Those moths of memory float by reminding us who we are and from where we come.  One wafted out of a cigarette smoky childhood recollection.  It explains perfectly why I started a licensed talent agency as a division of our PR firm, TransMedia Group (www.transmediagroup.com).

We just renamed it TransMedia Versatile Talent (TVT), for which a new website is under contraction.  And we appointed Marisela D’Baldriche, an awesome talent herself with an Anita Ekberg flair and figure, to run it.

Right now Marisela’s producing a remake of Fellini’s lauded Italian film La Dolce Vita with her, of course, cast as the buxom, beautiful Sylvia splashing her way across Roman fountains with an entranced Marcello in amorous pursuit.

Lately I’m reflecting on my family talent tree . . . on the bookings, management and press agentry . . . the client musicians, singers and models that were so commonplace in my childhood that I took them for granted and almost forgot them, but like many other things in our lives, they return full circle and come roaring back into our consciousness.

As a little boy coming home from school, I’d find these tall, beautiful blonds smiling at me, and making a fuss how cute was this little schoolboy son of their talent agent, my mom.  I remember it was embarrassing, but exhilarating.

You probably never heard of the Convention Entertainment Bureau.  That was my mom and dad’s talent agency in Atlantic City, which they ran out of our house on Belfield Avenue, while I was growing up not far from the Monopoly blue properties, Boardwalk and Park Place.

My mom, Lena was her name, and my dad Bill Madden, the violinist and orchestra conductor, would book bands, orchestras and actors for events including the Dancing Old Gold Cigarette Packs at Convention Hall for events hosted by Dennis James.  He was the chain-cigarette-smoking television personality, actor and announcer who up until 1976 had appeared on TV more times and for a longer period than any other television star.

Yes talent exudes through my family.  My dad was first violinist with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra and then with the Boston Pops under legendary conductor Arthur Fiedler.  He studied at Juilliard.

You might have seen my brother Don Madden’s full-page cartoons in Playboy Magazine.  He had one in the magazine every month for 50 years.

Me?   When not writing blogs and books like “Is there enough Brady in Trump to win the inSUPERable BOWL?” available on Amazon, I’m strumming my PR banjo, getting our clients strutting onto national TV to show off their talent as well as mine, my daughter Adrienne’s and our productive staff’s talent for booking them.

And check out my grandson Jake’s talent as an artistic photographer: http://jakemazzone.com/about-me/.  So the talent train keeps rolling from one generation to the next.  Happy days.

TM