TONI HOLT KRAMER  For over thirty years Toni’s show business career has been a major part of her life. In her early days on television, she hosted or co-hosted everything from Good Morning, L.A. to Mid-Morning, L.A. to being a live on-air columnist on the afternoon and evening news. Because of her glamorous appearance, along the way she was offered many acting roles in motion pictures, but turned them down because she felt it was not her calling now. She has also had a TV syndicated show from Hollywood called “Toni Holt In Hollywood” which aired all over the world as well one called “Toni’s Tips,” 150 one-minute shows which she wrote and were shown exclusively in Latin America. In later years with her pal, Ruta Lee, she co-hosted the very popular “Talk of the Town” series, which filmed everywhere on location in Hollywood, New York and Europe. In the course of her illustrative career, Toni has interviewed upwards of 2000 major celebrities ranging from top movie and television stars, athletes, major government VIPS including Senators and the former First Lady Nancy Reagan. She never worked from a script. She did her preparation and then worked from her heart and her “third eye” as she describes it. While appearing as co-host of “Talk of the Town” from 1994 thru 1999, her interviews included: George Clooney, Steve Allen, Jackie Mason, Bobby Short, Fran Drescher, George Hamilton, Liza Minnelli, Phyllis Diller, Magic Johnson, Clint Eastwood, Goldie Hawn, John Travolta, Governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Selleck, Gena Rowlands, Sharon Stone, Robert Wagner, Jay Leno, Burt Reynolds, Placido Domingo, Sally Field, Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, Bob Hope and thousands more. Toni has also hosted segments on “48 Hours” and “Inside Report.“ Toni has also appeared as a guest on numerous national network television interview shows throughout her career. Recently, together once again with Ruta Lee, she co-produced with KCET a series filmed in Palm Springs called “The Tour Bus Stops Here.” The series has the potential to be syndicated worldwide and will continue filming in other glamorous cities.
During the years she worked on television, Toni wrote numerous columns for some of the nation’s top magazines and newspapers. She wrote “Toni Holt’s Happenings” for Photoplay Magazine, the Rolls Royce of Hollywood movie magazines. After that Ideal Publishing published a magazine called “Toni Holt’s Movie Life.” The logo featured her beautiful face peering through the “O” in her name TONI. She is well versed in show business history and can talk for hours on end about Hollywood trivia. She makes a point of keeping the facts of her career up to date on her web site, www.toniholtkramer.com . It is filled with interesting mementos of events and photographs of Toni at various stages of her career and includes a list of most of those that she has interviewed.
Toni still manages to find the time to do a column for the prominent magazine, Celebrity Society. It is called “Toni Holt Kramer - From the West Coast to Washington,” wherein she chats-on about people and subjects that interest her. Toni’s likes to keep her life busy and filled with projects which she handles so enthusiastically.  But Toni Holt Kramer has always been more than just a pretty face and a name on television. Because of her diversity, her business acumen and her undaunted determination, she remains a multifaceted individual. Toni spends a part of every day as the prime decision-maker overseeing all of the financial investments for her family and their charitable trusts. Her time is spent working with stock managers and advisors whom she listens to carefully before taking responsibility and making her own decisions. She consumes at least 30 hours a week reading the financial and political news from all corners of the globe and her day never begins without the Gartman Report. Because of this thirst for knowledge of the financial and political worlds, she is e-mailed financial letters as well as reports from all over of the world from such illustrious experts as Marc Faber in Hong Kong. In these trying times, having this special talent has proved to be a blessing.
And then there is her burning interest in politics which began in 1992 when she watched the inauguration of the Clintons and saw former Ambassador to France, the late Pamela Harriman, hosting a party from her Georgetown townhouse. It was an aware moment and she knew that very second that was what she wanted to devote a major portion of her time to and somehow participate in the Washington scene. It didn’t take her long to feel as at home in Washington as she does on a TV set. Toni is fascinated with politics and firmly believes in voting the people, not the party. She is well-informed about the political world on both sides of the fence. The Kramers were major contributors to the George W. Bush inaugural and were present at all of the inauguration events including the very prestigious private reception with President Bush on the eve of his inauguration at the Library of Congress to which only 250 people were invited. However, earlier that evening she and her husband were privileged to attend the very last party given at the White House by President Bill and Senator Hillary Clinton, a most memorable occasion. Can you imagine, she giggles, I shook hands with two presidents within the space of a couple of hours. Subsequently, she served on the Presidential Committee for Dick Gebhardt. She became an early supporter of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and hosted a large fund-raising luncheon in the garden of her Bel-Air home for Hillary decorated in the senator’s favorite color, yellow. 
