Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

TALENT AGENTS > 10% Wm GLORIA SAFIER MEN Alan Ansara Orson Bean Harry Bergman William Cottrell Wally Cox Martin Gabel Michael Higgins Robert Higgins T. C. Jones Gene Klavan Peter Larkin Bill Lundmark James Malcolm Billy Matthews Biff McGuire Howard Morris Gene Miller Edward Mulhare Robert Pastene Mark Roberts Vladimir Sokoloff Rod Steiger Howard Wierum WOMEN Mary Astor Helen Auerbach Beverly Bentley Diane Cilento Leora Dana Geraldine Fitzgerald Carol Grace Barbara Loden Kathleen Maguire Mary McCarty Barbara O'Neil Bibi Osterwald Hildy Parks Margaret Phillips Rebecca Sand Amru Sani Irene Sharoff Madeline Sherwood Maggie Smith Marti Stevens Ahila Stoddard Elaine Stritch Temple Texas Angela Thornton Gloria Vanderbilt Virginia Vincent LOUIS SHURR MEN Walter Abel Tige Andrews Joe Ashley Jim Backus Nicky Blair Robert Burton MacDonald Carey Philip Carey Gower Champion Robert Cornthevaite John Craven Broderick Crawford Richard Crenna Dan Dailey Andy Devine Paul Douglas Stuart Erwin Tom Ewell Logan Field Eddie Foy III Eddie Foy Jr. Thomas Gomez Murray Hamilton Skip Homeier Bob Hope Allyn Joslyn William Joyce Bert Lahr William Leslie David Lewis Patrick Macnee Ted Marcuse Alan Marshall Rowan & Martin Michael Mason Oliver McGowan Horace McMahon Lauritz Melchior Ray Middleton Paul Picerni John Raitt Bert Remsen Kurt Richards Johnny Silver Jack Warden Rod Taylor Keyy Thordsen David Wayne Vince Williams Gig Young WOMEN Phyllis Avery Joan Blackman Pamela Britton Marge Champion Dolores Gray Angela Greene Peggy Hallock Myrna Hansen Marjorie Heller Elizabeth Montgomery Patricia Powell Grace Raynor Debbie Reynolds Marion Ross Gia Scala Victoria Shaw Alexis Smith Helene Stanley Jan Sterling Joan Taylor Gloria Victor Tami Connor Bunny Cooper Barbara Eden Kymme Shore Helen Lynd Mary Wickes PAUL SMALL ARTISTS LTD. MEN Richard Arlen Rafael Compos Robert Coote Arthur Franz Louis Hayward Chester Morris J. Carroll Naish Sidney Poitier Tom Poston George Raft William Redfield Carl Benton Reid Howard St. John WOMEN Patricia Benoit Sheila Bond Mercedes McCambridge Agnes Moorehead Inger Stevens Diana Van Der Vlis STORY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 46 in Hollywood, made its first deal with SAG, later added AFTRA, SDG, and WGA. Another, Artists Representatives Assn., deals with AGVA primarily, has no agreement with AFTRA and other principal talent unions. ARA is headquartered in New York and most of its 350 members are in the East (New York, Florida and Canada), but it also has branches in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Michigan and California. Possibly because the agents feel that the rules and regulations of talent unions hamstring them enough, these agents' organizations have no code or standards of practice of their own, or, as one member put it, "none of the YMCA stuff." The precise origin of the talent agent — the name of the first man ever to peddle another's talents for profit — appears lost in some remote obscurity, possibly honky-tonk in nature. But some of the most eminent of today's practitioners cite William Morris Sr. as the first professional representative of talent. He set up shop in 1898, later was succeeded as head of William Morris Agency by his son, who in turn was succeeded by Abe Lastfogel, its present head. Jules Stein, a young oculist who had used music to put himself through medical school, and William R. Goodheart Jr., a college friend, started MCA in Chicago in 1925. Mr. Stein still heads the vast opera tion, and Mr. Goodheart, who subsequently retired from the firm, returned to business life a few years ago to join NBC, where he is now tv sales vice president. GAC was formed in the early 1930s by Thomas G. Rockwell and a group of associates, and Mr. Rockwell was president until a few months ago when he moved up to board chairman, and Lawrence W. Kanaga left the vice presidency and general managership of RCA Victor Records to take over the GAC presidency. Any list of the most successful talenl agents of the past must include Leland Hayward, who subsequently sold out to MCA (mid1940s) and became an equally eminent producer. Mr. Hayward is said to have backed into agentry almost inadvertently, by tipping Fred and Adele Astaire to a nightclub dancing job that paid them $4,000 a week. Another name that crops up prominently in the largely unwritten history of agentry is that of the late Myron Selznick, who frequently is described as the dividing line between the old and the new agent on the Hollywood scene. Before him, agents generally served as personal managers as well as talent agents and contented themselves with only one client, or only one in each field. Mr. Selznick branched out; he is widely credited with developing the presentday pattern of representation that encom passes a whole stable of clients in all phases of the business. Although its patents may be questioned by some, MCA has been called the inventor of the agent's package deal, albeit in another field: MCA is said to have got the Cavalier Hotel at Virginia Beach to turn over the full amount it was spending for entertainment, with the understanding that MCA would supply all entertainment. According to this version, MCA let the hotel pick seven of ten bands to be booked there and the Cavalier accordingly got seven bands it could not have afforded if booking them itself. (MCA, the legend goes, talked these bands into working for less than usual pay.) The three bands MCA chose to round out the hotel's schedule were relatively new and low-priced and, presumably, represented the margin of profit for MCA. In radio, when advertising agencies were the big producers of programs, agents with packages got a colder shoulder than in television, where production is so much more complicated and expensive that advertising agencies have found it is more practical, with only a few exceptions, to stick to buying and let networks, talent agents or independent packagers do the main supplying. Yet even in radio's heyday, according to the chroniclers of the time, some talent agents controlled so much major talent that the advertising agencies, Page 56 • October -21, 195-7 Broadcasting