About Us
Stephen M. Cole, Chairman and CEO
Stephen M. Cole received his B.S.B.A. degree in Marketing and Advertising from Chicago’s Roosevelt University. He was President of Roosevelt University’s Chapter of The Alpha Delta Sigma Honorary Fraternity and is a member in good standing with the American Advertising Federation. He spent three years in the U.S Army, first with a Secret Clearance on a Nuclear Missile Base and then as a Public Information Specialist and Foreign Press Correspondent in Stuttgart, Germany.
Today, Mr. Cole is recognized as an advertising/marketing expert, with nearly four decades of a proven track record. His earliest marketing efforts span back to the mid-1960s’, coordinating a fund raising activity for Chicago’s world famous Auditorium Theater. In the early 1970’s Mr. Cole joined the international sales team of a high profile global mutual fund and was ranked the #1 sales associate for the entire continent of Africa and the 9th top global sales producer out of the total of 16,000 international sales associates.
By the mid 1970’s he founded ASTRALVISION, a high technology marketing company, which was one of the original few pioneering companies responsible for the marketing of computer animation technology to the motion picture industry in Hollywood, California. This was evidenced by ASTRALVISION representing the production company that produced the first computer animated segment in motion picture history in the feature length motion picture, Disney’s TRON. ASTRALVISION was also the recipient of Hollywood, California’s Film Advisory Board’s “Award of Excellence” and The Academy of Science Fiction and Fantasy and Horror Films “Golden Scroll Award”, for the advancement of computer animation and laser processes to the Motion Picture Industry. Additionally ASTRALVISION was awarded Second Place in the Special Invitation Category from the Southern California Chapter of Resources Council, Inc., Pacifica Awards. During the late 1970s’ and concurrently with operating ASTRALVISION, Mr. Cole founded ASTRALVISION 3-D, one of the founding pioneers of marketing an updated version of 3-D glasses primarily for 3-D television broadcasts.
Additionally Mr. Cole owned and operated the Beverly Hills Screening Room, a private 35 mm motion picture screening room located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. The Beverly Hills Screening Room was one of only a few private screening rooms in Hollywood and was utilized primarily by motion picture producers, directors, distributors’ musicians and an array of Hollywood celebrities, such as Orson Wells, Anthony Quinn, King Vidor, Harvey Weinstein, Murray Lerner, Carl Reiner, Steve Martin, Raquel Welsh, John Belushi, Adam West, Buck Henry, The Cars, Todd Rundgren, Jules Buck and Charlton Heston. Concurrently, the Beverly Hills Screening Room was selected by EMI Films to outfit, showcase and premiere EMI’S 3-D process, SPACEVISION. The Beverly Hills Screening Room became the first 35mm screening room in Hollywood fitted for 3-D. Much of the 3-D motion picture revival which took place in Hollywood originated there. As a part of the 3-D marketing presentations EMI showcased its 3-D short film, “SEADREAM” at the Beverly Hills Screening Room. SEADREAM’s film director, and Beverly Hills Screening Room client, Murray Lerner went on to win the Academy Award for Best Director of a Short Film.
For the past two decades, Mr. Cole has focused his marketing/promotion skills towards the securities industry. He has orchestrated and overseen the financial packaging of a multitude of private placements and public offerings. Mr. Cole’s expertise includes deal structure, coordination and interface with securities counsel and CPAs, initiation and complete production of all collateral sales materials along with the establishment of significant NASD broker/dealer retail support. Mr. Cole has represented numerous security Issuers and wholesaling their transaction/s to member firms of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) formerly known as the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) member firms. He has been a NASD licensed Registered Representative and a member of both the National Association of Financial Wholesalers (NAFW), and the International Association of Financial Planners (IAFP).
In the late 1990s’ Mr. Cole encapsulated his securities and marketing expertise, founded and is President and CEO of The Wall Street Organization, Inc. (WSO) a private investment banking firm. WSO is an Associate Member of the National Investment Bankers Association (NIBA), a Member of the San Diego Investment Conference (SDIC), and a Member of the Southern California Investment Association (SCIA). Additionally the Company is an Accredited Business with an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. Contributing to Mr. Cole’s rich experience and market exposure is the additional prestige he has recently achieved through being listed in the 2010 edition of Marquis Who’s Who in America.
