Today we’d like to introduce you to Marianne S. Eggleston.
Hi Marianne S., it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started writing for this interview and could not stop. I am writing my autobiography, “Beyond My Self-On A Search To Find The Love Within,” to be to be released by fall 2025. If Big Stars Backstage Passes and a High-Profile Life is not good enough, what are you searching for?
Currently, I manage the Orlando Urban Film Festival (OUFF), which is celebrating its 12th Anniversary in August. OUFF is in the process of collaborating with Music Fest Orlando to truly merge our Film and Music events on a much larger scale, the Orlando Urban Music and Film Festival (OUFF). There is more to information to come as we move forward.
I have worked in the music, film, and entertainment business for over 40 years. I started working with Bertelsmann Music Group, Inc. (formerly BMG, RCA, A&M, & Arista Record Distributors) – Cleveland, OH in 1979 as a marketing merchandiser. Over the years, I worked my way up as a Regional Record and Radio Marketing Manager. I was responsible for creating, developing, and launching numerous marketing and promotional B2B strategies for large and small retailers, radio stations, TV networks, venues, and community partners. The responsibility of driving and achieving sales revenue over $4.5M quarterly for a variety of distributed major record labels’ product lines and artists through in-store sales programs, concerts, backstage and VIP events, and corporate partnership campaigns was not easy. I had to create and develop radio, TV, and print media programs for superstar and upcoming artists such as Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Hall & Oates, Police, Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince, Diana Ross, and so, so many others. I was even featured in Annie Lennox and Aretha Franklins music video “Sisters Are Doing It”. Every chance I could get, I managed to develop artists’ promotions to bring them into the local school systems to sponsor school programs that inspired kids and young people to stay in school and go to college.
I love helping others break through into the creative fields. My mother advised me to make sure that I help somebody else gain access to the entertainment business since someone helped me get hired in such an exciting career field! When I relocated to Orlando. There was no outlet, place, or venue to service and expose independent film and music talent. This is why I started the Orlando Urban Film Festival (OUFF), and OUFF is in its 12th year. OUFF is an IRS, certified 501(c)(3) dedicated to helping upcoming content creators to network and expose their talents to audiences globally in Major Movie Theater venues on the “Big Screen” and “Big Performance Stages.” We are Orlando’s first and Original diverse URBAN film and music festival, bringing excitement and awareness to culturally diverse film and music producers in the huge creative populations of Central Orlando, Florida, and beyond. It’s no wonder other festivals are trying to copy the OUFF format, but they are not like us. They may start a festival to grab attention, recognition, or for fame and money. However, the OUFF Team’s life-long careers and education are in the film and music business, and OUFF is our way of giving back to our creative community. There is only one URBAN Fest in Orlando: the Orlando Urban Film and Music Festival (OUMFF). We thank our loyal participants, attendees, and sponsors for supporting us throughout the years.
The new Orlando Urban Music and Film Festival dates and times – Thursday and Friday Noon FREE Movies for the Orlando Community – Thursday, August 28 – Opening Night, 6:00 pm to 10:30 pm – Official Selection Screenings, Red Carpet Meet & Greets and Discussions with Directors, and Stars and Photo Opps; Friday, August 29, and Saturday, 11:00 am to 4:00 pm Panel Discussions, Official Selection Film Screenings, Meet and Greets. The Orlando Urban Music Film Festival 2025 Awards time is 6:00 pm to 10:30 pm and is presented at the Dr. Phillips Center For The Performing Arts.
Over the years, OUFF has helped 1,000s of creative entrepreneurs gain public access to expose their talents as hosts, production talent, photographers, filmmakers, music producers, and creatives in make-up, fashion, and up-and-coming brands to the marketplace. OUFF is inspiring and empowering. “It’s where imagination runs Wow”.
Imagination is powerful! I am also an independent filmmaker, writer, and visionary! I had relocated to New Jersey from Cleveland, Ohio, the year before the RCA Branch Office closed. A friend, Hilda Williams, helped me to get several part-time jobs in New York City. My first two jobs were working for Essence Magazine as a front-desk receptionist and the copy assistance for the creative division of the global advertising agency McCann Errickson Advertising. Then, I was finally hired to work with the legendary producer, director Dunn Pearson, at PPI/Peter Pan Distribution. I worked at PPI for over 12 years. While at PPI, that’s when, I had a chance to go to college and graduated from UPSALA College in Orange, New Jersey, with a BA Degree in Mass Communication.
