The Mailroom: Hollywood History from the Bottom Up FROM THE PUBLISHER
It's like a plot from a Hollywood potboiler: start out in the mailroom, end up a mogul. But for dozens of Hollywood's brightest, it happens to be true. Some of the biggest names in entertainment -- including David Geffen, Barry Diller, and Michael Ovitz -- began as trainees in musty talent agency mailrooms. Now, in this fascinating new book, veteran Hollywood writer David Rensin travels behind the scenes and through sixty-five years of show business history to tell the real stories of the marvelous careers that began -- and in some cases ended -- in the mailroom. Based on more than two hundred interviews, Rensin unfolds the never-before-told history of an American institution -- in the voices of the people who lived it. Through nearly seven decades of glamour and humiliation, lousy pay and incredible perks, killer egos and a kill-or-be-killed ethos, you'll go where the trainees go, learn what they must do to get ahead, and hear the best insider stories from the Hollywood everyone knows about but no one really knows. The kids in The Mailroom have done it all: from hanging out with Elvis to delivering a senior agent's urine sample to the doctor; from pouring drinks for Sinatra to sending ice to Johnny Carson on the Nile; from crashing the Academy Awards ceremony to hoping to deliver more than just the mail to sexy actresses' homes.
The Mailroom reveals why Harvard M.B.A.s turn down secure six-figure corporate salaries to work at a major agency for less than $400 a week; what it takes to appease impossible bosses, outsmart the competition, and "agent" the agents; and how a hungry, starstruck kid can become the next Geffen or Diller by sorting mail, eavesdropping on crucial conversations, and trying anything to get noticed. Full of revealing stories and delicious dish, The Mailroom is not only a nonstop, engrossing read, but a crash course, taught by the experts, on how to succeed anywhere through hard work, shrewd manipulation, and a hell of a lot of nerve. The Mailroom is classic Hollywood -- a vibrant and complex tapestry of dreams, desire, exploitation, power, and genuine talent. If you want to know who rules Hollywood and how they got their power, if you want to know how to start with nothing and get ahead in any business, this is the book you must read.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Rensin (coauthor, Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man) captures the ambition, manipulative plotting and hustler mentality of a few Hollywood mailroom employees in this series of raunchy, realistic interviews with some top agents who started out in the mailroom. As with any entry-level gig, "the hours are long, the pay... abysmal." Star mailroom grads from the William Morris Agency, Creative Artists Agency, ICM and others voice conflicting views, making Rensin's book an uncompromisingly truthful tell-all of what it takes to make it in the movie biz. William Morris's Norman Brokaw recalls, "I made it a point to develop relationships early on," while Bernie Brillstein's a bit more blunt: "I kissed ass." Most of the agents admit opening up private correspondence and packages, insisting, "everybody did it." Rensin also exposes affairs with secretaries to learn company secrets, fights over use of phones that led to wrestling matches, and homophobia. Sam Haskell, William Morris's worldwide head of television, offers a different take: "Your primary power is your character and your integrity." Rensin furnishes fresh anecdotes about an embarrassed novice who didn't recognize Judy Garland, or another who believed in Marilyn Monroe despite a casting specialist calling her "just another blonde." Clashing views of Mike Ovitz, from "a superb leader" to someone who preferred "style over content" and to whom "appearances were everything," help explain Ovitz's meteoric rise and massive collapse. Most notably, Rensin shows that the road from mailroom to mogul is a rough one. The stories are amusing, intriguing and sometimes horrifying, but Rensin, to his credit, never dilutes sordid details. (On sale Feb. 4) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
From veteran Hollywood coauthor Rensin (Tim Allen's Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man, 1994, etc.), an oral history of a crucial Tinseltown institution, related by some folks who make Machiavelli look like a pussycat. Since the day they filmed The Squaw Man, the only way to become an agent, with all the appurtenant expense account rights and backstage privileges, was to start in the mailroom wearing a 36-short suit. Of course, you had to have a close relative in the industry. Now, to be a suit to the stars, any size suit (or even a dress) will do. Nepotism, though, is still a good thing. Oppressive work conditions have continued at William Morris, MCA, ICA, CCA, Intertalent, and wherever else the new guys dream of delivering scripts to naked actresses. (A few are lucky; others encounter Charles Grodin in boxer shorts.) Drive Mrs. Lastfogel, steam open the mail, fill a theater seat and the agent's fountain pen, eavesdrop on every phone call, get coffee, score drugs, squirm until you get everything right, and you may earn access to the Hillcrest and the best clubs on both coasts. It's all part of the training program Rensin's schmoozing, spritzing interviewees went through, working their way from dispatch to assistant's desks and eventually becoming agents in the Nightclub, Band, Variety, TV Guest, or Literary departments-or quitting. The talk is fast and frank. One agent is characterized as "a prick of pricks," another as "a pompous prick and petty despot." A thought for another: "May he rot in hell." Mailroom alumni include Wally Amos, David Geffen, Barry Diller, and The Great Ovitz, often confused with The Great Oz. Entertainment industry junkies may enjoy taking an armchair meetingwith these people-no stepping into Ovitz's Guccis, but no fear of getting fired either. Edgy, frenetic, and entertaining reports from the room that launched a thousand deals.
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