Jesse Cutler – Special Projects Consultant
Jesse Cutler has spent an illustrious career, beginning at age 12, as a musician, composer, actor, producer, entrepreneur and even a Playgirl centerfold. Starting in New York City in the 1960s and then in Los Angeles from the early ‘70s through the late ‘90s, Jesse performed with his bands and in the original cast of Godspell on Broadway, made records that saw Billboard’s Top 100, formed his own companies and appeared on TV and radio and in national print.
Now, after a decade-long respite from the glow of Hollywood, Jesse is riding a comeback. In his newly released book, StarLust™: The Price of Fame (Morgan James, 2008) , he asks would-be celebrities and their parents, “Are you willing to pay the price?” A cautionary tale fostered by his 40-plus years in show business, StarLust chronicles Jesse’s life from his beginnings in Brooklyn and his formative years as a teen rock star, then on to Broadway where his work as part of the original cast of Godspell won him a Grammy Award. David Letterman’s bandleader, Paul Shaffer, a good friend of Jesse’s since those Godspell days, wrote the foreword to the book.
Born Louis Milo Gibaldi, by age 12 Jesse was surrounded by celebrity. Signed by Mercury Records in 1964, Jesse’s first band, The Young Executives, saw their single “Everybody Do the Duck” hit the Billboard Top 100 charts. They were invited to appear on American Bandstand, The Merv Griffin Show, Hullaballoo and Shindig. At charity fundraisers and private parties on Long Island, they played in the company of The Rolling Stones, Sammy Davis, Jr., Barbra Streisand, Anthony Newley, Joan Collins and the Beatles.
“It was the Sixties,” Jesse says of that time, when he went by the name Lou London. He ultimately changed his name to Jesse Cutler in 1971. “The Beatles were a phenomenon. No one had seen anyone like them, but they inspired us. With my dad as the band’s manager, we had entrée to places and people very few other Long Island kids would have had.”
Jesse’s mother wanted him to be a doctor. But Jesse had other ideas. His passion was music. He’d traveled to Sicily as a boy, seen his older cousin singing and playing the guitar before a crowd of swooning teenaged girls. Back home in Long Island, Jesse picked up the guitar and never put it down. In fact, he went on to teach himself piano and drums. He honored his mother’s wishes, though, that he continue his schooling. The Young Executives broke up, and by the time Jesse was 20 and had attended two years at Hofstra University, he was ready to dive back into the fray.
Not one to sever friendships, Jesse believes one key to his success during that time and since has been his ability to stay in touch with the people he met along the way. Thus, when one of his Young Executives band mates, Riki Shutter, a popular Long Island musician, asked him to “come play songs” for Stephen Schwartz, Jesse obliged. Schwartz had a new musical in the works, Godspell, and Jesse was invited to join the band. He played in 800 consecutive performances during 1971-1972, first at the Cherry Lane Theatre off-Broadway, then at the Promenade Theatre on Broadway. He also co-arranged the score for the Arista Records original cast recording and then in 1973 for the Arista Records movie soundtrack. Both albums were awarded gold and platinum records, and Jesse won a Grammy Award for his work on the original cast recording.
After Godspell, Jesse began performing solo on guitar at Kenny’s Castaways and other local New York clubs. A rock-pick guitarist who loved the Afro-Cuban sound, Jesse took his act to L.A. with a new band, Jesse Cutler’s Angel. At the Whiskey a Go Go, the Roxy and other venues, the edgy New York sound took L.A. strummers by surprise. Jesse says, “They’d never heard this sound, this kind of rhythm and blues.” Inspired by Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and Lionel Ritchie, Jesse still likes the sound of “big bass on the bottom and a lot of percussion” behind him. It was during this time in L.A. that he met Quincy Jones, who became another strong influence on him and his music.
