Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

Lew Wasserman. EVERETT COLLECTION. REPRODUCED BY
PERMISSION.
of Shows (1950–1954), and The Colgate Comedy Hour
(1950–1955), among others.
By the end of the decade, prime-time television was
produced on film in Hollywood. Regardless of the format
of the package or the medium in which it was
produced, agencies collected a 10 percent commission
on the package price of the show to the network, just as
in radio. Once again, MCA devised a way to wring more
money out of the situation. In a daring move to provide
employment for its unemployed clients, MCA went into
television production in 1949 by forming a subsidiary
called Revue Productions. Its first venture was a live
variety show called Stars Over Hollywood. When it
became apparent that filmed shows, particularly series,
would become a TV mainstay, MCA moved into television
production in a big way by negotiating a blanket
waiver from the Screen Actors Guild in 1952 that
allowed the agency both to represent talent and to produce
television shows in which talent appeared. The head
of the Screen Actors Guild at the time was Ronald
Reagan (1911–2004), an MCA client. Generally, the
Guild had prohibited agents from producing programming
because it would allow them to act as both the seller
Agents and Agencies
and the buyer. Since no other company won the same
rights, the blanket waiver was a watershed for the company.
MCA through its Revue subsidiary quickly became
the un-challenged giant of television production. By
1960, MCA, by then referred to as The Octopus, was
producing some forty hours worth of television shows
every week, among them The Danny Thomas Show, The
Andy Griffith Show, and The Loretta Young Show.
Unlike William Morris and other agencies that packaged
shows, MCA through its television production arm
was able to maximize its takings. Launching a television
series, MCA-TV went fifty-fifty with the star. Selling the
show to the network, it collected 10 percent of the package
price of the show. Revue Studios, the MCA subsidiary
that actually produced the show, collected a 20
percent fee of the costs to physically produce the show
for its services. The remainder of the production budget
went to Revue to cover studio overhead, labor, and other
expenses. After a successful network run, MCA received
syndication fees when the show was sold to individual
television stations for off-network programming and a
cut of foreign sales.
By 1960, MCA was the largest talent agency in the
business, with double the revenues of William Morris, its
nearest competitor. Strengthening its position as a television
distributor, MCA had purchased the syndication
rights to Paramount’s pre-1948 film library for 50 million
dollars in 1958. Within months, MCA strengthened its
position as a television producer by purchasing Universal’s
367-acre back lot in the San Fernando Valley for 11.3
million dollars and spent an additional 30 million dollars
to renovate the facility. The expansion ultimately led to a
three-year investigation by the Justice Department of the
Kennedy Administration into the possible antitrust violations
by talent agents. In 1962, MCA signed a consent
decree in which it agreed to immediately get out of the
talent agency business.
POST MCA
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
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