The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 406

ONLY IN FLORIDA What ever happened That's news to us Thetruth about the Marlboro Man Robert C. Josefsberg he Marlboro Man didn't smoke Marlboros. iami criminal defense attorney Robert C. Josefsberg has seen the The Marlboro Man wasn't a cowboy. But perhaps most shocking of all: The Marl happening Whatever the status of his sobriety that night, in all my dealings with him he was quite sober and productive." Josefsberg did end up hearing some Doors music because of his client.

"I listened to the tape of that concert a thousand times." The trial lasted 16 days. "Some potential jurors passed out," he says, "when we asked them whether certain words offended them." Dozens of witnesses gave conflicting accounts of the concert. Morrison kept a notebook. "He had drawings and comments about a lot of what was going on, boro Man was only 5 feet, 8 inches tall. Even though the Marlboro Man was the symbol for an addictive drug that kills thousands of people, we can't help but remember him fondly.

There was something about his rugged demeanor, his life in the outdoors, the anchor tattoo on his hand, that made us not only want to smoke Marlboros, but to shed this urban life for a home on the range. Sadly, the Marlboro Man recently died at the ripe old age of 85 in Fort Lauderdale. His name was Charles Herbert. "He could ride a horse, but he wasn't a cowboy per se," says Herbert's grandson, Douglas Tramell of Coral Springs. "He didn't even smoke cigarettes.

He smoked a pipe." Herbert built homes in Connecticut. One day in 1957 a woman came and took his picture. A few movie about Jim Morrison, his onetime client. "The part that upset me," he says, "was they acted Jim Morrison as a real maniac, as a very weird dude who was continuously stoned, always selfish and doing bizarre things. "During the two months I intensely knew him, he was totally dry, responsible, sensitive and a very decent person.

That was the person I knew. He could have had a nice show put on for me, but I doubt it." Not that Josefsberg is naive about Morrison. It was the Doors raucous March 1, 1969, concert at Miami's Dinner Key Auditorium that brought together rock idol and counselor. Morrison got a little too exuberant for the local constabulary at the show. He was charged with lewd -'-Sr days later she showed back up and asked him if he'd be interested in modeling for a new advertising campaign Josefsberg (above) says Doors' lead singer Jim Morrison (right) was helpful an quite sober during his trial in Miami.

ffh! and they were fascinating," says Josefsberg. "Sort of his own spin on everything." Morrison was convicted on the exposure and profanity counts and sentenced to six months in jail and a $500 fine. The convictions were being appealed when he died in a Paris bathtub in July 1971. "It was a very important case, a very enjoyable case, but no, it wasn't the highlight of my The woman turned out to be the wife of the owner of an advertising firm putting together a campaign for Marlboro, savs Tramell. and lascivious behavior, indecent exposure, drunkenness and profanity after only 65 minutes on stage and three songs.

For the next eight years, Herbert posed for Marlboro I ,1 '-r I ne enduring question: Did he offer the crowd a peek at -wX-i-v, what was behind his leather pants? VhLMtit Josefsburg was not at the concert. I was too old to be there," he says. He was 30, a former federal prosecutor who didn't own a Doors record. He was hired Man pictures. Even after he moved to Fort Lauderdale, Herbert would fly to New York for the photo shoots.

The best known picture of him was the one of him in a Stetson hat, cupping his hand career, says Joseisberg, now 52 and still in practice in Miami. "I've had a lot of bigger cases before and after." So, did Morrison expose himself? "I don't know," says Josefsberg. But after the trial, there was a little court-house joke. "Whenever evidence would come in in a case, and we didn't object," says Josefsberg, "we would say, 'We waive Charles Fishman by one of Morrison's West Coast lawyers, Max Fink, as local defense counsel. "In all my meetings with Morrison, he was a total gentleman," says Josefsberg.

"Very helpful, very friendly. He had a great sense of humor, a great awareness of what was UWfi around a cigarette while lighting it. The orange glow of the flaring match lights up his Literary snapshot TTmf face. "He was only 5 feet, 8 inches, but he was built like Popeye," says Tramell. Steve Glassman "They only spent a few minutes putting makeup on his face because they liked that leathery look.

But it The Marlboro Man got his start with Charles Herbert's help. thirty yards he hid behind a large orange tree, and there in the moonlight standing on Steve Glassman's Blood On The Moon is a historic novel that features an antebellum plantation on the banks of the St. Johns River. Its oivner, Achille, lords over a ivorld whose hazards are somewhat different from modern-day Florida's: their rear legs and pulling took a few hours for them to put that anchor tattoo on his hand." "He thoroughly enjoyed it," Tramell says. "He was surprised at the time and effort that went into creating an advertisement, sitting hour after hour and posing.

He joked about that." Mike Thomas down oranges from the trees were two large bears. He sighed with relief and then stood quietly watching them until they began to sniff and look his way. He snapped off a shot. The flash turned the bears, and they galloped off. For a long time Achille heard them plunging through water and swamp.

I ometime during the night Achille had started kawake. He'd heard something wading noisily 'across the dead river. He seized his gun and took small, quiet steps toward the noise. When he'd gone about ILLUSTRATIONS: RED HUBER (MARLBORO MAN), BILL COOKE (JOSEFSBERG), FILE (MORRISON, BEAR) 4 FLORIDA MAGAZINE APRIL 7, 1991.