1 - After an appearance on the Cheyenne TV show, Edd invited a dozen friends to his apartment to write hundreds of fan letters, using various paper and pens, to Warner Brothers Studios saying, "Who was that cute guy in Cheyenne?" Those letters got him a seven year contact.
2 - Edd immediately added the extra 'd' to his name to be different.
3 - Edd saw Robert Wagner at a movie premier with his jacket collar up, so when Edd started the 77 Sunset Strip TV show, he had the seamstress sew a black strip on to the back of his turned up jacket collar, to stand out more.
4- Then Edd tried to think up a physical gag to be identified with, like George Raft did tossing the coin in Scarface. Edd came up with combing his hair and handling his comb when speaking.
5- Edd was a trained gymnast so he often added flips and swings on poles into his scenes to show off his physicality.
6 - And even though it was the writers that came up with the cool hip-talk, later called 'Kookie-talk', it added to Edd's branding.
7 - Edd's gold record, 'Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb" pushed his 'brand' into stardom.
Soon Edd was on the cover of 22 fan magazines in one month. It's a record that hasn't been broken.
Five out of seven points where Edd's doing, with his first action being the most important. Even though we might have a company backing us up, it's important to be responsible for our own branding.
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