Creative Management Associates

Last updated
Creative Management Associates
Type Private
IndustryTalent agency
Founded1960;63 years ago (1960)
Founders Freddie Fields and David Begelman
Defunct1975;48 years ago (1975)
FateMerged with International Famous Agency to form International Creative Management
Key people
 Richard Shepherd

Creative Management Associates (CMA) was an American talent booking agency. Co-founded by Freddie Fields and David Begelman, CMA was instrumental in the development of movie stars, prominent directors, and popular musicians.

Contents

CMA is credited with pioneering the movie "package", where the talent agency put their stars, directors, and writers together on a single project. [1] The agency was deeply involved with numerous blockbuster films, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , American Graffiti , and Star Wars.

CMA was one of two agencies that formed International Creative Management in 1975.

History

CMA was founded as a boutique agency in 1960 [1] by Fields and Begelman. [2] [3] [4] (Both Begelman and Fields had previously worked at the Music Corporation of America.) [1] One of CMA's first partners was producer Richard Shepherd. [5]

In 1968, CMA absorbed fellow talent agency General Artists Corporation (GAC) (with the parent company called "GAC, Inc."). [6]

Begelman left CMA in 1973 to take over the floundering Columbia Pictures. [7]

On December 30, 1974, Fields sold the agency to Marvin Josephson's International Famous Agency (IFA); [8] the two companies merged to become International Creative Management (ICM). [9] : 51  [4]

Notable clients

CMA was instrumental in the development of such stars as Judy Garland, Henry Fonda, Marilyn Monroe, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, [9] : 44–45  Peter Sellers, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Natalie Wood, Faye Dunaway, James Coburn, [10] Al Pacino, [11] Jack Carter, Liza Minnelli, Gregory Peck, Jackie Gleason, Fred Astaire, Woody Allen, and Barbra Streisand; producers and directors like Irwin Winkler, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas; and popular musicians like Burt Bacharach and Neil Young.

Notable employees and agents

CMA developed numerous agents, including Alan Ladd Jr., [12] [13] Sue Mengers, [9] Guy McElwaine, [14] David Geffen, [15] Mike Medavoy, Michael Gruskoff, [10] and Sam Cohn. [16] [2]

Medavoy became vice president of CMA's motion picture department in 1967, working with Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola, among others. He left for International Famous Agency in 1970. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ICM Partners</span> American talent and literary agency

ICM Partners was a talent and literary agency with offices in Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C., and London. The company represented clients in the fields of motion pictures, television, music, publishing, live performance, branded entertainment and new media. Its corporate headquarters were in Constellation Place in Century City, Los Angeles. In 2022, ICM became part of Creative Artists Agency.

David Begelman was an American film producer, film executive and talent agent who was involved in a studio embezzlement scandal in the 1970s.

Sandy Dvore was an American artist, graphic designer, and title designer.

A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, and other professionals in various entertainment or sports businesses. In addition, an agent defends, supports and promotes the interest of their clients. Talent agencies specialize, either by creating departments within the agency or developing entire agencies that primarily or wholly represent one specialty. For example, there are modeling agencies, commercial talent agencies, literary agencies, voice-over agencies, broadcast journalist agencies, sports agencies, music agencies and many more.

Alan Walbridge Ladd Jr. was an American film industry executive and producer. He served as president of 20th Century Fox from 1976 to 1979, during which he approved the production of Star Wars, on his confidence of George Lucas, which proved well founded. He later established The Ladd Company and headed MGM/UA. Ladd won an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1996 for producing Braveheart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Medavoy</span> American film producer

Morris Mike Medavoy is an American film producer and business executive. He is the co-founder of Orion Pictures (1978), former chairman of TriStar Pictures, former head of production for United Artists (1974–1978), and the current chairman and CEO of Phoenix Pictures.

Sue Mengers was a talent agent for many filmmakers and actors of the New Hollywood generation of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.

Ashley-Famous was a talent agency started in 1945 by talent agent Ted Ashley. The agency was responsible for many hit television shows and had several famous clients. It changed names and ownership a few times, eventually becoming one of the agencies that in 1975 formed International Creative Management.

In film industry terminology, movie packaging or film packaging is a type of product bundling in which a top-level talent agency starts up a film or television project using writers, directors and/or actors it represents, before giving other agencies a chance to submit their clients for the project. For this service, the talent agency negotiates a packaging fee. Packaging is frequently done by the “big four” talent agencies Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Endeavor, United Talent Agency, and ICM Partners.

