The Islamic Republic of Iran is a nation frequently in the news, most recently with the UN imposing sanctions over its nuclear program. VBL member Michael Messmer will be giving us an insider’s look the nation once known as Persia at our October 14 meeting. He was in Iran working for Bell Helicopter 1979 when the Shah was overthrown in a revolution, and lived to tell the tale.

Michael tells us, “My talk is in part about how cultural differences can make things very strange and complicated, in part about what it was like to work in that environment and under a dictatorship, and finally about how it is to live and try to get work done at the outset of a revolution.”

Michael’s career highlights include attending a dinner with President Eisenhower and VP Nixon, plus their children and grandchildren. A few decades later he found himself late for a dinner with President Carter and the Shah of Iran. In January 1969 he arrived at Haneda airport in Japan to start work in psychological operations. A little over a decade later he was being evacuated by military aircraft from Mehrabad airport in Tehran, ending his work for Bell Helicopter.

Along the way Michael did graduate work at the University of Minnesota and produced an award winning educational radio series for the university radio station (KUOM) that was distributed statewide, produced programs to teach bankers how computers could work for them, worked in a giant PR deptartment for SoCal Gas and a financial PR firm in Beverly Hills. After tiring of the hassle and hustle of a revolution and life in L.A., Michael landed in Sacramento, writing editorials for KTXL while producing a talk show for KGNR. He was also given the task for putting KDVR TV in Denver and KPDX TV in Portland on the air. He also managed KTXL’s new tower project, bringing it in on time and under budget. Later he built a new video production studio and produced videos for EDD.

As Michael puts it, “To keep from getting bored I also served as president of the Sacramento Public Relations Association, Vice President of the State Information Officers Association, was a member of the International TV Association, and National Broadcast Editorial Association, acted in many community theater shows, helped start the Fair Oaks Theater Festival, bought a live theater (Stage Door Comedy Playhouse) then later built a new theater (Arden Playhouse)where I was producer, writer and director of many comedies.”