While in college, I took all kinds of creative coursework. However, when I got my hands on a video camera and portable recorder, it sparked my imagination, and the rest is history. Living in New Jersey was great, it provided me with the chance to take a train ride every day to the big city of New York. The experience was truly amazing. Dunn also got me an internship working in New York City as an assistant with the great Melvin Van Peebles in his office, and that was a historical moment for me!
Our National Teams have worked with many top talents and superstars in the entertainment, movie and television industries such as RCA, A&M and Arista, BMG, PPI and Music Quest (MQ) and artists Diana Ross, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Yani, Police and Sting, Hall & Oates, Dunn Pearson Jr. & others. We’ve helped to develop so many creative talents and shown them how to market, promote, and distribute their products worldwide to drive exposure and revenue streams.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has not been smooth road. When you see a problem in your community or in business and you have a vision or want to create an idea to help fix the problem, you have to be careful with what you start. Because, what you start can become more than you want to deal with.
When people I would meet discovered that I had worked in the music business and was a writer, many needed help with a project. Of course, I did not say, no. Then, I came up with the bright idea for the Orlando Urban Film and Music Festival. About 10 people quickly joined to help me. At our first meeting, I realized we needed more people with production experience and contacts and more money.
I funded the first three years of screenings with the help of the movie theaters we partnered with: Cinemark, AMC, and CMX Cinemas. Then, thanks to the OUFF Team at the time, we met with the Orlando Film Commission, the City of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, the Community Affairs Office, Marcia Hope Goodwin, and Commissioner Regina Hill. In 2014, the City of Orlando gave OUFF its 1st Proclamation. Ticket sales and submissions were good, and this helped to pay for each annual event moving forward. The OUFF Team did most of the marketing on social media and requested our industry friends to be guest stars at the events, and OUFF was a home run.
The following year, United Arts of Central Florida encouraged OUFF to apply for a grant and then the Orange County grants. Both have been continuous funders and supporters of the OUFF and are providing additional grant dollars to us to help additional independent filmmakers and music producers. During years six, 7, and eight, the OUFF Brand began growing as a “film and music tourism destination.” We have been hosting local, regional, statewide, national, and international creators. I have a lot of friends who are still in the music, radio, and promotions businesses, and they have helped us expand our marketing to other key cities. During and after the Pandemic, the OUFF was offered online and hosted a very creative show that was produced by our production team, Sunbelt Productions, Tzvia and Lenny Lorusso. After the 2021 OUFF, the events were back in-person, and it has been non-stop.
At this time, I had returned home to Cleveland because my Mom got very sick. She passed away in February 2023. Jason Gregory was president of OUFF from 2018 to 2022 and a film professor at UCF. We partnered with UCF Downtown. The OUFF Team has worked with and opened the OUFF events for students to gain hands-on experience in all aspects of event production from all of the local schools and colleges, especially Valencia College, Full Sail, Dave’s School, etc.
The biggest problem with any event is convincing sponsors and advertisers that what OUFF does in the community matters. We have provided exposure for everyday working people who are creators. They have creative talents, and many of these people want to express their ideas and tap into their innate talents. The vision is that, with additional funding, OUFF could become an even bigger event in Central Orlando. Many of these creators work at major corporations and businesses in our region. They are looking for ways to discover how to take their talents further. This creative process also helps them stay active and outgoing.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
The main goal is to finish writing my autobiography. I want to tell my personal story about life and the music and film business to inspire others to reach for higher goals. I am a entrepreneur at heart. I run the day-to-day activities of the Orlando Urban Film Festival with my Executive Board. I spent most of my days, writing grants, marketing the festival and looking for our next big project to feature. I have helped a lot of people now and during my lifetime. I am also a Coach 2 Entrepreneurs and provide advice to other entrepreneur founders who need knowledge. However, I am so busy with the film festival only a small percentage of my time is spent building my ideas, and that needs to change.
Before working in the music business, throughout senior high school I wanted to be an accountant and CPA. During my last two years of high school, I had a paid internship in printing. I enrolled in a business school to study accounting and worked for a non-profit housing organization as a part-time bookkeeper. Graduating from school, I got hired at a bank. Then, I took a test and got hired by the DOD Navy as a Pay Clerk. I met some new co-workers while at the Navy. Some co-workers introduced me to a few new friends who worked in the music business in my hometown, Cleveland. That’s how I started working in the music business.
