Guest Author - Susan Dorling

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.
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SD: What do you do at The Hollywood Collection on a day-to-day basis.

Elliot Abbott: (A few days before our interview, Elliot hurt his hand playing golf.) Well, now with my hurt hand I type with one finger, and work with the buyers of the various shopping channels, and I write the cards that come in the boxes—and I love talking to customers. And I go on television, QVC here in the United States, and QVC in the UK, and in Japan. And I do the shows—a horrifying experience for me—but that’s what they wanted, so I do it.

SD: What is QVC?

Elliot Abbott: Shopping channel. We’ll do an hour at a time, and they’ll put up about 10 or 12 different styles, and I go on TV with the host, tell the stories, and show the photos. I get a stomachache when I have to go on.

SD: It must be quite a different experience being in front of the camera, when as a movie producer you’re behind the scenes. How is the QVC working out?

Elliot Abbott: It’s working really well. We’re doing about 5 shows a year in England, about 3 or 4 shows here in the United States, a couple in Japan. So it’s going well, and they love the jewelry.

SD: I'll be doing a story later this month or in July about Kirks Folly, a company that also does the QVC shows.

Elliot Abbott: They do very well. You know, QVC is beautifully done. I’ll tell you, the guy who used to be the CEO, Doug Briggs and I became very good friends, and he said to me a long time ago, “I just want to tell you one thing—the product is the star.” I never forgot it. People can really tell the difference. That’s why we use 3 microns of 14K gold rather than the one micron that most people put on. We don’t want the jewelry to wear out. We have women who have bought rings from our company 14 years ago, and they’re still wearing them—and they look just great. If you take the time to make it right they will last.

SD: The Hollywood Collection is sold worldwide?

Elliot Abbott: Oh yeah! You know, everybody knows Monroe, Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, they’re International stars who everybody is aware of. So it’s not a product you can find just in one territory.

SD: You’ve had articles written about The Hollywood Collection and other media attention such as Good Housekeeping, Extra, Georgia Magazine, and others. The Hollywood Collection really sparks a lot of interest.

Elliot Abbott: Yes, people really find it interesting—a ring or a pair of earrings that was in Gone with the Wind, or Casablanca. When I thought of the idea, I thought, well surely someone is doing this, but I pursued it anyway. I found out that A, nobody else has done it—and B, it could be done!

SD: Was it tough to get off the ground, getting everything together?

Elliot Abbott: Well, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. We found a great factory to make it for us in Thailand, and people really warmed to it immediately.

SD: It was an instant success?

Elliot Abbott: Pretty much.

SD: Are you the marketing person in the business then?

Elliot Abbott: Yes, but believe me, it just seems to take care of itself. Find it, discover it, and they want to know more about it—and that’s wonderful. And when they get the jewelry they go crazy! It’s so rewarding. We love it. It makes us feel great. And we’ve tried over the years to keep it at a price point that everyone can sort of collect it.

SD:It’s truly a ‘collectible’ collection.

Elliot Abbott: It's a wearable collectible. And, it doesn’t break the bank.

SD: Yes, that’s another thing I love about The Hollywood Collection—it’s very affordable.

You are located on famous Ventura Boulevard. Do you get many movie people coming in?

Elliot Abbott: We don't have a store. This is our headquarters here on Ventura Boulevard. We sell to a lot of retailers, about 20 or 30 stores, and occasionally we’ll get some inquiries about putting it in movies. We’ve had a bunch of jewelry in a lot of TV shows. And there’s a whole tray of it in the movie, ‘Men in Black’. Remember when they had the scene in the jewelry store—that’s a whole tray of ours.

SD: Do you ever rent jewelry for movies?

Elliot Abbott: Actually, with ours, they just buy it. But, for us it’s not the major part of our business. People have said, “Have you ever thought about doing Julia Robert’s jewelry, and contemporary actresses. You know, for me, with the movie business the way it is right now, it would be a jillion dollars to get the rights to do that, and I’m just not sure that people really care.

SD: No, there’s nothing like the glamorous movie stars of that era. No one is ever going to come along again like Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman, and the others. These women are icons. The movies were such classics!

Elliot Abbott: That was the best it was out here.