Back in New York City and only 21 years old, Jesse was signed by Fabergé in late 1972 to launch their new record label, Brut Records. It was a real coup for Jesse, who through the multiyear contract traveled the world, resided in an Upper East Side penthouse and lived the heady life of a rock star. “The world was at my feet—that’s how I felt at the time,” he says. “Here I was, a second-generation Italian kid from Brooklyn, and I’m seeing my picture in Harper’s Bazaar.”
Los Angeles beckoned again, in 1976, and within six months Jesse was signed to United Artists Records with a three-year contract. Jesse Cutler came out in 1978 and became a Top Album Pick from both Billboard, who noted that the “songs have more hooks than a tackle box,” and Record World, who wrote, “A crisp commercial sound pervades, brought to life by some of L.A.’s finest session men.” Jesse’s self-titled breakout album was produced by Joe Renzetti, who in 1979 won an Academy Award for the best original soundtrack for The Buddy Holly Story in which Jesse also appeared on screen with actor Gary Busey.
But Jesse’s luck turned not long after that. EMI bought United Artists Records and “cleaned house…all except for Kenny Rogers and Dottie West,” Jesse says. It was a cruel blow, and from that time Jesse says he learned how to pick himself up and dust himself off, “a necessary skill for anyone who’s climbing to the top.” He posed as a Playgirl centerfold—one of their editors had been after him for two years—in January, 1979, and contemplated his next moves.
A new fad was buzzing through L.A. at the time, and long before Richard Simmons or Jane Fonda brought disco exercise to the masses, Jesse Cutler was there, with Disco Diet: Dance Yourself Slim. He sold half a million albums from his Beverly Hills office, posing with Playboy centerfolds and using “Automatic Man,” his single on Venture Records, as a promotion.
Jesse’s one-year stint as an entrepreneur and success with Disco Diet International helped him realize the value of producing. “I liked being an artist,” he says, “I still do, but the money was in production. With talent you can reinvent yourself, and that’s a big part of what it takes to stay in the spotlight.”
Jesse gave himself some time to write screenplays,—one of which he sold to Tri-Star Pictures—and from his office at Columbia Pictures began to plan his next steps. In 1980, when John Lennon was shot and killed, Jesse took a step back. Jack Douglas, Lennon’s producer, was a friend of Jesse’s since boyhood, and the murder gave Jesse pause. “I took a big step back,” he says. “I realized how fleeting life, celebrity, could be. I was devastated. John Lennon had been one of my heroes, and then he was gone, just like that.”
Jesse’s parents were living alone in Florida; he’d always been close to them. In 1985 Jesse moved there—temporarily, he thought—to help his father through heart surgery and recovery. “I decided after the surgery that I couldn’t leave him. He was my best friend. He needed me.” Jesse’s mother died in 1995, his father in 2001. But Jesse stayed in Florida, living near Orlando and continuing his entrepreneurial ventures. Between 1986 and 2000 he published Medical Digest, distributed to pharmacies in Florida; created and produced The Singles TV Connection, a TV show hosted by Jennilee Harrison from Three’s Company and Dallas; and published Restaurant Tour Magazine, a guide to South Florida restaurants distributed through hotels and other tourist venues.
Throughout that time, he was never far from music, playing at home or jamming with friends, and in 2001 he wrote and produced Music of the Stars: The Astral Connection, twelve original music CDs, one for each sign of the Zodiac. In addition, to showcase young musical talent, Jesse formed ESP Entertainment. From 2001-2004 he produced twelve CD samplers—featuring over 200 recording artists and record labels—that he distributed through New Age Retailer and Latin Beat magazines.
Now, Jesse Cutler is looking to the future, poised for the next step in his multifaceted career with StarLust™: The Price of Fame, his new book, due out in 2008. “I wanted to share my experiences and help those who are on the edge of fame,” he says from his office in Orlando. “There are so many traps to avoid. But there’s also a great sense of accomplishment and reward once you do grab that brass ring and enter the spotlight.”
