Publicist driven by passion for arts

"In Our Midst"

PAULA SOBOL

Eleanor Spector has no patience for the notion that culture has recently arrived in Phoenix.

"Culture and the arts have been here forever," she strongly asserts.

A resident of the city since 1943, Spector has done "press" and public relations for a variety of organizations and her list of friends and acquaintances in the arts reads like a Who's Who. Whether it was Leonard Bernstein and his family, or Serge and Olga Koussevitzky or Aaron Copland, Spector has been a chauffeur, host, guide, chronicler and stead-fast friend.

It all began in Phil-adelphia, where she and her twin sister Reba were born and raised. After high school, Eleanor was employed by the Young Men and Women's Hebrew Assoc-iation where she developed programs for its music, art and drama departments. She also worked with the famed Curtis Institute of Music in arranging for Curtis students to give concerts for young people at the "Y." She also raised funds for the "Y's" art department in order for them to provide courses for underprivileged children.

In 1941, she met Al Spector while he worked as a young lawyer for the Federal Agri-culture Department in Philadelphia, and they mar-ried shortly after meeting. After Al's Army service, the couple came to Phoenix.

Phoenix was a fairly small town then, and the Spectors immediately sought out a synagogue, Temple Beth Israel.

Al was writing briefs for a prestigious law firm and later opened a practice. Judge Charles Bernstein gave Eleanor a job as his secretary, which didn't last long, since she was pregnant with daughter Jane, born in 1944. A son, Al Jr., was born in 1945.

Eleanor was already doing volunteer "press" and establishing herself as a consummate public relations person.

In 1950, the Israeli Philharmonic was making its first Ameri-can tour, arranged by Boston Symphony Con-ductor Serge Kous-sevitzky, who had just retired to his home in Scottsdale. As the only accredited Jewish publicist in the area when Hadassah de-cided to sponsor the orchestra in Phoenix, Eleanor was asked to work with the maestro. Koussevitzky became ill on tour, and he sent Eleanor a telegram telling her that he had a replacement, a young conductor named Leonard Bernstein. The Phoenix appearance of the orchestra was a wild success.

Eleanor was doing many other things, like volunteering her talent to the Phoenix Symphony Guild, Arizona Ballet Company, Phoenix Musical Theater (now the Arizona Opera Company), Temple Beth Israel, Heard Museum Guild and the Brandeis University National Women's Committee, for whom she served as president in the early '60s. Eleanor was also active in Kivel Manor, Friends of Mexican Art and The Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, where she was Women's Division president.

In the '70s, the Spectors bought the Adams hotel and Eleanor was a senior vice-president in charge of all publicity.

She remains in motion, having started a music study group for the Brandeis Women's Group, handling three years of "press" for the Brandeis' Book and Authors Luncheon and "helping out," as she puts it, when needed.

She now tells her nine grandchildren about her life and times and takes their orders for cookies and cakes. Eleanor considers cooking and baking for others as not just a creative thing to do, but in keeping with the Jewish idea of sharing with others, a thought she would like to leave as part of her legacy for her family, which means that she will do just that.

Paula Sobol is a longtime Phoenix resident.