Agents and Business
Copyright
Many performers go through the stage of getting an act going and finding an agent. It is different for each of us. Then you go into the stage of working for your first agent. Agents can be good or bad. I can only tell you what I have experienced and I have experienced both the good and the bad even the ugly. Actor and martial arts master Steven Seagal is quoted as calling Hollywood Cannibal Town. A place where you can be eaten alive.
I worked many shows with Otto Person billed as professor Off Top. He was a clown that did all sorts of things, juggle, magic and unicycle. He said one day, "I got a call from an agent that wanted me to do a show in Chicago but he only wanted to pay ninety dollars." So Otto explained that ninety dollars would not even cover all his expenses.
The agent according to Otto then said, “Well kid you got to save your money for jobs like this.” This of course is not meant to discourage you about show business but I am just passing the story along. There are good agents out there.
I had three great agents to deal with Jerry and Ann Fields from Boston, Abe Ford from Boston and Dick Coffin from Maine. This was all on a handshake and they were all true to their word at all times and the shows were fun.
The first management contract was on paper and my agent tried to sell me out to a college agent and the deal for both of them would have been fifty percent of the top. When I said no they got rough. So because the small agent said they would sue me if I didn't agree I took the deal with the very large program bureau and squeezed out the people trying to sell me as a slave. But I only saved ten percent however for the time that was better than fifty.
Unfortunately for me at the time I went with this program bureau the president of it was engaged in big time fraud and I had no clue. He booked college shows for David Niven and Agnes Moorehead without even speaking to them.
Once he got the dates he called them and told them he had twenty five college dates for them. David Niven actually did them because he thought it would be bad for his name if he didn't show. Agnes Moorehead told the agent to go pound sand because she was going to Europe.
Mario Manzini dealt with this agent when I did and he has his own horror stories. This agent booked Andy Warhol the same way and Andy would not do the dates. So the president of this huge lecture bureau sent out a fake Andy on college market and got caught. A while back I sent Mario and article I have saved about this agent for years. The story title was “Fraud in the Platform.”
When it comes to agents trying to treat acts like this I am a Buddy Holly fan. I think he said he would rather shovel sh-- in Lubbock.
When Irv Weiner came on tour with us my agent within the agency (not the president) sent out a press release saying Irv (Mr. Fingers) would produce real pot cigarettes from his finger tips without even consulting us. Of course Irv was livid and I don't blame him.
My college agent said I was backed in full. But when we started doing dates they promised after the Cincinnati college convention they would raise my price. There was no reason not to because the act was hot. But they didn't and they said I was their boy and that they would represent me world wide.
My own personal contract with them said that they represented me. But then when we signed a contract with the colleges it stated that they represented the college and not me. I guess everyone knew this agent and I were not going to get along.
When a contract for a date said fifteen hundred and I signed it the agent put a line through the price taking away one hundred dollars.
My personal agent in that company said it was seed money to book the act. He said they were paying bribes to get me booked but that didn't add up because the colleges were booking without any agent involved. I let the agents handle those colleges also as per our agreement.
They were just taking the money for themselves and when I complained they said, “We are a three and one half million dollar agency and we will tie you up in court until you're an old man.” They were doing much more than this and were violating my contract every inch of the way.
I still have copies of contracts where the put a line through the price that I signed for and wrote in the priced the price they reduced it to by keeping that hundred. They had good lawyers and were about to stop me from working if they could.
I had a crew and it required having a good sum of money in reserve.
If this went to court I had a choice. I could risk a serious problem by giving the lawyer money or try to fight my own case. I decided if it came down to it I was going to fight myself and I was going to fight to win.
The president also said he would take me to court and take my act away because they had a judge in their pocket. I don't take to intimidation from people like that. First of all when I say NO judge is taking my act people who know me know that is true.
I grew up with the Doors of Death. If they want money that is one thing but my act never. If a court order ever came down to take my act (at that time of life) I would have burned that act on film and personally hand the film to the judge myself. Then would take the penalty for that action because my mind set was that no one is taking my act while I am alive. Then I got out of jail the real battle would start.
The state and federal governments take enough from people. They take land by force just because they can. They take our wallets and throw the money away like it means nothing. They do it with laws giving the impression that it is something moral. They say no one is above the law but people with money and power often are.
There are a lot of people willing to throw some one in a fry pan but are not so brave when they know you are taking them with you. This is especially true in the world of entertainment.
I Believe in the story of David and Goliath that the little guy or gal can take the giant bully down. I have taken down very powerful people of ill intent and have documentation of such activity.
