7/28/2023 0 Comments Agent swifty lazarHe absolutely hated his nickname “Swifty” but that didn’t stop him from using it in the title of his memoirs, “Swifty: My Life And Good Times”, co-written with Annette Tapert. Swifty loved wild parties and his Oscar Night gatherings in Hollywood were the hottest ticket in town. cut to: The next day, I read in Variety that super-agent Swifty Lazar has died. Then you grab the cash and catch the next train out of town." me That's not my agent I don't want to have this conversation. I love it." "In a deal, you give and take. Every good writer has two agents, their own and Lazar." "Of course I'm a salesman…That's the whole point of it. Swifty often represented both a buyer and a seller and described his approach to business in these terms: "I frequently sell people I don't represent. And he got his wish! It was something of a present for Cole too, who described his new agent as having the qualities of an evangelist Baptist preacher. When Moss Hart asked him what he’d like for Christmas, Lazar replied, “Cole Porter”. During the Big Band Era, Swifty represented some of America’s top Swing bandleaders including Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, Harry James and Count Basie. Throughout his long and hugely successful career, Swifty Lazar represented the cream of Hollywood movie, musical and literary talent including Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Truman Capote, Cher, Joan Collins, Noël Coward, Ira Gershwin, Cary Grant, Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe, Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein, Moss Hart, Ernest Hemingway, Gene Kelly, Madonna, Walter Matthau, Vladimir Nabokov, Clifford Odets, Tennessee Williams and American President Richard M. But although barely more than five feet tall, in the world of show business Swifty Lazar towered over everybody and the power he wielded was legendary. He was a compulsive “Germophobe” and has been described as self-possessed and arrogant with a look of the cartoon character Mr Magoo about him. He was short, bald and impeccably dressed in hand-tailored clothes and shoes with enormous black-framed glasses. Variously described as a brilliant wheeler-dealer, a lone-wolf dynamo and a manic egotist who dubbed himself the "Prince of Pitch," over the course of seven decades Swifty Lazar boasted the widest clientele in the Entertainment industry: everyone from Noël Coward to Cher and was universally regarded as part of showbiz royalty, but he absolutely detested the nickname “Swifty”!Īfter putting together three major deals for his client Humphrey Bogart in a single day in the 1950s, he was dubbed "Swifty" by Bogart, a nickname he always disliked. Michael Grade introduces a portrait of the legendary American Uber-Agent Irving "Swifty" Lazar, who represented superstar actors, composers, musicians and authors.
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