That person referred me to one of their friends, who was an older Italian gentleman and the branch manager of RCA Cleveland. He later hired me to work with RCA. I began as a Field Merchandiser to market the company’s artists releases, covering retail record stores, concerts, meetings, events, etc. for RCA, A&M and Arista Records. At 23 years old, my career took a 360-degree turn. After becoming the top merchandiser, a marketing position opened. Even after being in the Cleveland Branch and RCA’s #1 national merchandiser, I had to fight for the job in my market. The job was one of the next levels up in the company, to work in radio promotions, and I won. I was young and afraid. I knew I had to push myself and show the company leaders that I knew my worth and value to the company. If not, the leaders would have passed me by to bring someone else into the position. I teach this to women and young people: work hard to win, know your value, know your worth, and fight for a rightful position, or you could get railroaded. I know a few people who were not as successful as I was.
At age 29, I was climbing the corporate ladder in the music business, and the PR Department announced my promotion in Black Enterprise, Jet Magazine, Billboard, and other industry trades. I stayed with RCA for 10 years. Then, I moved to NJ to work as a manager for PPI Entertainment/Peter Pan Distribution. Over the next 12 years, I was responsible for helping to create, produce, A&R, and license music, film, and consumer products. At that time, technology was beginning to change the way music, video, books, and other products were created and produced, and delivered to the marketplace. Then, it finally happened, the industry crashed in just a few years. However, as it started, I had quit and moved on to start my own business.
I did talk about this earlier. However, I love photography, filmmaking, writing, reading, and creating new ideas from the imagination and discovering new opportunities.
All of my life, even as a kid, I have been a people person. I like meeting and talking with people. I encourage them to study personal and professional development to find and discover all of their talents.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I guess I have just jumped the gun on the questions, But, I will add to my previous comments.
Early on in my life, our family lived down the street and around the corner from my Grandmother, my mother’s mother. As long as I can remember, every single Saturday morning, the three of us girls (it was only three of us then) would walk to my Grandmother’s house. Our chores were to help Grandma clean her house, and rub her knees and legs with Bengay Cream. My Grandma was so beautiful. She passed away when I was 19 years old.
Grandma had a huge house with three floors and a large basement. She lived on the first floor. There were four rooms with roomers renting rooms on the second floor, the third floor had three rooms where somebody lived. The basement had four rooms, and it was as large as the upstairs first floor. I called it the “fun spot.” There was a big JukeBox down there, a refrigerator with food and pop, and furniture where we could sit and read and play or crochet.
Then on Sundays, we would walk to Grandma’s house, and each of us would get a white handkerchief that had pretty crochet around the edges outside, with coins placed inside and tied in a knot. That was our money to put in church. We would leave her house and continue walking around the next block to the Salvation Army Church Sunday School. We must have done this for at least four or five years of our early childhood.
I have always been outgoing. I would not stay in the house. I have six siblings, and I am the third oldest. There was only one boy, the baby of the family, and six girls. My baby brother died several years ago at the age of 53 from colon cancer.
Early in elementary and Junior High, I ran track and played what we called “4 corners ball.” I was always writing, dancing, and singing. My Mother was very talented and creative. She was the secretary in many of the positions that she held. As Mom worked within the community where we lived. Mom was an artist (painter), writer, and poet. She could knit and crochet and sew, and she loved music. In our living room, we had a big wooden stereo with 2 big wooden speakers, and music was a part of our daily lives.
When working with RCA, I had a chance to meet several of my favorite artists (Lou Rawls, Hugh Masekela, Diana Ross, Eddie Kendricks, Diana Ross). It was so much fun talking with them about the music my Mom played and introduced me to at an early age.
So, I guess I was destined to work in the music and film business!
Pricing:
- OUFF Festival Tickets can be found onhttps://OrlandoUrbanmusicandfilmfestivalL.eventbrite.com
- PRICES ARE BEING UPDATED ON EVENTBRITE.COM
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.orlandouff.com
- Instagram: @orlandourbanfilmfestival
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/orlandourbanfilmfestiva
- Twitter: www.
Image Credits
Marianne and Lou Rawls (Marianne Eggleston), Marianne Eggleston Head Shot (Hannah), Marianne Eggleston -Book Cover (Bridget Novell)
