Robert Versteeg

We just finished our last presentation for this season. Can you believe we did 44 events between September ’23 and April ’24! Makes one tired just thinking about it…

Besides working with some of our favorite annual venues, like:

Society of the Four Arts (Sofia Maduro), Valencia Falls (Judy Cohen), Old Palm Golf Club (Darlene Impellittierre), Osher Lifelong Learning at FAU Boca Raton and Jupiter (Judith Scara), Gulfstream Little Club (Elizabeth Morgan) and the Oceanclub (Susan Bennett), we added some new ones.

These include:

Broken Sound (Lois Verb), Valencia Cove (Vita Goldberg), Gleneagles Country Club (Tami Klein) and the Jewish Federation of Broward (Laura Peimer).

We were also honored to give a presentation at the prestigious Everglades Club in Palm Beach for the Colonial Dames (Peggy Johnson).

The Palm Beach Yacht Club (Karen Couch) had booked us for another 4 presentations this season, and we were truly honored when each time the events sold out so fast, that the club asked us to do an encore engagement. Therefore, next season, they will automatically book us for 8 presentations (4 different topics.) We are on a roll!

Additionally, we added some amazing new ventures to our business.

1. We were hired to plan, organize, and host the Centennial Celebration for Via Mizner in Palm Beach. It turned out to be a spectacular evening that paid homage to Addison Mizner and his creations in Palm Beach. He hired a Mizner look-a-like, an Isadora Duncan dancer, a string quartet and René gave two presentations about Mizner’s life. The event, which was attended by over 400 people, was a great success, and we now offer Event Planning Services.

2. We hosted three Palm Beach tours for groups from Oceanreef. Each group came up to Palm Beach, was presented an architectural history about Palm Beach by René at either Renato’s, the famous restaurant in Via Mizner, or at the Brazilian Court in Palm Beach. Afterwards the groups got in a bus and were given a tour around the island narrated by both René and me.

3. We are expanding our business by adding me as presenter to the Silvin Books & Productions roster. At this moment I have two topics to offer, Barbra Streisand and Whitney Houston, but plan to add some others soon. So far, I inaugurated Streisand once this season, but it is already booked for several engagements after the summer. I hope to see many of our regular fans at upcoming events.

Of course, now that lecture season is coming to an end, we will work on a brand-new topic for René as well. It will see its premiere at the Society of the Four Arts in December and will be about the prolific life of Katherine Hepburn, an actress René admires tremendously, and with whom he had several interactions. It promises to be another exhilarating, informative, and entertaining presentation in René’s story-telling style, illustrated by numerous pictures and videos.

We want to thank everyone who keeps supporting us and giving us so many accolades.

As we closed out 2023 with the premiere of René’s newest presentation: Elizabeth Taylor-A Life of Passion and Resilience at The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, we look back at a very busy year.

We hosted 38 events for 23 different clients. Some of the highlights were the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, Oceanreef, the Coral Reef Yacht Club, the Royal Palm Yacht Club, and the Palm Beach Yacht Club. But we also appreciate all the support from our annual clients, like Valencia Falls, Valencia Isles, the Old Palm Golf Club, Mizner Grand and Harbour’s Edge. Additionally, there are the two university programs of Osher Lifelong Learning at FAU Boca Raton and FAU Jupiter. However, there are too many to name, but each one is important to us. And we love our enthusiastic audiences, who keep welcoming us back each and every time. We are so grateful these loyal audiences chose to spend some of their valuable time with us.

During season 22/23 we premiered Frank Lloyd Wright: The Dramatic Life of America’s Most Creative and Controversial Architect, as well as Princess Grace: Glamour and Respectability. Both have been booked many times ever since. The newest presentation about Elizabeth Taylor’s life will be shown at several venues in 2024.

Looking ahead, we are thrilled to announce the expansion of our business by adding Robert as a speaker. He is currently working on two new topics. The first is Whitney Houston-Didn’t She Almost Have It All, which is a topic René touched on in the past but will be expanded to include many more details about her dramatic life. The second will be about the fabulous Barbra Streisand: From A Funny Girl A Star Is Born, whose career spans 6 decades. Naturally René is also working on his next topic, to be premiered in season 24/25, which will once again be about a famous actress, Katherine Hepburn, whom he knew toward the end of her life. We will continue to illustrate these stories with numerous pictures and videos, to create an auditory and visual experience for our audiences. Stayed tuned for more information on these topics and keep checking back on our ‘events’ page to see where we will be appearing.

For now, happy holidays and a healthy 2024 to everyone.