Jim Krisvoy – Motion Picture 3D Advisor
Jim Krisvoy began his work in the Motion Picture 3D industry in 1969 when he evaluated the single lens Video West system for use on a race car film. In 1975, while on the “Midnight Special” production staff he suggested and researched the use of 3D for a proposed Elton John Midnight Special segment with glasses to be supplied via grocery stores and other determined outlets. He also researched the possibility of using the Video West system vs. the Pulfricht Method.
Mr. Krisvoy worked at Astralvision Communications beginning in 1979 per the recommendation of EMI-Spacevision. Spacevision needed a “watchdog” to monitor screenings of its system at The Beverly Hills Screening Room, which Astralvison managed. During that period, he marketed another35mm 3D production/projection system, Stereovision, for use on first widerelease using over/under 35mm of “Comin’ at Ya!” to Filmways Pictures (later Orion Pictures). Mr. Krisvoy also marketed 3D Video anaglypgh system to MGM for use on a Select-TV PPV broadcast of “Kiss Me Kate” which was the first full color broadcast anaglyph. He then developed large format 3D disposable glasses for potential TV and feature film markets known as Astralvision 3D glasses. Also Mr. Krisvoy marketed the 3D mirror box system for use on “Amityville 3D” (Orion). During this time period he constantly evaluated various3D camera systems, acted as press spokesperson for Astralvision 3D, and contacted KTLA-TV for use of the anaglyph 2 – night 3D broadcast which he turned over to Astralvision 3D marketing reps.
In 1991, while selling post production services at the MTC Production Center, Marina del Rey, Ca., Jim Krisvoy produced and supervised 3D conversions to field sequential 3D video format of a 3D demo with the 3D suppler Magic Box Entertainment (later known as Stereomedia). He then joined Joined Stereomedia marketing company’s 3D video services in 1994 where he evaluated MPEG-2 as a delivery format for field sequential DVD and proved it worked He also tested and evaluated several 3D head mounted displays.
In 2002, while with Piranha Post, Mr. Krisvoy set up and supervised the post production HD edit of a HD-3D demo using the first Avid DS HD desktop editing system. In 2005, he evaluated and recommended use of 35mm over/under projection systems for use on James Cameron’s “Ghost of the Abyss” feature. Jim Krisvoy is now an Associate with Intrepid Communications where he does 3D market forecasts on a continuing basis per autostereoscopic technology. He has also build an entertainment potential end user contact list which is under continued development.
Jeffrey A. Bohm, Acquisitions Advisor
Mr. Bohm received a BS/BA in marketing and an MBA in finance from Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois. He began his career in marketing and finance at AR Bernard Corporation, a private label photographic importer and distributor. He then joined Bell & Howell Photo Products Division as Director of Finance for their International Division. He later joined Deloitte & Touche Management Services Division, Detroit, Michigan. Mr. Bohm specialized and assisted in the development of their Banking Services product line on a local and national level. His responsibilities included financial management, organizational planning, systems management, and asset management.
In 1972, Mr. Bohm relocated to Tucson, Arizona and founded The Bohm Company, a diversified real estate development company. In 1986, “Professional Builder” magazine ranked The Bohm Company, owned by Mr. Bohm, as the 295th largest building and development company in the USA. The company received the prestigious Gold Nugget Award “The Best in the West” at two Pacific Coast Builders’ Conference annual meetings. Mr. Bohm is a past president and Life Director of the Southern Arizona Home Builders’ Association, and is the recipient of the Builder of the Year Award. Mr. Bohm was also a director of the National Association of Home Builders, Washington, D.C.
Mr. Bohm has served on numerous boards and commissions in the Tucson community. He currently manages investments for his own account and advisory services for a select client group.
Margaret Jones, Communications Director
Margaret Jones earned a National Merit Scholarship to attend the University of Arizona where she received her BA in Political Science with a minor in Mathematics. She came to work for The Wall Street Organization, Inc. in 2001 doing data entry. She has worked her way up through the ranks as an administrative assistant, copy writer and now Communications Director. Over her years working with the Company she has worked on many successful projects writing copy for Corporate Profiles, Investor Newsletters, and Business Plans. Ms. Jones was also a substantial contributor to the relaunch of the WSO website in Fall 2011.