instance, adaptations such as From Here to Eternity (1953),
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), My Fair Lady (1964), The
Sound of Music (1965), and The Exorcist (1973) were gargan-
tuan successes, as was Chicago in 2002.
In more recent years, as the movies have become a recog-
nized art form, there has been a rise in the percentage of movies
made from original scripts, and producers have a growing con-
fidence in the salability of movies that haven’t already been hits
in other media. The widespread use of original material began
in earnest with the success of Easy Rider (1969) but has fully
come into its own thanks to gigantic hit films based on origi-
nal screenplays, such as Star Wars (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark
(1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Back to the Future
(1985), Moonstruck (1987), and Good Will Hunting (1997).
agents Long ignored as a group, agents have had a power-
ful effect on the motion picture business, shaping its eco-
nomics and often discovering its stars. They are the people
who find work for film artists and negotiate their contracts,
usually in exchange for 10 percent of the artist’s income.
Among the earliest and eventually the most powerful of
talent agents in film were William Morris and Jules C. Stein.
Morris built his agency by representing theater and vaude-
ville stars, eventually selling their services to the movies for
far more than they were paid for their live performances.
Jules Stein was an eye doctor who failed in his chosen pro-
fession but built the largest talent agency in the world, call-
ing his company the Music Corporation of America (MCA).
His company’s original growth came from representing an
array of famous musicians and big bands.
Despite the restrictions of the
STUDIO SYSTEM
, agencies
and lone agents began to wield considerable power during
the 1930s, especially if they represented popular stars. The
keys to an agent’s success and desirability to upwardly mobile
film actors, directors, and writers were his strong connec-
tions in the industry. Myron Selznick, for instance,
DAVID O
.
SELZNICK
’s brother, became an enormously powerful agent
who could turn ruthless when he negotiated with the studio
bigwigs, many of whom he blamed for his father Lewis J.
Selznick’s downfall during the silent era. Another well-con-
nected agent was Zeppo Marx, formerly of the Marx Broth-
ers. The not-so-funny brother was actually the wealthiest of
all his siblings, representing a wide array of talent beginning
in the mid-1930s. He represented the Marx Brothers only
once, however, obtaining $200,000 for them to star in Room
Service (1938). It was the most money they ever received on
any one picture, but Zeppo refused to work with his brothers
again—they were too much trouble.
Paul Irving “Swifty” Lazar (1907–93) was one of the last
of the old breed of movie agents, wheeling and dealing and
keeping everything in his head. According to Whitney Stine,
in his book Stars & Star Handlers, Lazar received his nick-
name rather late in his career, earning it in the 1950s when
Humphrey Bogart wagered that his agent couldn’t get him
five deals in one day. Bogart lost. “Swifty” Lazar was born.
Other important agents included Leland Hayward, Louis
Shurr, and Henry Wilson. Most agents gained their reputa-
tion by handling a large stable of well-known stars. Others
gained fame by creating stars. Sue Carol, for example, dis-
covered
ALAN LADD
(whom she later married), and Johnny
Hyde helped to create the
MARILYN MONROE
phenomenon.
Since the end of the studio system, agents have become
even more powerful than many producers and are often in
the best position to pull all the parties together to make a
movie deal. One agent or agency may represent all of the
principal people in a package: the star, the director, and the
screenwriter. MCA, in fact, was so involved in deal making
that it finally behooved the agency to go into filmmaking
instead. Lew Wasserman, the longtime head of MCA after
Jules Stein retired, bought
UNIVERSAL PICTURES
and sold off
the agency’s contracts. As a result, MCA eventually went
from the world’s largest talent agency to one of the most suc-
cessful of all the major film studios.
The biggest agencies occasionally grow too large. Some
entertainers often feel lost or overlooked in such massive
companies. In fact, during the much publicized search for the
kidnapped Patty Hearst in the early 1970s, the joke going
around Hollywood was that Miss Hearst couldn’t be found
because she was signed with William Morris.
Among the most powerful agencies today are Interna-
tional Creative Management (ICM) and the William Morris
Agency, but there are very successful smaller agencies in
abundance all over Los Angeles.
Aldrich, Robert (1918–1983) A director who pro-
duced many of his own films, he was especially well known
for making action movies with strong social and political
points of view, and many of his best films depict rebellion
against authority. Aldrich was very much an independent
filmmaker with a reputation as an iconoclast. He remains an
undervalued director, in large part because of his commercial
failures during the last 15 years of his career. In total, Aldrich
directed 30 films, with his greatest commercial and critical
successes coming in streaks during the late 1950s and 1960s.
Born to one of the most influential and powerful families
in Rhode Island, Aldrich was a cousin of the Rockefellers and
the progeny of a clan that could trace its lineage back to the
Mayflower. Twenty-one years old and not having bothered to
graduate from college, he used his connections to land his
first job at RKO as a gofer in 1941. He went on to gain his
training as an assistant director for some of cinema’s most
illustrious directors, such as Charlie Chaplin, Jean Renoir,
Lewis Milestone, Max Ophuls, William Wellman, and
Joseph Losey. He also became the studio manager at Enter-
prise Studios, a short-lived company that produced such
films as Body and Soul (1947) and Force of Evil (1948).
Ironically, after an apprenticeship of more than a decade
in Hollywood, he received his first chance to direct for televi-
sion in New York, shooting 17 episodes of The Doctor in 1952
and 1953. Finally, he got his chance to direct his first theatri-
cal film, The Big Leaguer (1953), a “
B
”
MOVIE
starring Edward
G. Robinson. Then, after coproducing and directing an inter-
esting flop, World for Ransom (1954), Aldrich hit the big time
when he was hired to direct Burt Lancaster in Apache (1954).
AGENTS
4