This past summer we created two new lectures: Frank Lloyd Wright-The dramatic life of America’s most controversial and creative architect, will see its premier on December 19 at The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach. The other new presentation is Princess Grace-Glamour & Respectability, which will have a virtual premier on December 5^th for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Although we have never been to MOCA in person, we have become frequent speakers to their women’s group.

Our upcoming season promises to be very busy and fun. When I started working with René 9 years ago on our business, Silvin Books, he was giving about 2 lectures per season. We have grown tremendously, with this season over 35 performances planned!

We already started the season with a bang giving two presentations in New York City: one for the prestigious architectural firm RAMSA, and a second one for the renowned Decorators Club of New York, held at the New York School of Interior Design. Both were about the history of Palm Beach architecture and were very well-received.

There are several presentations at our regular venues in this season’s lineup. We were honored to be asked to speak at the Kravis Center for the performing arts at a “Lunch & Learn” about Princess Alice & Princess Margaret on January 23. This is followed by our annual pilgrimage to Oceanreef in the Florida Keys on February 13. We also return to Valencia Falls for the 7^th time, and Valencia Isles for the 2^nd time, both will be in-person after several virtual presentations. Some other venues are now becoming annual clients, like the Women’s Club of the Royal Palm Yacht Club in Boca Raton, the Ocean Club in Ocean Ridge, and the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County.

We also proudly announce our debut at some new venues, like Harbour’s Edge in Delray, where we are signed up for 6 presentations over 6 months. Additionally, we are doing other series, like 4 weekly shows at the Boca West Country Club, and 4 monthly shows at the Palm Beach Yacht Club.

Finally, we will return to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of Florida Atlantic University at both the Boca Raton and Jupiter campuses, for 5 appearances.

We are grateful to our clients who have helped us grow our business, expand our inventory of lecture offerings, and create our own brand: A well-researched, informational, and entertaining presentations told by René in a story-telling fashion, supported by engaging and intricate visuals to keep our audiences coming back and asking for more.

We hope to see you this season.

The Continuing Adventures of Silvin Books

Over the summer, spent on Cape Cod, we continued conducting virtual lectures. Several were with one of our favorite women groups at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles. Although we have only presented at MOCA via Zoom, they have become very dear to us, and a great camaraderie has evolved. Thank you to Tammy Morgenstern and Michelle Lynch.

This also gave us the opportunity to try out our two newest lectures, created for the upcoming Palm Beach season: The Four Lives of Jackie O (tickets for the Kravis Center, March 31, 2022 can be bought here), and Audrey Hepburn-Screen Legend…Style Icon…Humanitarian… (tickets for Society of the Four Arts, April 4, 2022 can be bought here after November 15.)

The fun-loving MOCA members all wore Jackie or Audrey sunglasses and pearls and even had cookies made with the likeness of both icons.

Although things remain precarious with Covid, our hope is to be conducting in-person presentations this coming season. Judging from our bookings most venues plan to be in-person. We currently have 27 presentations lined up, covering a variety of our favorite topics.

Some notable presentations are Marlene Dietrich-The Woman and the Legend for the Palm Beach Fellowship of Christians and Jews on Sunday January 16, 2022 (see more details here ), several 90-minute productions for Osher Lifelong Learning at FAU Jupiter and Boca Raton, including 20^th Century Icons: Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich on December 7, 2021 (for tickets go here) and Cinderellas in Reverse: Princess Alice of Battenberg and Princess Margaret on March 21, 2022 (ticket sales will open later), and René’s popular Concorde-Technology meet Glamour at the Historical Society of Palm Beach County on December 8, 2021 (register here).

Additionally, we have been booked by many country clubs and private clubs, some of which we have only given virtual presentations. We are honored and enthused to finally be able to interact with the audience. Boca West, where René has presented 9 times virtually, have booked us for a four-week series in March (thank you to Tracy Philbin and Christina Guilianti). We are also very grateful to be returning to some of our faithful clients at clubs like Polo Club of Boca Raton (thank you Christina Doucette), Valencia Falls (with new leadership by Judy Cohen), Valencia Reserve (thank you to Ellen Schiffman), and many more.

Over the past year we have all experienced losses, some due to Covid, which have required behavioral adjustments. We are honored to hear that we have brought some distraction from the daily struggles to people’s lives though our remote presentations. However, we are eager to have human contact and having the pleasure to see audiences as René’s brings his story-telling style, supported by our trademark visuals, face to face with our audiences this upcoming season. We hope to see you there.

Robert & René