Emilio "Mim" Scala (born 1940) is the co-founder of the London-based television, film and theatrical agency Scala Brown Associates.

Early life and career

Mim Scala was born in London in 1940. He attended St Augustine's School and Hammersmith and Chelsea Art School at Manresa Rd, Chelsea. He grew up in the Northend Road,

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

, before moving to the King's Road. He then travelled extensively before settling down to work as a theatrical agent. In 1963, he founded the theatrical agency Scala Brown Associates with Sir William Pigott-Brown. In 1965, Scala bought the rights to the comic strip character

Modesty Blaise ''Modesty Blaise'' is a British comic strip featuring a fictional character of the same name, created by author Peter O'Donnell and illustrator Jim Holdaway in 1963. The strip follows Modesty Blaise, an exceptional young woman with many talen ...

with the intention of casting Barbara Steele as the eponymous heroine in a feature-length production, before ultimately selling the rights to produce the film to Joseph Janni (who brought in the fashionable Italian actress

Monica Vitti Maria Luisa Ceciarelli (3 November 1931 – 2 February 2022), known professionally as Monica Vitti, was an Italian actress who starred in several award-winning films directed by Michelangelo Antonioni during the 1960s. She appeared with Marcel ...

to play Modesty instead).Mim Scala, ''Diary of a Teddy Boy: A Memoir of the Long Sixties'' (Surrey, UK: Goblin Press, 2009), pp. 75-6. Scala also packaged

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...

's film '' Sympathy for the Devil/One Plus One'' on behalf of Michael Cowdray's Cupid Productions, after being introduced to Godard's then rights holder, Eleni Collard, by the record producer Alan Callan. In the late 1960s, Scala took off to live in

Spanish Sahara Spanish Sahara (; ), officially the Spanish Possessions in the Sahara from 1884 to 1958, then Province of the Sahara between 1958 and 1976, was the name used for the modern territory of Western Sahara when it was occupied and ruled by Spain bet ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

, and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, painting and recording ethnic music, including that of the

Dervish Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from ) in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity (''tariqah''), or more narrowly to a religious mendicant, who chose or accepted material poverty. The latter usage is found particularly in Persi ...

Ganoua sect from Tangiers. He returned to England in 1972 to work as head of promotion for

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

. Scala produced the first direct-to-disc album for the band Warsaw Pakt, before founding ESP Music and Management.

Other work

Scala is the author of the cult memoir ''Diary of a Teddy Boy: A Memoir of the Long Sixties'', as well as two novels: ''The Luckiest Man in the World'' and ''Bibi''. He now works as a sculptor in bronze, having had his first solo exhibition in 2014 at the 11 Gallery in

Belgravia Belgravia () is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period, and became a dangerous pla ...

References

External links

*http://www.mimscala.co.uk/ 1940 births People from Fulham Living people Talent agents Film people from London British expatriates in Ireland {{England-bio-stub