have what they call ‘the look,’ if you know what I mean,” he says. ”The second best thing was being the producer behind the camera. I was a kid—still in high school. I had guts and for some reason, the CBS affiliate in Dayton, Ohio, hired me when I walked in.”

Isaacson started writing commercials for about $3 an hour and says he “absolutely loved it” until he realized that there was much more to the broadcast industry than he had imagined.

He went on to get his BA from Oberlin College in Ohio and later his MBA from Indiana University.

Following graduation, Isaacson did a short stint in the advertising/marketing division of Ponderosa Steak House, a franchise chain founded in Kokomo, Ind.

“That job taught me that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, and although I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to be doing, I knew that part of it would involve advertising,” he recalls.

Isaacson Communications was eventually born and he moved into production, earning his first Emmy nomination in 1980 for a documentary that received airtime and got recognition.

“I then started doing a version of a Barbara Walters show called “One-on-One” where we took all the local celebrities like local politicians, entertainers, sports people, and we’d interview them on camera,” he says. “DeDe (Isaacson’s soon-to-be wife and business partner) was the interviewer and the show proved to be a big success.”

Isaacson approached the station owners, convincing them that he would pay them for the half-hour time slot himself, but wanted free reign to sell his own advertising during the show.

The new format was an immediate money-maker for Isaacson Communications.

He expanded his interests to an hourlong variety show, recruiting talent from many of the local Dayton and Cincinnati comedy clubs.

“Our third guest was once the youngest mayor of Cincinnati—Jerry Springer,” Isaacson says. “It was hilarious. He is so smart and a publicity hog beyond belief.”

Springer was elected to the Cincinnati City Council in 1971 but was forced to resign in 1974 after admitting to hiring a prostitute. He later came clean at a press conference, winning back his seat in 1975. In 1979, he was chosen to serve one year as mayor by the City Council.

Gary and DeDe eventually moved from Dayton, bitten by the travel bug, making their way to Orlando, Fla. where they started their company, WorldClips—a service designed to provide clients with video stock footage and stills.

“We came up with the idea one night when we were watching Conan O’Brien and his guest was Carlton Fisk, the Red Sox catcher who was credited with the Red Sox winning Game 6 in the 1975 World Series,” Isaacson says. “Conan was livid about the film clip he had showing Carlton’s historic play. The film rights were owned by Getty and a one-minute clip was $5,000 for one night. The clip was only seven seconds long and Conan ran it eight times to get his money’s worth.”

It was at that moment, Isaacson says he realized there was a business in stock film footage.

In his own business, he would offer clients better control over the conformity and quality of the footage, avoiding the hassle of dealing with licensing, lawyers and reams of royalties paperwork.

WorldClips was born from this frustration.

“All of our stock footage and stock stills are digitally acquired, of consistently high quality, remarkably low-priced and royalty free,” he says.

After extensive development and testing, Isaacson adds, WorldClips digital downloads offers our customers instant gratification.

“Now, each clip or still can be reviewed, purchased and downloaded directly to your hard drive in a completely secure environment,” he says.

Isaacson is also a two-term regional governor of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

In the meantime, he’s well into writing the second novel of his trilogy in his spare time.

Visit WorldClips Web site at www.worldclips.tv.

rford@gvnews.com | 547-9740