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□ SARTELLContinued from 1E“In Hollywood. I’m known as Jesse Lasky's best friend.” he said. “In Los Angeles, I'm known only by that. They have no idea that I’m in the twirling business.This is an important point to Sartell, often recognized locally only as a former baton twirier who runs a wholesale baton company. American Baton Co., out of the office at Sartell EnterprisesAmerican Baton Co.. ABC, began as the result of an accident A cheap baton had broken and stuck in a girl’s leg. So Sartell studied the design of batons and then hired Beloit designer Nolan Rhoades to design a better model Now ABC has 9.000 dealers throughout the world and Jobs the manufacturing otfkNew batons are constantly being designed“Somebody had to build a better baton The clayand the rubber, the steel would break. Somebody had to do something about it. ABC has become the Rolls Royce of the Industry , but my personal interest has never been that great.” be saidSartell is much more interested in Hollywood and pageantry , and he has many stones about his association with Lasky and DeMille. movies he has helped produce and his relationships with various stars aj| —rutimFor instance he considers Bobby Vinton his closest fnend r* sa.-:Fifty copies of Vinton's latest single “The Last Rose. ” were sitting on a table in Sartell s office. Vinton had asked SarteD to help promote the tune.Sldl mMLSartell continued to maintain a home in Janesville. for personal reasons, and upon the death of Lasky. he returned and began producing live shows and testimtB. IPfPHe still produces one of the grandest of all. “America s Youth on Parade ” which he describes as the biggest voutb pageant of its kind in theworld. AYOP is also the Olympics of baton twirling.he saidSoon he was getting calls from pageant organizers in need of help.“1 became a consultant. There is hardly a festival or a pageant held in the country without consulting me.” he said, citing a call from NBC to help with the Macy ’s Parade as an example.“I’m a show business consultant, a producer and a publisher And I'm still the kid from Janesville who twirls the baton. ”America’s Youth on Parade is a five-day pageant held annually at Notre Dame University. The show began in 1966 at the University of Mississippi. After three years, it moved to Syracuse University, and after another year, it landed at Notre Dame.The show features everything from marching corps to ballet“I always conclude with a gigantic Big Show,”Sartell said. The Big Show has featured such starsas Kenny Rogers. Tony Orlando and Dawn. EddieRabbitt. and in some cases was the first big break for a performerIf Sartell were not busy enough, he is a writer, too He is currently at work on a manual for those who would put cm pageants He has written screenplays, one of which he turned down $25,000 for, because be would have had to sacrifice artistic control, he sa?d 'Another screenplay is the story of Jesse Lasky, which Sartell has shown to various producersi have a file full of ideas. If I quit everything else. I’d like to write,” he said.But it does not seem as if Sartell is going to quit everything else. The pageant judging and consultant business has taken him all over the world. He is still called to Hollywood to help with movies there.So although Sartell is much more than an ex-flaming-baton twirler. the baton is really how he got to be a manufacturer, publisher, producer. And it’s the reason that he got to Hollywood to collect that hug from Heather Locklear
Newspaper Details
Janesville Gazette
Janesville, Wisconsin, US
Sat, Jan 21, 1989
Page 69
Full Page
Clipped by
Hedberg P.
Wisconsin, USA 02 May 2022
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