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William Morris Agency
The William Morris Agency (WMA) was a Hollywood-based talent agency. It represented some of the best-known 20th-century entertainers in film, television, and music. During its 109-year tenure it came to be regarded as the "first great talent agency in show business". In April 2009, WMA announced it would merge with the Endeavor Talent Agency to form William Morris Endeavor. William Morris Endeavor was renamed WME-IMG in 2013, then Endeavor in October 2017. History Early history In 1898, William Morris (born Zelman Moses), a German-Jewish immigrant to the US, posted a cross-hatch trademark above an office door in New York City four "X's", representing a W superimposed on an M and went into business as William Morris, Vaudeville Agent. By the time WMA formally incorporated in New York State on January 31, 1918, Morris' son William Morris Jr. and his assistant Abraham Lastfogel, who after working as Morris Jr.'s office boy and establishing his own talent/employment age ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Talent Agent
A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds work for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, dancers, and other professionals in various entertainment or sports businesses. In addition, an agent defends, supports and promotes the interest of their clients. Having an agent is not required, but does help the artist get jobs (concerts, tours, movie scripts, appearances, signings, sport teams, etc.). In many cases, casting directors or other businesses go to talent agencies to find the artists for whom they are looking. The agent is paid a percentage of the star's earnings. Various regulations govern different types of agents. The legal jurisdiction in which the agent conducts business and artist's unions set the rules. There are also professional associations of talent agencies. Talent agents (artist managers) are considered gatekeepers to their client's careers. They have the ability ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Al Jolson
Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson, ; May 26, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-born American singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. Self-billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer," Jolson was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, as well as the first openly Jewish man to become an entertainment star in the United States. He was known for his "shamelessly sentimental, melodramatic approach" towards performing, along with popularizing many of the songs he sang. According to music historian Larry Stempel, "No one had heard anything quite like it before on Broadway." Stephen Banfield wrote that Jolson's style was "arguably the single most important factor in defining the modern musical." Jolson has been referred to by modern critics as "the king of blackface performers". Although best remembered today as the star of the first talking picture, ''The Jazz Singer'' (1927), he starred in a series of successful musical films during the 1930 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Nat Lefkowitz
Nat Lefkowitz (July 24, 1905 – September 4, 1983) was an American talent agency executive who served as co-chairman of the William Morris Agency. Biography Lefkowitz was born to a American Jews, Jewish family in Brooklyn. He attended New York City public schools and was a graduate of City College of New York and the Brooklyn Law School. After school, he worked as an accountant and then went to work for the William Morris Agency in 1927 where he held a number of positions including comptroller, treasurer, executive vice president, president, and the chairmanship in 1976. His brother Julius Lefkowitz ran the outside accounting firm that William Morris agency used. In 1980, he was replaced by his protégé Morris Stoller after an acrimonious power struggle at the agency. He was named as chairman emeritus. Lefkowitz was active in served as the chairman of the Jewish Theatrical Guild, as an executive with the United Jewish Appeal, the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, the Actors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of newspapers in the United States, sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the largest in the Western United States with a print circulation of 118,760. It has 500,000 online subscribers, the fifth-largest among U.S. newspapers. Owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by California Times, the paper has won over 40 Pulitzer Prizes since its founding. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to Trade union, labor unions, the latter of which led to the Los Angeles Times bombing, bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. As with other regional newspapers in California and the United Sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Country Music
Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is primarily focused on singing Narrative, stories about Working class in the United States, working-class and blue-collar worker, blue-collar American life. Country music is known for its ballads and dance tunes (i.e., "Honky-tonk#Music, honky-tonk music") with simple form, folk lyrics, and harmonies generally accompanied by instruments such as banjos, fiddles, harmonicas, and many types of guitar (including acoustic guitar, acoustic, electric guitar, electric, steel guitar, steel, and resonator guitar, resonator guitars). Though it is primarily rooted in various forms of American folk music, such as old-time music and Appalachian music, many other traditions, including African-American, Music of Mexico, Mexican, Music of Ireland, Irish, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
