Cardiology meeting where all countries exhibited their latest medical equipment. Our technology was state-of-the-art and very modern looking. The Russian technology had huge dials and knobs similar to what would be on old war type equipment. I had two interpreters and represented the senior level executive from our company. Each interpreter told me that the other was a KGB agent. One of them had a PhD in linguistics and was able to speak each dialect in the New York area, Boston area and other regions. I had a guard sit outside of my hotel suite that I assumed logged my entry and exits. Every night we would go out for dinner and look at a comprehensive menu. But after asking for a few dishes they told us that the only thing that we could eat was smoked salmon, caviar and chicken Kiev. Each and every night that’ s what we ate for 10 days. I met a cardiologist who was an artist and he took us out to a beautiful village outside of Moscow that had hand carved windows on the houses and beautiful churches.
Dr Randy Martin, Anne Martin, their children and Mimi taken on the top of the World Trade Center Photo by Barry Epstein
On one of my trips to London, I was informed that I was needed on the Today show in New York City to demonstrate the equipment. I flew into JFK airport and went directly to the studio at around 4:30am. I was prepped in the Green Room where I met a famous actor Andy Griffith and we had a brief chat. I then went on the set to prepare the equipment with a direct feed into their broadcast cameras that was going to send ultrasound images of the beating heart to the entire USA. We had a model that I would be scanning and I had a chance to speak to Bryant Gumbel about what it was. I also had a brief chat with a well known sports medicine doctor who was also appearing on the show. I had previously called Mimi and told her to tell family and friends to watch the Today show as I was going to be on and she did. When it was time they called me in together with the sports medicine doctor. I took my position next to the patient and adjacent to the ultrasound equipment. Bryant then introduced me as Larry who will be demonstrating the equipment and then he stepped in front of me and essentially blocked me out of the picture. He then started to interview the doctor as I performed an echocardiogram. I have to admit that I was insulted by this as Bryant had literally cut me out and called me Larry! I never watched the Today show again and I was glad to see that soon after, he left the show. Interestingly, the sports doctor had called me up and wanted to meet me at my office to talk about some business ideas he had. After our meeting he really wanted to show me his brand new Ferrari that was parked out front in a special visitors parking. It was freezing cold outside and we went out to see it but he couldn’ t figure out how to open it. It was very embarrassing for him and I had to go back inside as I was too cold.
There were quite a bit of social events that were related to the J & J Ultrasound. Upon being appointed as the Marketing Communications Manager, I inherited an account with the largest advertising agency in the world- Grey Advertising. This Madison Avenue firm invited Mimi and I to a couple of incredible formal events. They sent a stretch limousine to pick us up and in it was a magnum of Dom Perignon that we drank during our 30 minute drive into the famous Waldorf Astoria in New York City. We were headed to a dance in the Grand Ballroom. The attendees were a mix of nobel prize winning pharmaceutical scientists and creative directors from other advertising agencies. A real mix of art and science. The creatives wore bow-ties that lit up, spun around or shot water at you while the scientists were highly conservative. Our table was located in one of the balconies and the live band played incredible music that we danced to all night long. I was caught in the photo smoking a cigar between dancing. The agency invited us
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