CLOSEUP: WILLIAM MORRIS continued The Morris office communication system is designed to keep everyone in the know

leave lists, among others, Irving Lazar, Ted Ashley, Dick Morris office are generally on the quiet side. They dress Dorso, Alden Schwimmer, Harold Cohen, Harry Ommerle conservatively, as Morris Stoller explains, "because flam- and Benny Thau. boyant dress is a right that's reserved for our actors." But Ted Ashley, now president of Ashley Famous Agency, beneath those dark-suited exteriors beat show business spent 10 years at Morris (Nat Lefkowitz is his uncle) . In hearts. As one receptionist notes, "They wear dark suits the April 1963 issue of TELEVISION Ashley had this to say because they have to go out at night a lot, but every once of the experience: "The agency was a damn good school. in awhile you see the linings—they're red and print and The opportunity to learn ivas limitless, if you wanted to striped. Real wild. That's where they express themselves."

learn. And I picked up some very simple yet vital values Conservative or not,7 Morris agentO s are tigero s when it there: integrity, a way of working, discipline, honesty. I've comes to negotiating a contract. As CBS's Mike Dann says, always wanted to be one of William Morris's best graduates." "The has a character and a per- Ashley apparently learned his lesson well; his agency now sonality entirely its own. On one hand you think of them is the Morris office's hottest competition—and building fast as a great big Saint Bernard dog that can do anything—lick through mergers. But his former co-workers do not begrudge your hand or save you. On the other hand, when they get him his success. As Hausman puts it, "It strengthens the their backs up they're the toughest in the business." over-all status of the indutry by building the kind of people Morris agents also tend to be sentimental. Actor Michael who set ethical standards for the industry." Lanclon, now a TV hero in Bonanza, remembers the days Harold Cohen was an attorney in the Morris contract when he was just another broke actor. The Morris office department in from 1950 to 1955. He first lent him money and his agent gave him his own clothes to worked under Joe Singer in the legal department, then wear. It's not an unusual occurance at the Morris office. became Lefkowitz's assistant. Says Cohen, now head of his As for the commissions, they earn them. The representa- own agency, "It was a marvelous, exciting school in the tion of a glamorous actress may sound a cushy assignment sense that everything was happening around you—you had but one advertising agency man who had what be called "a the opportunity to learn so much. I have an enormous most bitter experience" as an agent says, "To make sense amount of respect for them. I came as an attorney to a with talent is unbelievable. There's an insecurity about theatrical agency expecting to see a certain type of per- them that's not to be believed. They're usually on the stage son. To my surprise they were respectable, hard-work- to feel the adulation of the mob anyway. The love of one ing, dedicated and passionate in the highest sense of the person isn't enough for them. And, as if that weren't word. There is absolutely no question of honesty in their enough, they're rootless. Even the biggest star is employed dealings with clients. The major people were family men only for the duration of a picture. After it's over he's out who work hard and if they have one fault it's that they of a job. And their ego is monumental." work so hard their other lives are limited. But the nature of their business is compelling. It's not like working at YOU GOTTA HAVE HEART Macy's till five and then home to the family." Bearing the brunt of this ego is a part of everyday living The industry buzzes with talk of the new "comers" in at William Morris. The agent learns to cope with it early the field—men some say will threaten the Morris in his career. He is, in a sense, a specialist at it. There are office's dominance. "The Morris office is a bunch of tired the "happy talks" when the actor is depressed., the phone old men," accuses one competitor. Morris executives brush calls, the flowers, the advice about what to do about the off the charge, simply pointing to the many young and divorce, the hand-holding through the crises and the temper energetic men on the Morris payroll. In fact, they find the tantrums. One agent remembers the monumental tantrums accent on youth currently featured by competitors rather that Al Jolson threw in his office. "When he was upset like amusing; one agent mentioned a competitor in his middle that, there was nothing you could do but let him yell. He'd 40's who recently shaved off his mustache, got a crew cut go on for hours and I never said a word. He thought I was and bought a motor scooter—"He's getting so young, I al- a brilliant conversationalist because I never said anything." most didn't recognize him the last time I saw him." Another says that one of his clients is in the habit of "liv- A Morris office client, director Rod Amateau, has this to ing" each role he portrays. It was all right until he played say about the new faces on the talent agent scene: "The a Nazi. "Every day for three months he came into the office new agents are doing great now. This is a lush time in the and acted like one." But the agent understands the emo- business and they're in on it. But what about these names— tional nature of the artist. A prime pierequisite for a Mor- A&S Lions, Nat C. Goldstone and the Sam Jaffe Agency? ris agent is compassion. Says Morris Stoller, "If you don't They were all big names in the agent world at one time. have it, you'd better get out of this business." They're gone now. William Morris has seen them all come Marty Dubow, a slender, prematurely grey television ex- and go—even MCA. And William Morris has stayed ecutive—one of whose clients calls him "a young Abe Lin- through the good and the bad times. Ask me about the new coln"—says this of the agency business: "You have to work guys after they've seen some of the rough times." under terrific pressure and you have to operate knowing Motion pictures and popular novels have perpetuated your client is under terrific pressure. It's your job to be the image of the talent agent as a grasping, oily parasite objective about what the problem is. You have to work it living off the hard-earned dollars of his clients. In the movie out and there really are no set rules to follow in working version the client is played by a blonde Betty Grable who's it out. You just try to get them all that they want." onstage tapping her heart out while her villainous agent The charge is often made that William Morris is all roses sells her down the river. and limousines if you're a star but that the beginner is over- The cliche is harder to find in rea! life. Agents at the looked. Joey Bishop denies it. "The nicest thing about the