Summary
David Rensin collects accounts of the talent-agency mailroom as a starting place for careers in Hollywood. Drawing on more than two hundred interviews, he traces nearly seven decades of work, ambition and competition through the voices of people who entered the business at its lowest level. Michael Ovitz, David Geffen and Barry Diller are among the figures whose careers began there. The book examines the demands placed on trainees, the rewards of learning the business closely and the exploitation that could accompany the promise of advancement. Its focus is the institution that trained future dealmakers, rather than a single star or a single agency.
Why read it Our view
Useful when thinking about how junior work becomes real training. Look at what trainees learn about clients, information and access, and ask which demands build skill and which merely pass the cost of a hierarchy to the people at its bottom.
Written about
- Michael OvitzCareer-history subjectThe publisher names Ovitz among the former mailroom workers whose careers form part of Rensin’s interview-based history. This is career coverage within a larger oral history, not Ovitz’s authorship or recommendation.Source