The Byrds
The Byrds () were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) being the sole consistent member. Although their time as one of the most popular groups in the world only lasted for a short period in the mid-1960s, the Byrds are considered by critics to be among the most influential rock acts of their era. The band's signature sound of "angelic harmonies" and McGuinn's jangle, jangly Twelve-string guitar, 12-string Rickenbacker Electric guitar, guitar sound was "absorbed into the vocabulary of rock" and has continued to be influential. Initially, the Byrds pioneered the musical genre of folk rock as a popular format in 1965, by melding the influence of the Beatles and other British Invasion bands with contemporary and traditional folk music on their Mr. Tambourine Man (album), first and Turn! Turn! Turn! (album), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by their vocal harmonies, adolescent-oriented lyrics, and musical ingenuity, they are one of the most influential acts of the rock era. The group drew on the music of Traditional pop, older pop vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and black R&B to create their unique sound. Under Brian's direction, they often incorporated classical music, classical or jazz elements and Recording studio as an instrument, unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways. The Beach Boys formed as a garage band centered on Brian's songwriting and managed by the Wilsons' father, Murry Wilson, Murry. Jardine was briefly replaced by David Marks during 1962–1963. In 1963, they enjoyed their first national hit with "Surfin' U.S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Sonny & Cher
Sonny & Cher were an American pop and entertainment duo in the 1960s and 1970s, made up of spouses Sonny Bono and Cher. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as rhythm and blues, R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector. The pair first achieved fame with two hit songs in 1965, "Baby Don't Go" and "I Got You Babe". Signing with Atco/Atlantic Records, they released three studio albums in the late 1960s, as well as the soundtrack recordings for two unsuccessful movies, ''Good Times (film), Good Times'' and ''Chastity (1969 film), Chastity'', with Cher contributing vocals to one cut, "Chastity's Song (Band of Thieves)". In 1972, after three years of silence, the couple returned to the studio and released two other albums under the MCA/Kapp Records label. In the 1970s, they also positioned themselves as media personalities with two top-ten TV shows in the US, ''The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour'' and ''The Sonny & Cher Show''. The couple's career as a duo ended in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pioneered the gritty, rhythmically driven sound that came to define hard rock. Their first stable line-up consisted of vocalist Mick Jagger, guitarist Keith Richards, multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, bassist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts. During their early years, Jones was the primary leader. Andrew Loog Oldham became their manager in 1963 and encouraged them to write their own songs. The Jagger–Richards, Jagger–Richards partnership soon became the band's primary songwriting and creative force. Rooted in blues and early rock and roll, the Rolling Stones started out playing Cover version, covers and were at the forefront of the British Invasion in 1964, becoming identified with the youthful counterculture of the 1960s. They then f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Mike Zimring
Mike Zimring (May 24, 1916 – February 23, 2011) was an American entertainment agent. Born to a Jewish family, Zimring attended the drama school, Pasadena Playhouse, from 1936 to 1937 and was a radio actor in Hollywood and Chicago from 1938 to 1941. He was a captain in the United States Army from 1941 to 1946, heading the theatrical branch of the European Theater of Operations. In 1947, he was assistant to Orson Welles in the Mercury Theater. Zimring joined the William Morris Agency in 1948, becoming the senior agent in the motion picture department in 1950 and head of the literary department in 1959. He stayed at the William Morris Agency for several decades before becoming independent in the early 1990s. He lived in Beverly Hills, California. His clients over the years included Karl Malden, Carl Reiner, Katharine Hepburn,Merrily Weisbord, ''Our Future Selves'', p. 157. Gore Vidal, Herbert Lom, Frank Capra, Jean Renoir, and his wife Connie Russell. In his memoirs, Carl Reiner ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Phil Berg (talent Agent)
Philip Jay Berg (February 15, 1902 – February 1, 1983) was an American talent agent who co-founded, with Bert Allenberg, the Berg-Allenberg talent agency, he was known for his movie package deals, a concept that changed Hollywood in the 1930s, he represented an empire of dozens of actors, directors and writers. Biography Berg was born in New York City on February 15, 1902. He was of Jewish descent. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1924, he moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a talent agent, becoming a millionaire by the age of 26. In 1927, he partnered with Bert Allenberg to form the Berg-Allenberg talent agency. Berg created the concept of the "package deal" where he would find a script, a writer, actors, and a director; and then sold the entire package to a producer. He represented such stars as Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, Lucille Ball, Wallace Beery, Walter Brennan, Olivia de Havilland, Joan Fontaine, "U's Feldman Demurrer Is Sustained ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
