I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Elliot Abbott, President of The Hollywood Collection. Turns out the man who came up with a great idea for a jewelry company about 15 years ago is a genuine gem! Warm and engaging, he shares with us his love for his business—and his customers. And clearly he admires the movie stars whose jewelry he lovingly recreates, those actresses who epitomized the glamour of Hollywood in its heyday. He knows these actresses and movies will never come around again. But, as he says, Hollywood is alive and well at The Hollywood Collection. Elliot Abbott is indeed a man who pursued his dream, and made it come true.
_______________________________________________________________________________
SD: When you started The Hollywood Collection had you quit the movie business? Were you looking for something different to do?

Elliot Abbott: No. We were in the midst of post-production on ‘League of Their Own’, and I was having a little concern because the marketing guys at Sony Pictures were wondering who the audience was going to be for this movie. So I said, “I think it’s going to be women 35 plus years old.” So I called Doug Briggs of QVC and said, ‘You guys got all the women watching your channel here, would you help us promote this movie?” He said, “Sure, we’ve never done anything like it, but we’ll help you. What do you want to sell?” I said, “Well, we don’t have anything to sell, but we want to show movie clips on your channel.” He said, “Look, come up with some merchandise we can sell from the movie, and we’ll do it for you.” So we did.

We came up with a line of merchandise called ‘Official Cast and Crew Merchandise’. We had jerseys that the ball players wore, and baseball hats, and all this stuff. It sold incredibly well. I never forgot that, and about 2 years later I thought, I’d love to come up with another product line to sell on TV. And I kept thinking, and thinking, and finally I said, “You know, they wore a lot of jewelry in movies, I wonder if we could get the rights to do that, find a jewelry factory, and all that stuff." And that’s how the idea came. And I was terrified that someone had thought of doing it, and no one had. That was the germ of it.

SD: That’s wonderful! It’s done so well—14 years is a long time.

Elliot Abbott: Yeah, it’s been around for some time. It’s my only really good idea, but it was a good one.

SD: It’s wonderful when an idea really works. So you had to get the rights to do this jewelry?

Elliot Abbott: Yes, we had to get the rights from the estates, from the actresses, to do this. When we say Marilyn Monroe wore it, we have the ability to say that.

We had a funny conversation with one of the shopping channels that wanted us to do a line of clothing like our jewelry. You know like a dress that Marilyn wore, Bette Davis wore, or Audrey Hepburn. And I thought about it, and thought about it, and I said to them, “I don’t think it will work.” “Oh sure it will.” they said. I said to them, “I’ll tell you why—if you’re a size 4 and you wear that Monroe dress, you may be very happy, but if you’re a size 18—you may not be thrilled with that look." Not to be disrespectful, but people are different. And they said, “Gee, we never thought of that.” Well, that’s the problem. Everyone can wear a beautiful ring—everyone. It will look beautiful on any woman’s hand. That’s the way it is.

SD: You said earlier that you enjoy talking to your customers.

Elliot Abbott: It’s really fun. It's very, very satisfying to think something might work, and then it does. And, it’s also very satisfying to hear people who are happy, who have bought something you have— something that you’ve put your heart and soul into—and they love it, and they look good. It’s just a really good feeling.

And I’ll tell you, the other thing I love about it is that the jewelry reminds people how great these actresses were, how great these movies are. Watching Gaslight and seeing Ingrid Bergman…it just takes your breath away.

SD: It does, and that’s the beauty of your jewelry—it brings those memories back, and makes women look great at the same time.

Your website is really nice, and very comprehensive. You have Specials of the Week, a print catalogue, a newsletter—and I see you have 5 stars out of 5 on Yahoo, the customer’s highest rating of excellence.

Elliot Abbott: Look, we want to treat people the way we want to be treated. It’s fairly basic, simple stuff. If somebody is unhappy, we want to make them happy.

SD: So do you have a Guarantee of Satisfaction with all your products?

Elliot Abbott:Yes, we do. We want people to be happy with their purchase, and if they’re not, they will get their money back.