Guido Orlando was born in Barisciano, Italy in 1906. In 1916 he emigrated to the United States, where his father and two brothers were employed as miners in Ohio. Instead of becoming a miner, Orlando chose to pursue a career in the entertainment industry and by 1923 he had made his way to New York. He initially found work as an actor, appearing in small parts in the films BACK TO OLD VIRGINIA (1923) and BIG BROTHER (1923), among others, and on stage in ANDRE CHARLOT’S REVIEW OF 1924 and FLAME OF LOVE, both in 1924. He then moved to Hollywood where he continued to appear in bit parts and tried to establish himself as a producer of shorts. In 1928 he returned to New York and joined Ben Edwards’ booking office where he was responsible for booking talent for sound films. The following year he was credited with arranging for Daniel L. Haynes, Nina Mae McKinny, Fannie Belle DeKnight, and Victoria Spivey to appear in King Vidor’s HALLELUJAH (1929).

In 1930, Orlando left Ben Edwards’ office and established his own public relations firm in New York. He tried to arrange a stage production about the life of Benito Mussolini, based on Mussolini’s autobiography, and by 1932 was attempting to make a film of the project with D.W. Griffith attached to direct. That same year it was reported that Orlando had been hired to supervise productions for Mayfair Productions, Inc., however, it is unclear how much work he did for Mayfair, if any. During this time, he also turned his promotional skills toward politics in his efforts to secure votes for Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election, though he was not hired by the Roosevelt campaign. He established Italian-American Women’s Clubs meant to encourage Italian-American women to vote and be more politically informed, and he also created the League of Citizens of Foreign Birth for Roosevelt and the Republicans for Roosevelt Repeal League. Following Roosevelt’s victory, Orlando tried to obtain a position first in Roosevelt’s administration, then on the Democratic National Committee, but to no avail. He instead served as Managing Director of the Roosevelt Democrats for LaGuardia League to help elect Fiorello La Guardia as Mayor of New York City in 1933 and he continued his public relations firm. Following his work on behalf of Roosevelt, Orlando began to represent clients outside the film industry. In 1934 he was hired by evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson to help revive her career. Many of his plans for her hinted at the outlandish promotional schemes that would come to define his work as a publicist, such as his suggestion that the Canadian-born McPherson run for Vice-President on a ticket headed by Huey Long.

Following the United States’ entry into World War II, Orlando, by that time a naturalized U.S. citizen, attended officer candidate school in Miami, Florida and served in the United States Army Air Force as a publicity director for the Army Air Force Band. After the war, he resumed his work as a publicist, this time establishing himself in Europe. Until his retirement in the early 1970s, he lived and worked for extended periods of time in Paris, Rome, and London, while still maintaining a presence in New York and Hollywood, and his client list reflected the expansion of his services. He was involved in publicity campaigns for a wide range of clients, including Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini, Primo Carnera, Martine Carol, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Pauline Gallico, Lady May Lawford [mother of Peter Lawford], Pola Negri, Novella Parigini, Boris Pasternak, Alexander Salkind, and Selene Walters. One of his most notorious campaigns involved fabricating a romance between the teenage Mimi Medart and King Farouk of Egypt, in part by having Medart photographed at several stops along Farouk’s travels through Europe in 1950. Orlando had been hired by Medart’s parents to stir up publicity for the family’s restaurant in Missouri and to help Medart secure a movie contract. Orlando later garnered publicity for himself by publicly challenging Farouk to a duel following the King’s denial of a relationship with Medart.

Although his clients came from a variety of professions, Orlando remained active in the film industry, primarily as a publicist, though it was often reported that he was involved in various projects and schemes. These stories were likely planted by Orlando himself in the trade press, and none of the projects came to fruition. In 1950 he was said to have arranged an international film production company comprised of Roberto Rossellini, Lewis Milestone, Vitorio De Sica, and Leonide Moguy, to be funded by Angelo Rizzoli, Jr. and Giuseppe Amato, though no films seem to have been produced through this specific endeavor. In 1951 he was reported to be the Vice-President in charge of ad publicity for the British production company Two Cities Films. He also ventured into television with plans for an international, semi-documentary anthology series, DECISIONS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, to be scripted by British television writers Gerald Kelsey and Dick Sharples. Orlando also published an autobiography in 1954, “Confessions of a Scoundrel,” written with Sam Merwin, Jr. There were several reported attempts at adapting the work, including a film starring Edmond O’Brien to be produced by Abner J. Greshler and Alexander Salkind, another film starring Alec Guinness to be directed by Peter Glenville, and a television series. A decade later, Ronald Handyside wrote a biography based on numerous interviews he conducted with Orlando, titled “Never Sleep with a Client.” Orlando retired in the early 1970s and spent his time investing in the stock market. He was working on another memoir up until his death in 1988.