I have seen these court room fixes first hand with judges because people have money or connections. It happens everyday.
I had the agent on tape saying the judge would fix the case against me and cited cases of other people who he claimed he ruined by fixing their case.
My special friend informed me these were real cases. If the judge knew about that and it was a lie the agent would be discredited from the start. But if the claims were true the judge would have to think twice about pulling anything in my case.
My friend who is a specialist in this stuff would have got to someone who had the ear of that judge and supply proof of what the agent was saying and make it clear they would get hit hard with the stone from our sling if there was any manipulation of the law. My special friend was ex military and was well versed in mercenary tactics and non violent tactics to straighten out powerful people.
Mercenaries have many extremely useful skills other than taking a life.
I will tell you a true story about these methods. People had a problem with an extremely violent person bothering two women. The family didn't want him around neither did the girls. He threatened one who was defending the other.
My wife Janet left three of her finger nails in his face. The only reason he did not go after her then was because it happened on Main St right near a police officer. One I knew very well.
I called in my special friend who was ex military and a mercenary. I told him I wanted to settle this with no violence. We knew the guy read the help wanted section of our local paper everyday.
So my friend suggested that I place an add under help wanted. He helped come up with a unique help wanted add. I told him my home town paper would never print it. My wife Janet said they will because she would take it to the paper herself. She is a high spirited woman who puts her war bonnet on when anyone bothers another female.
The add read, “Wanted to hire two mercenaries for undercover work and possible hand to hand combat.”
I went with Janet because I wanted to see how she would handle it when they said no. But much to my surprise when the man at the news paper read the add and simply smiled, took her money and put it in the paper. That was a different time.
A person we knew was with our “target” when he read the add. She said he turned sheet white and said these people Bigelow hired will kill me. He never bothered anyone we know again.
I have printed the actual add for you below.
A violent person was convinced to stop bothering the girls and not a punch was thrown ( except for Janet’s) or not a shot fired which is exactly how I like to take care of these things. Just a few dollars invested and the problem vanished. We received over eighty calls from this add. One was from military personnel from Ft Devens because they were concerned about ex military involvement.
They simply offered to talk if I wanted to. One call was from our local detectives but Jan assured them no one was going to get hurt.
I got calls from bikers who were scary just listening to them. Some from Kung Fu artist, ex military and some I can't even talk about because I don't want to get into the terms used or what they offered to do in this climate. Janet took notes on every call.
Everything depends on showmanship. That is, can you sell it? Are you believed? Do they believe that you will put up a serious battle? You're in show business and sometimes a court battle with an agent can work into your publicity.
Now back to this agent who was trying to force me to do his will. Against my lawyers advice I fired this agent and put the onus on him to sue me. I went with another agent. She (the agent) knew from the beginning I would not sign a contract with her unless my legal problems were settled with my college agent and I really lucked out on that deal. My new agent booked famed radical lawyer Mark Lane. He just left the same agency that I did.
After all the threats from this agent to me the president folded in one twenty minuet phone call from Mark. I was free again and of course my new college agent wanted me to sign with her. I would have but after sending contracts back and forth from my attorney and her attorney we hit a snag. We kept revising the contract as they did until it was right. I signed it and my lawyer sent it to her lawyer for her signature.
They sent back a new contract with her signature and not mine with a part of the contract changed. This was after a firm agreement had been reached. My lawyer told me do not sign with her just do the date’s one contract at a time but not a contract as artist representative. She did not like it but we had dates on the books and we had to deal with each other.
By this time I was getting quite tired of agents or any of this BS legal contracts garbage and was in no mood to play the game any more. I fired her. She sent three lawyers after me and I got rid of all of them myself.
Each wrote me one of those threatening legal letters explaining how they would get an injunction to stop me from performing until we went to court.
I sent each lawyer a letter and told them how it would really be if they started with me and all backed off.
During my younger days I would write a hand written letter to an agent and send along some promotional material. I wrote six hundred letters over a period of about three months sending them to agents as I finished each letter
The six hundredth letter got me a New York agent (Myra Kaye) whom I liked very much but she did not have the work I needed and she was willing to sell me off if she could have got away with it. But I really liked her. She was a show girl herself in the role of agent.
I worked a fair for her in Pa and she and her partner and at least one other agent booked dozens of country and western acts at this event. I never saw so much fame gathered in one place. Her partner put up a million dollar bond for this event.
