First, the Malibu PR firm was called Grody Tellem. Then it was just Tellem. Now it has just been renamed Tellem Grody. How did that happen?

It all started in 1980 when Susan Tellem and Mark Grody got married and started their firm, Grody Tellem Communications. Susan had a son from a previous relationship, John Tellem. The couple soon had another son, Dan Grody.

The agency was a family business, with the boys helping out after school.

“They were both raised in the agency, stuffing press kits from the time they were small,” Susan Tellem recalled.

Eventually, the couple sold Grody Tellem to London-based advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi in 1987. About the same time, they divorced and Susan Tellem started Tellem Worldwide. Mark Grody died of cancer in 2005.

Both sons eventually went to work at their mom’s PR agency and became partners. The agency was renamed Tellem Grody Public Relations this month. It is staffed by Susan Tellem, her two sons and another employee. The client list includes Nickelodeon, Los Angeles Music Academy and the California Poison Control System.

Dan Grody feels he has made his father proud.

“I wish I could talk to him about the business today,” he said. “But things have changed so much since his time I don’t know if we’d ever finish the conversation.”