Jim Roth, Co-Founder of Giorgio Beverly Hills Fragrances, Dies

Co-founder of the Giorgio Beverly Hills fragrance business, Jim Roth, died of cancer April 23. He was 77.

Roth began his career in the 1960s selling ads in Glamour magazine. He opened his own agency, where he handled advertising for the jewelry store on Madison Avenue owned by Jolie Gabor — mother of Zsa Zsa, Eva and Magda.

Later, he was in international advertising at Revlon Inc., based in New York, before relocating in the early 1970s to Hollywood to work as senior vice president of communications for Max Factor.

In 1978 Roth teamed up with Joseph Forkish and David Horner to form International Marketing Group. The company landed the contract to manage a fragrance business for Giorgio Beverly Hills, the boutique on Rodeo Drive owned by Fred and Gale Hayman, Horner recalled.

After Avon bought the business in 1987 for an estimated $165 million, Roth and Horner started Roth Horner & Associates, a strategic marketing and sales consultancy for the beauty industry, and created a scent for Las Vegas-based Caesars World Inc. The Caesars scent was sold on HSN in the late Eighties.

In 1993, Roth became chief operating officer at H. Alpert & Co., where Forkish was chief executive officer. The company, founded by musician Herb Alpert, launched a fragrance called Listen and distributed several Italian fragrance brands, including Moschino.