After MCA's divestiture put its clients and agents in play, William Morris regained its former preeminent status in the industry, based primarily on its strength in television. But other agencies captured the spotlight as they moved into the movies. For example, Creative Management Associates, which was founded by Freddie Fields (b. 1923) and David Begelman (1921–1995) in 1960, carved a niche for itself in the business by becoming a boutique agency for stars. Its client list included Henry Fonda, Paul Newman, Kirk Douglas, Peter Sellers, Steve McQueen, and Phil Silvers, among others. After signing some of MCA's best agents, Ashley-Steiner merged with Famous Artists in 1962 and strengthened its position in motion pictures. Renamed Ashley-Famous, the agency was acquired by Kinney National Services and then sold to Marvin Josephson Associates in 1969. Marvin Josephson, which started out agenting in 1955 representing Robert Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo) (1927–2004), was a mini-conglomerate that included a TV production firm and a concert-booking bureau. Expanding further, Josephson bought out Creative Management Associates in 1974 and formed International Creative Management, a compound talent agency with 2,000 clients that rivaled William Morris.
William Morris, whose top executives were being described in the trade press as "gentlemanly and geriatric," faced a threat of another sort in 1975, when five of its agents left the company to start Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Headed by Michael Ovitz (b. 1946), a UCLA graduate from the San Fernando Valley who started out in the William Morris mail room, and Ron Meyer (b. 1944), a senior agent, CAA lured away the top directors and stars in the business with the promise of securing top dollar for their services and delivering on their word. CAA also aggressively took on many of the traditional functions of the studios, searching out properties and putting together packages consisting of star, director, and writer, which they offered to the studios on an all-or-nothing basis. With names such as Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Demi Moore, Martin Scorsese, Robert Zemeckis, and Sydney Pollack on its roster, CAA could just about dictate the terms when it came to salaries.
Ovitz could exercise this power because of a vacuum in the motion picture business. Beginning in the late 1960s, the movie industry had entered the age of conglomerates, when the Hollywood majors were either taken over by outside conglomerates engaged in a range of businesses or became conglomerates themselves through acquisitions. In the new order, film production became just one of several "profit centers" for these conglomerates and not necessarily the most important. Hollywood studios more and more took on the function of financiers and left the development of projects to suppliers—independent producers and agencies.
Not content in jacking up salaries and compensation to record highs to earn more in commissions, CAA branched out into corporate acquisitions, consulting, and marketing. Ovitz helped Sony buy Columbia Pictures from Coca-Cola for 3.4 billion dollars in 1989 and negotiated Matsushita's 6.6 billion dollars acquisition of MCA in 1990. Ovitz also advised Credit Lyonnais, the French bank, on how to manage and ultimately dispose of its subsidiary MGM/UA. Then Ovitz and his partner Ron Meyer, CAA president, left the agency business for the movies. Meyer departed first to replace Sidney Sheinberg (b. 1935) as president and chief operating officer of MCA (renamed Universal Studios) when Seagram acquired MCA from Matsushita in 1995. In taking the job, Meyer joined the select group of talent agents, likes Lew Wasserman, David Begelman, and Freddie Fields, who had earlier became production chiefs of major studios. Ovitz also joined the group in 1995 when he became president of the Walt Disney Company. Afterward, Ovitz and the other CAA founders sold the agency for more than 150 million dollars to a group of company insiders headed by Richard Lovett, who became the new president of CAA.
Many big names left CAA for rival agencies during the transition, but the ranking among the major talent agencies did not change as much as some predicted. Creative Artists still maintained the top talent list in the movie business, with over one thousand names. And William Morris and International Creative Management held steady. Michael Ovitz, meanwhile, saw his career plummet. After just fourteen months in office at Disney, he was fired, with the explanation that Ovitz was unable to carve a role for himself in the company. But Ovitz's imperial manner might have also contributed to the decision. Nonetheless, Disney gave Ovitz a severance package estimated at over 125 million dollars. Ovitz attempted to reestablish himself in Hollywood by forming a new company, Artists Management Group, that was intended to represent high-profile talent in film, music, sports and publishing and to produce feature films and television programs. The venture never got off the ground and Ovitz lost an estimated 70–100 million dollars of his own money before he sold off the vestiges of his operations to an upstart agency called The Firm.
During the post-Ovitz era, talent agencies continued their search for new sources of revenue and naturally gravitated to Silicon Valley. Virtually all the leading agencies opened media divisions to explore ways in which the Internet might have an impact on the form and content of entertainment and serve as a new distribution conduit for their clients. Breaking into the business, agents sought opportunities for their stars, directors, and writers to shape material for the Web, such as short films, both live action and animation, and to link hightech companies to Hollywood. The foray into Silicon Valley suffered a temporary setback when the high-tech bubble burst in 2000, but the marriage of the Internet and show business seems inevitable.
SEE ALSO Acting ; Casting ; Star System ; Stars ; Studio System ; Television
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Tino Balio
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