<i>The Mailroom: Hollywood History from the Bottom Up</i> 2003 book by David Rensin

The Mailroom: Hollywood History from the Bottom Up is a book by David Rensin that accounts what it is like to work in the mailroom in Hollywood’s most prestigious talent agencies. Rensin interviews over 200 graduates of mailrooms such as William Morris Agency and Creative Artists Agency in a never before told story of struggle, surprise, tears, glamour, and most importantly the real life behind the glitz.

Freddie Fields, born Fred Feldman, was an American theatrical agent and film producer.

Kevin Misher is an American movie and television producer via his Los Angeles-based production company, Misher Films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Cohn</span> American talent agent (1929-2009)

Samuel Charles Cohn was an American talent agent at International Creative Management, a firm he helped create, in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.

Martin "Marty" Baum was an American talent agent known for his work at the Creative Artists Agency (CAA), including the first head of the agency's motion picture department. During his career, which spanned from the 1940s until 2010, his client list at CAA and other agencies included Bette Davis, Jack Lemmon, Bobby Darin, Bo Derek, Richard Attenborough, Red Buttons, Maggie Smith and Rock Hudson. Baum was also the President of ABC Pictures, the film division of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), from 1968 until 1971.

Gavin Polone is an American film and television producer. He began producing films in the late 1990s and television in the 2000s. He has been nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards, of which six were for "Outstanding Comedy Series" for Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm. His production company is Pariah.

General Amusement Corporation (GAC) was an international talent booking agency dating back to the 1930s. Through a series of acquisitions and mergers, it eventually became one of the agencies that formed International Creative Management in 1975.

Guy McElwaine was a Hollywood agent, producer, and studio head.

Michael Gruskoff is an American film producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Medavoy</span>

Brian Medavoy is an American Film producer, talent manager, entrepreneur and television producer. He is the son of film producer and executive, Mike Medavoy.

Marvin Josephson was an American talent agent and executive. He was the founder of International Creative Management.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Eller, Claudia; Dutka, Eliane (August 9, 1995). "Begelman, Ex-Columbia Chief, an Apparent Suicide". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  2. 1 2 Natale, Richard (December 12, 2007). "Agent Freddie Fields dies at 84. Industry vet paved the way for super-agents". Variety .
  3. ↑ "Obiturary - Freddie Fields, Holywood Talent Agent, Dies at 84: Freddie Fields, brother of bandleader Shep Fields". The New York Times . December 13, 2007.
  4. 1 2 Rogers, John (December 12, 2007). "Legendary producer/agent Freddie Fields dies". USA Today .
  5. ↑ Khatchatourian, Maane (January 15, 2014). "Producer Richard Shepherd, Founder of Artists Agency, Dies at 86". Variety . Retrieved January 18, 2014.
  6. ↑ "TALENT AGENCIES ARRANGE MERGER; Creative Management and General Artists Set Deal". New York Times . March 11, 1968.
  7. ↑ Thomas Jr., Robert Mcg. (Aug 9, 1995). "David Begelman, 73; Headed Columbia Pictures". The New York Times .
  8. ↑ Murphy, J. Kim (May 19, 2022). "Marvin Josephson, Founder of ICM Partners, Dies at 95". Variety .
  9. 1 2 3 Abramowitz, Rachel (2000). Is That a Gun In Your Pocket? Women's Experience of Power in Hollywood (hardcover ed.). New York: Random House.
  10. 1 2 Aguilar, Carlos (June 2, 2014). "IndieWire: "Interview: Producer Michael Gruskoff on the Foreign Language Academy Award and International Hollywood"". IndieWire.[ dead link ]
  11. ↑ Yule, Andrew (1992). Al Pacino : Life on the Wire. Time Warner Books. ISBN   0751500488. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  12. ↑ McLellan, Dennis (March 2, 2022). "Alan Ladd Jr. dies; Oscar-winning producer and studio boss greenlighted 'Star Wars'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
  13. ↑ Coyle, Jake (March 2, 2022). "Oscar-winning producer Alan Ladd Jr. dies at 84". Associated Press. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
  14. ↑ Saperstein, Pat (April 2, 2008). "Agent Guy McElwaine dies at 71". Variety . Retrieved October 21, 2018.
  15. ↑ "Sex, drugs and the billion-dollar rise of David Geffen". The Independent. 2005-11-18. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  16. ↑ Singer, Mark (January 11, 1982). "Profiles: Dealmaker" (fee required). The New Yorker . pp. 40–84. Retrieved May 9, 2009.
  17. ↑ Phoenix Pictures Inc. (10 Sep 2009). "Mike Medavoy | Chairman & Chief Executive Officer". Phoenix Pictures. Archived from the original on 28 March 2015. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
Faenza-multimedia-player-ipod-green.svg

This entertainment-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.