Toronto publicist, booking agent and personal manager Gino Empry has worked with a great number of celebrities during his career. From his years with the Mirvishes at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, booking artists for the Imperial Room at the Royal York, to his work today with Gino Empry Entertainment, he has crossed paths and worked closely with many of the biggest names in entertainment.

In his career he has been personal manager for Karen Kain, Toller Cranston, Roger Whittaker and Roch Voisine. His many corporate accounts have included Playboy magazine, Shopsy’s Deli and the Canadian National Exhibition. In his new book, I Belong to the Stars, he recounts his experiences and remembrances with celebrities, focusing on 22 of his personal favourites. The group includes Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Jane Russell, Jack Lemmon, Bill Cosby, Cher and Lena Horne, to name a few.

Some of the subjects, such as Bennett and singer Peggy Lee, were his personal clients. Others like Russell were part of productions running at the Royal Alex or, like Fitzgerald or Horne, performing at the Imperial Room. The book is filled with anecdotes, personal photographs, autographs and correspondences assembled from decades of work.

Born in Toronto on Dufferin Street, his family name is Emperatori. His father came from Italy at the age of 26, not knowing any English. Gino was born two years later when his father was 28 and his mother, a Canadian-born woman of Abruzzi heritage who didn’t speak any Italian, was 15.

He attended Oakwood Collegiate and joined the Catholic Youth Drama Club, where he acted in, directed and produced many plays. A year of university and work with some amateur drama groups followed, as did a stint at some transport companies and learning accounting at night school. Unsure whether to pursue a career in entertainment or the transportation industry, he sought the advice of a management psychologist. A week of tests later, the psychologist advised Empry to seriously try getting into show business for two years, and if he failed, settle into accounting. His first big breaks came via advice from Herbert Whittaker and Pauline McGibbon, who was to later become Ontario’s Lieutenant-Governor.

“When I first started out it was all amateur theatre,” Empry begins, recalling McGibbon. “She was the president of the Canadian Drama Festival and she used me as her assistant. So later on when I started in show business she was so well-connected in theatre she helped me a great deal.”

McGibbon became something of a mentor and confidante to Empry, a shoulder to cry on in the early days when things seemed to be getting nowhere. He remembers after one heart-to-heart session asking McGibbon how he could ever repay her. She replied that he couldn’t. “I said what do you mean I can’t?” he says. “She said ‘you can’t. What you have to do is pass it on, the same way I did it for you, you do it.’ So I always give people time, as much as I can.”

Whittaker helped Empry by recommending he volunteer at a Crest Theatre benefit for the Royal Alexandra Theatre. This led him into contact with Honest Ed Mirvish, the Royal Alex’s owner, who eventually made him the Alex’s house press agent.

“He was the first one to really notice me,” Empry says of Mirvish, who at that time had only recently forayed into the arts. “He’d say ‘I know nothing about the theatre, you know something, so it’s better than what I’ve got now.’ The day that Ed decided to compete with the O’Keefe, that’s when it really started. That was wonderful.”

It was in public relations and as a personal manager that Empry found his niche. He discovered he was good at making stars feel taken care of by his attention. “God gives everybody certain gifts,” he says, explaining that his was being able to put the needs of the performers first, and to know what to do when they would be difficult. “Basically they’re very nice,” he says. “I soon found out if they weren’t being nice, they had a problem. I found out too if you ask them what’s the matter, what’s the problem, they think you’re wonderful. Nobody ever asks them, you see. They’re just dying to say something.”

Empry considers meeting the stars and getting to know them the best aspect of this job. He finds it more difficult to pin-point the most challenging part of his work, and talks about how he dealt with problems that cropped up. He would sit with the problem and mull it over. “I hate to sound like a know-it-all but I soon found out, I learned that if you couldn’t figure something out, let it sit around in your head for a while. I just do that. Then sometimes even in a dream I would get a clue.”

Early on Empry would sometimes have trouble writing press releases. “I didn’t know what to say in them,” he says. “The top man in the Canadian Press said if you can’t get them in your first three or four lines, forget it.” He realized that that was key, to find a way to start and then the release would write itself. Those first lines would help find the angle to sell the show or event he was promoting.

Empry occasionally dreamt up crazy stunts as part of the “angle”. In the book he recounts a story of when Sir Ralph Richardson mentioned he would like to try operating a streetcar. Empry was happy to oblige and set up the opportunity for the actor to drive the better way. Presented with the actual opportunity Richardson begged off, fearing that the press would show up and he’d look foolish.

“‘I wouldn’t do that, I won’t phone the media,’” Empry recalls telling him. So Richardson agreed and soon found himself in newspapers all over Canada, the UK and the States, driving a TTC streetcar down Queen Street. “I didn’t call the media. I had one of my assistants call them,” Empry explains.

Empry embraces both his Canadian citizenship and his Italian roots. Though he considers himself a Canadian first, he is also proud to be of Italian background, and warns of the consequences of anyone daring take a crack about his heritage. He talks about where his father came from, a little town not far from Rome. “When the Germans got there in World War II they bombed the town and all our relatives,” he explains. He says that the first time he went to Italy he had a sense of déjà vu and he doesn’t know why. “I’d never been there before.”

“I think I’ve got a cousin who was a starlet,” he continues, speaking about his Italian connections. “We don’t know where she is.” Other than that, his family was not in the entertainment industry. “My father was shy and retiring,” he says. And his mother did not embrace his career choice. “My mother said ‘you wanna be in show business, be in show business. When you’re ready to go back to work, call me,’” he remembers. Even after he achieved success, she did not quite get exactly what it was her son did. “For years she kept saying that all I do is go to cocktail parties, so I took her to a couple of them,” Empry continues. “She said ‘gee, you’re always running.’”

Throughout his career Empry has volunteered for many charities and organizations including the Variety Club of Ontario; Inner City Angels; Hospital for Sick Kids; Smile Theatre Company; Ontario Musical Arts Centre; and Actors Fund of Canada. He’s the recipient of many awards and certificates of appreciation, including the City of Toronto Award of Merit, the Metro Police Award, and the Scroll of Honour for Exceptional Leadership for the State of Israel Bonds.

Today, besides the book, he is busy with a big corporate account “which takes up half my time. But I don’t think I really mind because it pays all the bills,” he says. His current professional memberships include the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS); Association of Theatrical Press Agents & Managers (ATPAM); the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (CARAS); the Toronto Theatre Alliance (TTA); American Federation of Musicians (AFM); Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television; Stratford Shakespearean Foundation of Canada; Performing Arts Publicists Association of Ontario (PAPA); The Toronto Press Club; Variety Club of Ontario, The Empire Club and the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT).

He also consults for some dinner theatres, Mysteriously Yours and the Famous People Players, among others.