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Elbert Rogers International Elbert Rogers International started in Bothell, Washington, USA in 1977 as a Public Relations Consultant Firm. The services evolved to personal and public relations resulting from a client base change due to North American corporate cutbacks and the needs of new entrepreneurs spawned by those layoffs. The company struggled initially but came into its own when it began publishing the Washington State Score in 1980. During the 1980s this periodical chronicled the lifestyles of people of color in the State of Washington, USA. The articles were often the only resource of predominately primary data of its kind in North America. Twenty-five thousand copies were delivered four times annually via direct mail and at least one edition is stored in the United States National Archives. ERI also claims to be one of the first organizations, certainly the first with an all Afro American crew, to produce a program on the issue of illiteracy, Illiteracy - The Hidden Problem. Other productions include Who Ate The Half Ton Of Garlic from which some of the footage, according to buyers at the Discovery Channel, appeared on The Tonight Show and ARC Weldoning - Visual Thoughts About Process a piece about an artist whose work is collected by the Nieman-Marcus Department Store. Other productions the ERI Resume include celebrities Lionel Hampton, Albert King, The Five Blind Boys aka The Blind Boys of Alabama and Taj Mahal. ERI president, Danny J. Shedwin, started meeting celebrities in 1959 when he encountered Rock And Roll Artist Jerry Lee Lewis. In 1962 he spent some time with Al "Brisco" Clark, James Brown's band director. Within the next six years he met the Commanding General of European Forces who recommended his promotion while he was a member of SUPCOM, Prince Rainier and dined, by invitation, at a restaurant in Monte Carlo, Monaco where the only other North American to precede him there was President John F. Kennedy. He was the host in his home town to then World Heavy Weight Boxing Champion, Kenny Norton, and he dined with Jimmy Carter who became President of The United States of America. "I remember Jerry just as if it were today", Shedwin said. "During his breaks he'd just sit there at his piano saying and doing nothing. It was at the Roller Rink in Bremerton, Washington. All the kids were running around playing tag or something - doing that stuff to be popular. I slowly meandered over to him and started talking, asking him questions about himself. He kind of patronized me. And although it didn't hurt my feelings, I got real ticked off. What I didn't realize was that Jerry thought I was a groupy. Even though I didn't know what that was at that time I told him I wasn't that way. When he came back to town that next summer I didn't go to see him. I was still mad about the way he made me feel that summer before. But he returned one more time that summer. I went but I stayed back - insight but away from him. During one of his breaks I was walking, passing near him. He saw me and yelled, HEY. Where have you been? Why haven't you come to see me? I'm still a curious person. I've always wondered if Jerry remembers that incident." Lionel Hampton and Shedwin became friends until Hamp's passing and Taj Mahal sent him a message that his interview with him was the second best he'd ever had. "There have been some absolutely incredible people and unbelievable experiences", Danny reminds. "Like the day Pam Mc Collough, Gus Levine and myself spent at Duke and his late wife, Kathleene Murray's. Kathleene still gave acting lessons to Jack Lemon at the time. Duke was the guy, as vice president of Paramount Studios, behind financing the Hercules Films and the second mini-series Shogun. Duke was also one of individuals that developed color in film. My brain was boiling when I left their home. Gracious people, the Murrays." "The most fun was probably developing a project that never happened, though," Shedwin recalled. "I was working a lot at the home of the late Lillian Yarbo who was in You Can't Take It With You the 1938 Best Picture of the Year. Whenever I'd call her up to see how she was or just check in, she'd always say When you coming over? in that raspy, Dianah Washington - Ester Phillips tone. Myself and Roger Mitchell would do some planning on an idea that would bring her back before the cameras. We'd often be sitting on her living room floor with papers and folders strown everywhere. When we'd have difficulty finding solutions to certain situations, Lillian giggled at us. We often amused her. We were kids to her. Yarbo spent lots of time telling me about her friends and associates - Eddie Anderson, Louise Beavers, Lincoln Perry, Bill Robinson, Marilyn "Tiny" Monroe and Butterfly McQueen. The lessons are fascinating. She made sure that I understood what she called a Hollywood Condition. She'd speak of certain people saying, They can't do too much down there because they have a condition. She was runner up for the part of Prissy that was awarded to Butterfly in Gone With The Wind you know. She did a beeeautiful job, Lillian said about Mc Queen's work in the film. And she cracked me up talking about how she kept licquor around once. Every now and again she had what she called a little nip. Once she talked about how she lost track of her consumption and as she put it, I kept taking a little nip every once in a while but I wasn't paying much attention. Before I knew it, I'd nipped it all away! His church family, associates in entertainment related fields plus his family elders affect his perspective and enhance objectivity on a variety of subjects. Authenticity, Reality and Beauty in most anyone's terms are what Elbert Rogers International intends promoting and producing through products and services that include the fine arts, youth development, specializing in the $25 thousand 35MM film, video production, broadcast copywriting, photographic impressionism, techno impressionism, modeling, graphic design, speech writing, diversity infrastucture building, value adding, strategy developing and marketing.