“Mailroom” is a fascinating document of cultural anthropology. The list of mailroom alumni includes media moguls David Geffen and Barry Diller, Universal Studios Chairman Ron Meyer, ex-Creative Artists Agency czar Mike Ovitz, managers Bernie Brillstein, Sandy Gallin, George Shapiro and Howard West, producers Jack Rapke and Gary Lucchesi, Miramax co-production chief Meryl Poster, Wally “Famous” Amos and a host of today’s top agents, including UTA’s Jeremy Zimmer and Nick Stevens, CAA’s Kevin Huvane and Bryan Lourd, Endeavor’s Tom Strickler and Steve Rabineau - and let’s not forget legendary Cosmo editor Helen Gurley Brown, who started out as an MCA secretary in 1942. One of the revelations of David Rensin’s new oral history, “The Mailroom: Hollywood History From the Bottom Up” (Ballantine Books), is how many of the industry’s Best and Brightest got their start on the lowest rung of the showbiz ladder. If Charles Darwin were around today to test his theory of evolution, he could skip the Galapagos Islands and head right for a Hollywood talent agency mailroom, which for decades has been the ultimate boot camp for showbiz survival skills. “Does that scare you? Are you going to act like a little girl? Are you going to cry when I yell at you? Are you going to complain to your mom?” “If you make one mistake, I’ll fire you,” Polone told her.
When Sue Naegle first went to the United Talent Agency in the early 1990s, she interviewed for an assistant’s job with Gavin Polone, then a UTA partner.
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