Through the years that followed as she became more friendly with Hillary Rodham Clinton, she hosted a number of events for her, raised money for her campaign and became acquainted with a list of Washington’s notables from both sides of the aisle. Toni nearly had a nervous breakdown when Hillary stepped down.
Toni’s political interests were perhaps always inbred in her genes. After all, her great grandfather was the advisor and best friend to Tzar Alexander III. In recent years when visiting Russia, especially the palaces, Toni said she finally understood where her love of art came from. She has decorated all of her homes by herself, many of which have been photographed for leading magazines. Toni and her husband, Bobby, the love of her life, reside in their beautiful Bel-Air home and their exquisite Palm Springs, California four-acre estate where they share their lives with their two adored poodles. On occasion Toni likes to throw one of her “great” parties in either location to remain close to her many, many friends. She is enamored of the east coast, too, and last year the Kramers purchased a home in Palm Beach, Florida, which Toni redecorated with her inherent sense of style. Toni has quickly adjusted her schedule to a bi-coastal love affair traveling back and forth with ease between Florida and California. Toni has always been an outstanding hostess for various charitable, social and political events as well as chairing a number of them. She continues to do so today serving on the Board of Associates for Breast and Prostate Cancer as well as the Board for the Coalition for Pets and Public Safety in Los Angeles. Just recently she was invited to become a member of the Board of Directors of Leaders in Furthering Education, Inc. (“LIFE”) in Palm Beach, Florida. LIFE raises funds in support of the Disabled Veterans’ LIFE Memorial Foundation which seeks to commemorate the sacrifices and dedication of disabled American veterans from all branches of the Armed Services throughout America’s history by building the first National Memorial in Washington, DC, honoring America’s disabled veterans. LIFE also raises money for LIFE’s Summer Camp Program, which has sent over 14,500 underprivileged and special needs children in Florida to Summer Camp. To date LIFE has raised more than $1.6 million to build the nation’s first and only permanent tribute to the three million living, disabled American veterans, the countless who have since passed and those who will come in the future. Toni also considers it a great honor having been invited to be a member of the Women’s Leadership Board of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She has served for the last two years with this group whose membership is composed of influential women from all over the globe. Their goal is to advance issues related to women at the Harvard Kennedy school and throughout the world. Presently Toni is engaged in the project of a lifetime. Shortly after the death of her beloved mother, she was encouraged by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as well as her husband Bobby to write her life story and she is doing just that. Toni’s is a true “once upon a time” story from growing up as a little girl in Brooklyn, New York, to her life in the television industry, to her life in the political world to her travels around the globe. Toni’s fascinating story details the events from her early days in Hollywood mentored by Frank Sinatra and Rock Hudson, to the body of fabulous people she has encountered along the way all with lots of stories. She hopes this book will help and, more importantly, both entertain and inspire, particularly women for she shares much of her personal advice on how to better their lives even in their most difficult times. How does she find the time to do all these things, one might ask. Well, Toni, has the energy of a small army and likewise the determination to accomplish whatever she sets out to do. She is also blessed with almost total recall. Toni believes her book will serve as a beacon to others to achieve the best they can in their lives and to always push themselves to do the best they can with the lives they are given. Currently in the planning stages is the rerelease of one-hundred-plus segments from “Talk of the Town” edited and reformatted as a new series. These renowned interviews (which were unscripted) showing these celebrated VIPs in relaxed, friendly and candid conversations will be reaching a brand-new audience that has grown up since the first release. Like fine wine with time the memory of these icons, many of whom have passed on, has only gotten better and garnered them a more revered place in the world of entertainment. Shows like this simply do not exist on television anymore and the public is eager to have an opportunity to view them once again. So stay with us. We will be updating as we go along. Toni
2010 | 
