The veteran Hollywood publicist died yesterday at his home in St. Augustine, FL. Mack Newberry was 89. A protege of Lee Solters, he spent more than a decade at Solters Roskin Friedman in Los Angeles, working with clients including Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Donny and Marie Osmond, Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme and Marty Pasetta, who directed Oscar telecasts from 1972-88. Newberry also managed publicity for the Grammy Awards in the pre-cable/Internet years and was West Coast PR rep for the Tonys. He worked as a unit publicist for such films as Doctor Detroit, China Moon, My Girl, Straight Talk and Cop And A Half and TV shows including Steven Spielberg’s seaQuest. He also handled the Tinseltown premiere of The Muppets Go Hollywood in 1979. Before the Texas native and Northwestern grad came to Hollywood, he ran a PR firm in Houston that oversaw publicity for the famous “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King at the Astrodome in 1973. Before that he spent more than two decades in broadcasting including a stint at General Manager of KJAC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Beaumont/Port Arthur, Texas. He is survived by daughters, Pattison Brennan and Juli Newman and grandchildren, Christopher, Schafer and Ellie Newman.
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