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Brief History |
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Originally founded in 1955 as the Conference of Personal Managers, the Talent Manager’s Association provides guidance for
Talent Managers, supports and encourages high ethical business standards and practices, and provides educational programs and
service to our community. The TMA is self-regulating and is dedicated to raising the standards of the profession of
talent management.
2001
Conference of Personal Managers changed their name to Talent Managers Association.
1991
Conference of Personal Managers breaks away from the National Conference of Personal Managers.
Due to differences in how the organization membership meetings would be held, the Conference of Personal Managers was
officially formed in order to be a more active organization.
1985
National Conference of Personal Managers forms a East Coast and West Coast division.
1954
National Conference of Personal Managers was started.
A SHOW BIZ HISTORY OF PERSONAL MANAGEMENT
Except for the financial panic in 1907, Vaudeville was 'socko' from 1905 until 1913. A 1910 nose-count showed America knee-deep
in 2,000 smalltime hinterland theatres. In those unsophisticated days, the corn was very green. Actors laid them in the aisles
with such sparkling chestnuts as: 'I sent my wife to the Thousand Islands for a vacation—a week on each island.'…'Are Oysters healthy?
I never heard them complain.'…'You can drive a horse to drink but a pencil must be lead.'
In 1904 not a single nickelodeon sullied the land. But three years later, over 2,000,000 people a day, one third of them children,
were jamming into movie shows. By 1909 movies had become a first-class headache to veteran branches of show business. These were
the Gold Rush days as each frantic week spawned a new form, style or combination of entertainment. From 'hoofers', to ribald comics,
to Great European 'artistes', to the dancing Salome craze which had women of every size and shape shedding veils, to Keno nights and
giving away dishes at the movies, to 'legit' Broadway shows…. everything was tried, and succeeded.
The concept of 'personal management'; in the American entertainment industry grew out of the music and variety eras between World
War I and World War II. A small group of individuals emerged to fill the need for professionals to plan, support and manage the
details that faced performers in theatres and clubs around the world, as well as in that new medium known as radio. These individuals
became known as managers, or 'personal managers'.
While many managers remained in the variety-vaudeville theatre arena, a new group emerged during the depression, representing radio
performers. From the 1929 crash to the post World War II early 1950’s, 'Radio was King'. Motion pictures were always more prestigious,
but communication empires were being built by William Paley, David Sarnoff, and Leonard Goldenson, and they needed entertainers.
Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Bert Lahr, Olsen and Johnson, Milton Berle, Joe E. Brown, George Jessel, Burns and Allen,
The Marx Brothers, Ray Bolger, Jackie Gleason…all, were stars who changed with the business, and changed the business itself.
By the time the war was over, managers were probably evenly divided between these arenas, since the motion picture
“studio system” then in existence rendered managers useless. Under the studio system, every picture was made only with talent
under exclusive contract, and there was no 'material approval', not even 'consultation'.
If you wanted to make pictures in America, you signed a seven (7) year contract that gave the studio the complete right to assign
you to any production of its choosing. If you didn’t agree, you didn’t make pictures; when you did agree, you were directed to a
'friendly agent' who did the paperwork and took a percentage, forever. In all probability, the only other time you might see him
would be if you became 'difficult' and the studio sent him over to talk with his client.
By the early 1950’s, major changes transformed the business, once again. An innovative form came upon the scene….'Radio with pictures'….
it was called. Television, a media with an insatiable appetite. While this appetite easily recognizable, the industry was still
so new that suppliers were few and far-between. The motion picture industry saw television as its deadly enemy, and for years banned
anyone under studio contract from working on it.
The networks turned to the big advertising agencies and the major booking agencies for help. It didn’t take them long
to figure out that if a 'major agency' could deliver 'Sally Star' to headline her own show each week, it could also
deliver THE SALLY STAR SHOW, starring 'Sally Star'. In financial terms, the network paid 100% of the license fee for
the show package; thus, if a 'major agency' represented the show it received a ten percent commission of the license
fee for each show, versus a pittance if it only commissioned their client.
At this time, rumblings were taking place in California, and they were definitely major tremors. Motion picture stars returning
from the armed forces were refusing to re-sign, exclusively, with any one studio, and as their numbers grew, the studio system died.
It was precisely at this time that MCA, the Music Corporation of America, the largest and most successful booking agency in
the world purchased the failing Universal Studios. Coming from a part of the industry that understood music, variety, radio and TV,
they had no interest in continuing the motion picture struggle against television. In fact, they set out to become television’s
biggest supplier. At this point, MCA controlled the major producer of product for television and the biggest talent agency
in the world.
During that time, it was not unusual for a talent agent to make films on the side. Normally, talent guilds would have blocked
the practice, because it involved a clear conflict of interests. MCA as agent was supposed to get the best possible terms for
an artist; MCA as producer had an opposite incentive. But in a time of Hollywood panic, the readiness of MCA to finance production
and provide employment had been welcomed, and soon mass-produced episodic series from MCA-REVUE were pouring out of the “factory”.
Others began to step into the action. Columbia Pictures, through SCREEN GEMS, got into high gear with Ford Theatre, Rin Tin Tin,
Captain Midnight, and Father Knows Best. United Artists began to negotiate for the purchase of ZIV.
By the early 1960’s, the U.S. Government decreed that this was a violation of the anti-trust laws and created a serious conflict
of interest with MCA’s clients. The Government ruled that MCA must divest itself of either Universal Pictures, or its agency;
the agency ceased to exist in the early 60’s.
When MCA closed its doors, most personal managers operated either alone, or in very small groups. A contingency of MCA agents,
headed by Freddie Fields and David Begelman, then started the first major management company, CMA, Creative Management. For the
first time, a manager had, in-fact, been replaced by a management company with assets, bi-coastal offices, and the fiscal ability
to compete successfully in the marketplace.
They, and the major firms that followed, took advantage of the phenomenon of jet travel to maximize their clients’ international
stature, and built major management empires.
Another explosion was happening in the world of music. With the advent of the 33 1/3 RPM twelve inch album, recordings were
becoming a major source of revenue. America wanted to see these new recording artists and an entirely new world of concerts
was born. Once again, it was the personal manager who helped shepherd his clients through this transitional period; even today,
this segment of our industry is the personal manager’s sole domain. Booking agencies almost never enter the world of recording
companies and everyone acknowledges the unique role the manager performs to achieve recording success.
After almost three quarters of a century, it is fair to state that the personal manager has time and time again been in the
forefront of the entertainment industry growth, and change. While a booking agency’s primary objective is to secure employment
for its clients, the manager is forever thinking about how to make things better. Better product, better image, better fees.
Better and bigger!
As show biz rolls into its last decade of the 20th century, it harks back and wonders. First it was vaude. Pix knocked that off.
Sound knocked off the silents. Radio almost dittoed, but somehow pix and other general entertainment entities were able to capitalize
on radio ballyhoo and build-up for b.o. benefit. Along has come video, something unique unto itself…sight value, added to
sound, brought into the home. Next its stereo, giant screens with VCR’s to record and playback at the viewer’s whim…24 hour
programming…3-D…HDTV..
UHTV…LPTV…CD sound…DVD…shop, bank, and mail by Internet…all other forms of entertainment not yet discovered!
Hold onto your hats, guys. As Al Jolson said, 'you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.' |
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