I was prowling ebay for rare Prince items and found a collector selling one of only 15 Prince promo kits that were printed by Owen Husney to get him signed to a record deal. The starting bid was $1,500!!! I was thinking who I'd have to borrow, beg and steal from to get the money to own such a great piece of Prince history but thankfully the seller ended the auction and put me out of my Prince-inflicted misery. LOL Take a look at the pics from the book:

Lol...notice that he still lied about his age at that time.

He was 20 when For You did get released, and not 18.

It is strange to see Prince look 'normal' He looks no different from the other artists of the day.

So does this mean Prince is actually 50-Years-Old and not 48?
Since he lied about his age at 20 and stated he was only 18!

LOVEandLIGHT said:

LOL I never thought about it... Oh well, I just thought it was cool to see how his journey started with this booklet. Here's the text from the post on ebay, which I thought was a nice bit of Prince history:

ere is an unbelievable Prince rarity--the first ever press kit made for Prince, in 1977, prior to his having a record deal. Prince's manager, Owen Husney of American Artists, made 15 of these (Owen had his own ad agency, so this was designed and printed in-house) in an effort to get Prince a record deal. This is one of only two of these I know to still exist, and it's in mint condition. The custom envelope-style sleeve (with perhaps the only smiling photo of Prince you'll ever see) holds 4 inserts, each measuring 8.5" x 10.5". Also included is Warner Bros' first-ever press release for the newly signed Prince, who was just 18 years old. Also in mint condition, this measures 8.5" x 11." Of course this is guaranteed authentic without time limit. Surely a museum quality collectible !

On the back of the press kit, there are management credits. In an effort to learn more about this unique item, I contacted Owen Husney about it, and here's what he wrote me in an email:

Hi Jeff:

Thank you for contacting me with your questions, re: Prince Press Kit.

Yes, what you have is the "first ever" press kit for Prince. It is very rare. It was what I used to present him to the labels along with the demo tape. A bit of trivia: I owned the advertising agency that designed the piece...and even at that the kits cost us over $100.00 apiece to produce and print. We made only 15 kits and they had to be first class. There was no need to print more as we had targeted only 8 labels for presentation. This was in 1977 so it was before he was signed to WB. The kit had a purposeful design...one quote, one picture per page. He was so talented, and his demo awesome that I figured the less said the better. The music would speak for itself. If an A&R person read the quote, started asking questions, and wanted to know more...then we had 'em. Also, the press kit went along with a demo tape that was on a silver reel to reel tape inside a tape box with the same design. Flying from Minneapolis we arrived in LA armed and ready....three piece suits...demo tapes on silver reels...and a first class press kit. Suffice it to say we made the deal!

I know where most of the 15 kits wound up. I have only one in my possession and its split apart and framed on my office wall.

Please feel free to contact me if you have further questions.
Regards,
Owen Husney.

I found the Man From U.N.C.L.E. quote interesting. I've read before the Batman theme was the first thing he learnt how to play.
[Edited 5/13/07 11:00am]

wow , I often wondered if any of these survived. did it sell or the auction closed early?
So, that last page pictured is a WB press release?

LOVEandLIGHT said:

no, that release was from 1978, he was 20 saying 18. He was born in 1958.

Riverpoet31 said:

I don't think he lied about his age. If you do the math, then this is accurate with his birth year being 1958. For You was released in 1978, which would make him 20 then. According to Owen Husney, in the e-mail that was featured in the eBay listing, this press kit was put together in 1977 before he was signed to his deal, which would make him 19 then. So it is very possible that he was 18 when he recorded it. We don't know how much time elapsed between recording the For You album demo, Prince getting signed with Warner and the album finally being released. Although, two years seems reasonable to me.
[Edited 5/13/07 11:26am]

paisley16 said:

Well the seller ended the auction early. I don't know why though. I e-mailed him to see why and didn't get a response.

bellanoche said:

You're right. Also, I'm a graphic designer who project manages publications like this and it's highly conceivable that this publication could have been produced or at least in the works i.e being designed and printed when Prince was 18 years old but by the time it was finished and actually used to get him signed, he could have been 20. It's happen to me several times in the production process.

beautiful

airbak said:

Oh yeah, he did lie about his age, shaved off 2 years, Owen Husney would confirm that. He kept that up for a few years. That last page shown above that gives his age is not part of the original press kit, that's the WB press release for the first album, circa 78.

Good job getting one. I saw it on ebay a while back, but it was too rich for my blood. Treasure it and keep it safe.

pandemoniun6 said:

yea- on the Oprah show when Oprah went to Paisley Park, he said Batman was the first song he learned to play on the piano when she asked him.

very nice item to add to a collection, i might add. take good care of it!

UCantHavaDaMango said:

Unfortunately I didn't get one! LOL This was taken from the ebay auction listing that mysteriously ended early. It was rich for my blood as well but I wanted to see how much something like this would go for. Unfortunately, I won't know since the seller ended the auction

airbak said:

Oh, I thought you bought it! Well, it is nice for us to look at. Thank you for sharing the pics.

UCantHavaDaMango said:

LOL I wish. I just wanted to share these images with everyone as I hadn't seen this before I thought everyone would get a kick out of it!

Very, very nice!

paisley16 said:

Oh, I get what you're saying. I thought you were saying he lied in the press kit. Oh, I could totally see Prince and his team giving the story that he was 18 when the album was actually released as part of the "Boy Wonder" marketing scheme. That makes sense to me, afterall he was 18 when he recorded it and I am sure part of the promotion was getting people to marvel at what "the kid" had done.

wlcm2thdwn said:

Well the guy who was selling this on ebay never responded to my e-mail asking if he had sold this item. So I guess that just means down the road it'll resurface again for $10,000

are we sure this is one of the ones Owen made? thoes were made to GET prince a contract, this one has WB all over it. the original kit also had a demo tape. RIGHT?

airbak said:

well do you have the LINK can you org note me the link?

airbak said:

"is that a halo round ur head or r u just pleased to see me?" the saints come marching in