The problem was there was another huge event drawing people away from this one. At one point agents involved were rushed away back to their homes or office. They were loosing a fortune. The verity acts like mine had not been paid. It wasn't long before two well dressed well mannered thugs showed up. One said, “Mr. Bigelow.” I said, “Yes.” Then this man said they were in charge of business for the agents. He also said that my agent told them if there was going to be a problem that I could be a big one. Then he explained that they didn't want anyone to get hurt and that I needed to keep the acts calm. I had a young guy who wanted to drop both these guys but I promised his grandmother that he would be safe with me.
He already got away from me at a fair in Canada and I found him at the strip show. I have known a few violent people in my life and these guys fit the bill.
I also believed they had more than two people there because of people who looked out of place and spent too much time looking at us. I talked to all the acts and they were all angry and most wanted a confrontation. I voted against that but some planned on starting some trouble.
There was an animal act from Florida who had no money to get home. I told him I would work that out. I think some acts were disappointed that I wanted not to confront these people. My exact take was the little guy doing the talking may have had a gun. The rather large silent one was an enforcer of experience.
I told any act ready to leave should do so at once. I was worried for these acts. I did not feel if trouble started they could follow through and didn't see how it would even help. One act Benny Cosky refused to leave until every act got off safe. Benny use to blow himself up in a coffin size box and didn't fear much as far as I could tell.
There was also a female act that refused to just leave. I was asked by an act what would it take me to fight. I said if they try to harm anyone or if they go near my Doors of Death. I went back to the goon and worked out money for the act from Florida and a few other details.
Everything was settled and then my young assistant got into it with these two thugs or I should say the big one. I stepped between them holding my assistant with one arm and pushing the other into the goon’s chest.
At this point the little guy and mouth piece called off the goon and he did stop at once. That was a good thing because he was about to do some serious harm.
My act was packed and we left and that was an experience.
An agent from New York booked me for an international television show “Buonasera Raffaella” Italy’s Johnny Carson to be filmed at Silver Cup Studios in New York. The acts and guest included Senator Al D’Amato, Carly Simon, Stevie Wonder and Latin singing sensation El Puma
My fee at that time was two thousand dollars to do the Doors of Death less ten percent to the agent. It was all in a signed contract.
When I finished the agent said come with me I want to pay you and leave. He took me under the bleacher style seats the audience was on while they were still filming although no one could see us but he did it for a reason. He knew if he made me angry enough to get loud I would not do it there.
He was a con man but good at what he did. I am sure he did it many times. He said Bigelow I am going to pay you in cash and handed me cash. Then he said count it. After counting it I just looked at him because I was starting to get some what aggravated.
Then he said very innocent sounding “Is everything alright?” I said, “Not really there is only twelve hundred here and it should be eighteen hundred.” He replied, “Bigelow this is the way it is. Even if you called the cops I will be gone before they get here and this is a civil matter. He said you can sue me in court because you have the contract I signed or you could beat me up and end up in jail.”
He knew I wasn't going to do that. If I sued him it would be on principal and dealing with courts is like dealing with a turtle that is very slow even by turtle standards. (This had nothing to do with the show itself.)
Years ago I met Mario Manzini at a show he was doing. I mistakenly said we met in my early twenties but I was corrected by Mario as I was actually eighteen. At that age Manzini had a scrapbook full of contracts with agents. It looked like he had one a month and he gave me insight on how some agents worked so I was not surprised at some of their dealings.
I got a call from an agent in the fall that wanted to book me for a summer fair in Canada. We even signed contracts. I even spoke to the agent a month before the show. He wanted me to bring every act I had for a week long event.
I got the trailer and we loaded everything we had. I was about to leave when a question came up about our instructions. So I called the agent to ask. He said “Oh that show was cancelled months ago.” Then he thought I was a jerk because I would not take anymore dates from him. If you are starting out you need to be very careful about signing contracts.
A contract for one show is one thing but a personal manager contract or exclusive contracts with agent can be a big problem. At that point it
wise to get a good theatrical lawyer.
I am certainly not suggesting you try the things that I did because they can backfire and lead to very serious legal trouble. But when judges or lawyers expect me to play by the rules and then bend the rules to bully me into submission at that point I become the one who loves to fight and will not play by their rules.
I have had some experience in these areas over the years. It can be dangerous but if the stone in your sling hit’s the eye of the giant bully who is after you the giant’s power will be gone. Every time the little guy or girl beats the giant the original story of David and Goliath story becomes true in some form.
-N. Bigelow
