BOOKING AGENT CREATES ENTERTAINMENT PACKAGES

Mike Ford has a client looking for the kind of entertainment that will make a convention in Dallas both memorable and profitable.

He's got Huey Lewis in the ballpark. But the parties involved haven't taken the proposed project beyond the talking stage. So Ford, who works for Ford Entertainment and Productions in Cape, continues to work toward a done deal.

"We've been working on the Huey Lewis package the past 30 days," said Ford, who is in his 22nd year with the company his father started in 1956. "We've got a Fortune 500 company in Dallas that wants us to arrange the entertainment for a convention of about 1,000 people," explained Ford. "If we can't get Huey Lewis, we'll just move on to someone else. We go like that until we find something that will fit the needs of the convention people who hired us."

Huey Lewis came into the picture when Ford learned that the rock group would be heading to Palm Beach, Fla., around the same time as the convention in Dallas. "Playing to 1,000 people might appeal to a group or it might seem too small to sell accompanying merchandise," said Ford. "The reason we think we can work this out is that Huey Lewis is coming out of California and heading toward Florida," he said "Since Dallas is on the way, it's something that becomes a possibility. So far it looks like we'll be able to get it worked out."

Ford Entertainment and Productions arranged to bring Doug Stone to the Cape Central High School Auditorium for the Feb. 26 concert. "We worked with Special Events Management in Cape and they asked us to produce the show," said Ford.

"Sometimes a buyer will only want us to work on one phase of an entertainment package. Or they may want us to work on the entire act."

According to Ford, the longer the booking agency has been in existence, the easier it is to bring a deal to the bargaining table. "Ford Entertainment and Productions has been around for a long time, so we have a lot of contacts," said Ford. "A lot of people do what we do, but some of them only specialize in certain acts. We're more involved in conventions, country and western music acts and special events like fairs and festivals. We usually book acts for the SEMO District Fair every year."

Ford has arranged for a Melissa Manchester concert in Shreveport, La., Jeff Foxworthy and Pam Tillis in Jackson, Miss., and has several other leads on future deals.

"We've coordinated acts as far away as Greenland and as close as Cape Girardeau or St. Louis," said Ford, who indicated there are two booking agents working at the company's satellite office in St. Louis. Five booking agents work in the Cape Girardeau office.

With the emergence of riverboat gambling in Cape, the Ford Entertainment agency could be even busier. "It's something we're looking at, but right now we have to work on the acts that are in front of us," said Ford.