William Morris Agency
William Morris Agency is the name of an American artist agency that represents artists from all parts of the entertainment industry (including film, television, music, literature, stage). According to its own information, the company is the largest and most diversified of its kind in the world.
history
The company's origins go back to an office that the young vaudeville agent William Morris, immigrated from Germany, opened in New York City in 1898 . The William Morris Agency was officially founded on January 31, 1918. Morris meanwhile ran the agency together with his son, William Jr., and a partner, Abe Lastfogel. The office not only represented vaudeville - but increasingly also film artists. When the American film industry moved from New York to Hollywood around 1920 , Morris and his partners opened another office there in 1922. Stars like Al Jolson , the Marx Brothers , Mae West and Charles Chaplin were represented by Morris and ensured that the company flourished.
In 1930 William Morris Sr. back and left the management to William Morris jun. (Hollywood) and Abe Lastfogel (New York). The agency now represented an impressive number of celebrity stars, including James Cagney , Louis Armstrong and Will Rogers ; later Sammy Davis Jr. , Milton Berle and Rita Hayworth joined them. German emigrants such as Erwin Piscator were also represented by the agency. After the company bought the Berg-Allenberg Agency in December 1949 , it also represented Frank Capra , Clark Gable and Judy Garland .
When television became popular in the 1940s , the William Morris Agency was one of the first to recruit artists in large numbers in this medium. However, the agency remained successful in the film sector. In the following years she represented z. B. Steve McQueen , Frank Sinatra , Andy Griffith , Marilyn Monroe , Elvis Presley , Katharine Hepburn , Spencer Tracy , Jack Lemmon , Walter Matthau , Kim Novak , Dick Van Dyke and Bill Cosby .
In the 1960s, the music department became the most profitable sector of the William Morris Agency. The clients she represented included B. The Rolling Stones , The Byrds , The Beach Boys and Sonny & Cher .
In 1989 the company bought the Jim Halsey Company , which u. a. represented the Oak Ridge Boys , Waylon Jennings, and Tammy Wynette . In 1992 the major Triad Artists also became part of the William Morris Agency. In 1993 the agency founded a Corporate Advisory / New Media Department ("William Morris Consulting") and has since been active in industrial consulting. A literature department was added in the early 1990s.
Further branches of William Morris Consulting exist today in London (since 1965), Nashville (1973), Miami Beach (2003) and Shanghai (2004).