EGN NEWS DESK
Frank A. Olson, who as a high govt of Hertz solid the operating again O.J. Simpson because the star of the corporate’s commercials — a company marriage that shined up each events and that lasted twenty years, till Mr. Simpson was charged in a double murder in 1994 — died at his residence in Palm Beach, Fla., on Wednesday, the identical day Mr. Simpson died. Mr. Olson was 91.
The trigger was problems of Covid, his sons, Christopher and Blake, stated.
The coincidental timing of the deaths of Mr. Olson, who had steered Hertz by means of years of company turbulence, and Mr. Simpson, the athlete turned pitchman turned notorious legal defendant, linked the 2 males in a means that Mr. Olson had as soon as embraced however that he later distanced himself from.
More than enterprise companions, Mr. Olson and Mr. Simpson, each San Francisco natives, solid an alliance, starting within the Seventies, that spoke of that mutually helpful zone the place company and social life intertwine. Mr. Olson, an avid golfer, sponsored Mr. Simpson for membership within the non-public Arcola Country Club in Paramus, N.J., the place in 1992 Mr. Simpson, a former Heisman Trophy winner and Pro Football Hall of Famer, turned the primary Black member.
In a letter that Mr. Simpson left at his Los Angeles residence earlier than his arrest within the stabbing murders of his former spouse, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her buddy Ronald L. Goldman, he listed mates he was sending “love and due to.” Mr. Olson was considered one of them.
“I took him locations the place I believe only a few Black males had ever been,” Mr. Olson stated within the acclaimed 2016 documentary “O.J.: Made in America.”
Mr. Simpson was 76 when he died of most cancers at his residence in Las Vegas.
The concept of that includes him in Hertz commercials to represent speedy service, starting in 1974, originated with the corporate’s advert company. But as a result of Mr. Simpson was Black and most Hertz prospects the place white businessmen, the selection made the company nervous, based on a 1994 article in The Washington Post. So the choice was kicked as much as Mr. Olson, who on the time was govt vice chairman and basic manager of the rental-car division. (The firm additionally rented vehicles.)
Mr. Olson authorized. The advertisements, that includes Mr. Simpson hurtling by means of airports on his approach to a rental automobile, had been successful. Hertz claimed that the marketing campaign lifted gross sales in its fierce rivalry with Avis and different opponents.
Mr. Olson continued to personally negotiate Mr. Simpson’s contracts, which expanded to incorporate private appearances. The two performed in golf foursomes with main Hertz purchasers, and throughout the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Mr. Simpson and his spouse hosted a lavish party for Hertz executives at their property within the Brentwood neighborhood.
In 1989, Mr. Simpson reached out to Mr. Olson after he was charged with assaulting his spouse on New Year’s Day. Police had discovered Ms. Simpson hiding within the bushes outdoors her residence, badly crushed.
On the phone, Mr. Olson stated years later, Mr. Simpson performed down the incident. After Mr. Simpson’s no-contest plea to battery expenses generated scant publicity, Hertz saved him on as its celeb pitchman.
“We regard it as a personal matter” between the Simpsons, a Hertz spokesman stated on the time.
Five years later, on the night time Ms. Simpson and Mr. Goldman had been murdered outdoors her condominium, Mr. Simpson was scheduled to journey to Chicago to play golf with Hertz executives and purchasers. He was arrested a number of days later.
The firm rapidly introduced that it was dropping him. Nor was the connection rekindled after his acquittal in a legal trial that riveted the nation and uncovered the polarized views of Black and white Americans concerning the legal justice system.
Later, when Mr. Simpson was discovered liable in a lawsuit and ordered to pay the victims’ households $33.5 million, Mr. Olson was a witness. He testified that when Mr. Simpson referred to as him in 1989 about his arrest on battery expenses, Mr. Simpson lied concerning the severity of the assault.
“If I had any concept on the time that this was the circumstance that it was, O.J. Simpson would by no means have labored one other day for Hertz,” Mr. Olson testified, as quoted by The Associated Press.
Frank Olson was born Frank Albert Johnson on July 19, 1932, in San Francisco to Fred and Edith Mary (Hazeldine) Johnson. His mom, an immigrant from England who labored as a stenographer, had a collection of husbands, together with Alfred Olson, a railway conductor, who adopted Frank.
In addition to his sons, Mr. Olson is survived by his spouse, Sarah Olson, whom he married in 1957; a daughter, Kim Olson; and 7 grandchildren.
Mr. Olson started his profession within the rental automobile enterprise on the age of 18 as an evening manager at San Francisco International Airport.
Following his commencement from City College of San Francisco, he based a automobile rental enterprise of his personal. He offered it to Hertz in 1964 and joined the corporate’s ranks.
He rapidly ascended the company escalator: He was put answerable for Hertz operations in California and Arizona; moved east to move the New York City division in 1967; was named Eastern regional vice chairman two years later; and have become basic manager of all Hertz rental-car operations within the U.S. in 1970.
In 1974, he joined the board of Hertz, then owned by the RCA Corporation. In 1977, he was named Hertz’s chief govt. In 1980, he turned chairman.
When Hertz was offered in 1985 to UAL Inc., the mum or dad of United Airlines, Mr. Olson was made a UAL board member. He later turned chairman of the corporate — by then renamed Allegis — and presided over a stormy interval in 1987, combating an try by United’s pilots to take over the corporate.
That yr, Ford Motor Company paid $1.2 billion for Hertz. Mr. Olson stayed on as chairman. He retired as chief govt in 1999 however retained the title of nonexecutive chairman.
His sons stated he by no means spoke with or about Mr. Simpson after the court docket instances involving the 1994 murders.
Kirsten Noyes contributed analysis.
