Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 19, 1990 TAG: 9003133453
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: BUS1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: N.R. KLEINFIELD THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
He put a derby on, took it off. He bellowed: "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender."
Gulping a breath, he stared at his audience with a powerful and direct gaze.
The small cluster of mid-level executives from the big insurance company, Johnson & Higgins, looked a little befuddled but they sopped it up. They had never heard Winston Churchill before.
Winston Churchill? Talking to insurance people?
Sort of.
It was, in fact, James Humes.
Any business executive who hasn't yet made the acquaintance of Humes, just wait.
He'll probably show up soon. He performs one of the most popular and incontestably most bizarre acts playing the corporate stage. He teaches executives better ways to speak and to motivate those lackluster sneaker- or lawn-equipment salesmen by impersonating Winston Churchill.
\ Born for the role.
\ Other than having too much hair, James Humes looks, acts and talks like Churchill, so much so that one wonders if sometimes he becomes confused about who he actually is. (Not really, and he can do credible Richard Nixon and Benjamin Franklin impersonations, too.)
Why invoke a deceased British prime minister in the offices of insurance people and shampoo makers?
Humes is of the mind that the lusty, jowly former British prime minister was the all-time greatest orator, and thus he thinks a businessman could do worse than to mimic Churchill.
No, he doesn't urge John Reed of Citicorp or John Akers of IBM to put on a lot of weight and begin talking in a deep-throated British accent.
But he does think everyone can profit from an examination of Churchill's facility with words.
These are good days for the puckish Humes, 55.
He is riding a boom in interest in speech coaches, as an increasing number of businesses spend money to sharpen the talking abilities of their executives.
Nearly half of all medium and large corporations, speech instructors estimate, furnish public-speaking training for employees.
The Churchill angle is what clearly sets Humes apart. But he differs from most others in that he also discusses the actual crafting of a speech.
"There are a lot of people out there teaching how to read a speech, how to face a television camera," he said.
"But very few teach about the contents of speeches. You can teach someone how to read the telephone directory like it's never been read before, but, let's face it, after it's all over, it's still the telephone directory."
Humes began giving his "The Language of Leadership" presentation in the early 1980s.
It has attracted an ardent following, for he has been hired by GTE, IBM, Bristol-Myers, Upjohn, Coors, Security Pacific, the U.S. Customs Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Agents from the CIA and the FBI have chosen to sit through it.
He delivers the roughly one-hour presentation an average of three times every two weeks.
His fee is about $3,500.
\ The writer speaks
\ The concept actually sprang from a promotional gimmick. He wrote a biography about Churchill that was published in 1980. To promote it, he hopscotched across the country giving a lecture on Churchill in which he very convincingly impersonated him.
It struck him he might profitably mold that into a seminar to teach speaking to executives.
He accords current speechmaking the lowest possible status.
"How often do you hear a good company speech?" he said. "Rarely. In Britain, it's much better. They don't automatically use the chief executive to give a speech, but pick the best speaker in the organization.
"Here, it's always the CEO, and everyone will say afterward, `Hey, great speech, J.R. just tremendous.' And, of course, it would have put a plant to sleep."
Customers have made versatile use of Humes.
John Goodchild, the president of the Weightman Group, a Philadelphia advertising agency, has hired him to tutor younger staff members.
"He always has everyone enthralled," Goodchild said. "Several people have told me they tried some of the tips and people start actually listening to them."
During the Johnson & Higgins address, Humes, his mouth curling at the corners in amusement, filled in the audience on Churchill's unpromising background.
That alone, he feels, gives hope to executives having trouble with their mouths.
As a youth, Churchill had a lisp and a stutter, and was unequipped with a university education.
One of the first times he faced an audience, cleared his throat and began a speech, he flat-out fainted - a technique Humes frowns upon.
Roving back and forth across the front of the room, Humes gives out some tips, slipping in and out of his Churchill voice, ranging from indomitable calm to animated fury.
Talk in pictures: "Iron Curtain was something Churchill coined to get a point across." Avoid jargon: "Churchill didn't say, `Hostilities will be engaged on the coastal perimeter.' He said, `We shall fight them on the beaches.' "
He related some non-instructional Churchill anecdotes.
Churchill, having had much to drink, encountered Bessie Braddock, a Laborite.
"Sir Winston," she said. "You are drunk, and what's more, you are disgustingly drunk."
Churchill replied: "And might I say, Mrs. Braddock, you are ugly and what's more disgustingly ugly."
"But tomorrow," he added, "I shall be sober and you shall still be ugly."
Winston Churchill has essentially bracketed James Humes' entire life.
As a child, instead of playing records from the Hit Parade, Humes listened to recordings of Edward R. Murrow and of historical figures like Theodore Roosevelt.
"I'm not proud of this," he said. "In fact, I'm a little embarrassed at this, but I wrote my own inaugural address when I was 12. I would turn on march music and deliver it from behind the couch."
When he was 18 and in England on an English-Speaking Union Scholarship, he actually met Winston Churchill at a reception.
Churchill told him: "Study history, study history. In history lie all the secrets of statecraft."
Humes was already studying history, so what he immediately did was sprint home and tear down his poster of Ted Williams and replace it with a picture of Winston Churchill.
In 1962, at the age of 28, he was elected to the Pennsylvania House.
He also indulged in free-lance speech-writing, including putting words in the mouths of every president from Dwight Eisenhower to George Bush.
He wrote one speech for Ronald Reagan that attracted unanticipated attention; it mentioned Third World several times, yet when Reagan gave it, he kept saying, "Third World War."
Humes practiced law for a while, did lobbying and then commenced his coaching course.
He lives in Philadelphia, writes books, teaches and crafts speeches for corporate executives.
The Johnson & Higgins presentation concluded to vigorous applause and some knowing glances.
"Fabulous," said John Park, a manager in the international department. "I'm going to use some of the things he mentioned in a speech I'm giving to international managers in 20 minutes. Let's hope they work."
"When I get up to make a speech, I feel like I'm standing there naked," confided Alice Miller, an assistant vice president in corporate communications. "But his whole gestalt is so energizing. I also felt I was learning history as he spoke."
Of course, there were some doubters. "Churchill is not someone I'm really familiar with," said Ann Webre, who edits an employee benefits newsletter.
"For a younger audience, I think he may have to change it."
Another listener chimed in: "He might have to switch to Sting or someone like that. Though, frankly, I can't be sure businessmen really relate well to Sting."
by CNB