Can I Go Now?: The Life of Sue Mengers, Hollywood's First Superagent

by Brian Kellow

Overview

“To call Sue Mengers a ‘character’ is an understatement, unless the word is written in all-caps, followed by an exclamation point and modified by an expletive. And based on Brian Kellow’s assessment in his thoroughly researched Can I Go Now? even that description may be playing down her personality a bit.” —Jen Chaney, The Washington Post

• A NY Times Culture Bestseller • An Entertainment Weekly Best Pop Culture Book of 2015 • A Booklist Top Ten Arts Book of 2015 •

A lively and colorful biography of Hollywood’s first superagent—one of the most outrageous showbiz characters of the 1960s and 1970s whose clients included Barbra Streisand, Ryan O’Neal, Faye Dunaway, Michael Caine, and Candice Bergen

Before Sue Mengers hit the scene in the mid-1960s, talent agents remained quietly in the background. But staying in the background was not possible for Mengers. Irrepressible and loaded with chutzpah, she became a driving force of Creative Management Associates (which later became ICM) handling the era’s preeminent stars.

A true original with a gift for making the biggest stars in Hollywood listen to hard truths about their careers and personal lives, Mengers became a force to be reckoned with. Her salesmanship never stopped. In 1979, she was on a plane that was commandeered by a hijacker, who wanted Charlton Heston to deliver a message on television. Mengers was incensed, wondering why the hijacker wanted Heston, when she could get him Barbra Streisand.

Acclaimed biographer Brian Kellow spins an irresistible tale, exhaustively researched and filled with anecdotes about and interviews more than two hundred show-business luminaries. A riveting biography of a powerful woman that charts show business as it evolved from New York City in the 1950s through Hollywood in the early 1980s, Can I Go Now? will mesmerize anyone who loves cinema’s most fruitful period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143108870
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/06/2016
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	707,903
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Brian Kellow is the author of Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark; Ethel Merman: A Life; The Bennetts: An Acting Family and the coauthor of Can’t Help Singing: The Life of Eileen Farrell. His articles have appeared in Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Observer, Opera, and other publications. Kellow lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

Even the brightest star is occasionally eclipsed by a moon. Sue Mengers was a moon. . . . Kellow is the first to pull back the caftan, to consider what really made Mengers Mengers. He has made a specialty of forceful showbiz women—previous subjects include Pauline Kael and Ethel Merman—and she fits easily into that pantheon. . . . [Mengers] came of age as the moving pictures, and seemingly the world, burst into Technicolor. Kellow vividly renders this time of alliterative rat-a-tat names begat of the typewriter—Boaty Boatwright, Freddie Fields, Lionel Larner, Maynard Morris—and restaurants that treated regulars like family: Downey’s and Lindy’s and Sardi’s. . . . [a] reflective and soulful book.”
—Alexandra Jacobs, The New York Times Book Review
 
“To call Sue Mengers a ‘character’ is an understatement, unless the word is written in all-caps, followed by an exclamation point and modified by an expletive. And based on Brian Kellow’s assessment in his thoroughly researched Can I Go Now? even that description may be playing down her personality a bit. Gutsy, pushy and savvy, Mengers was the take-no-b.s. power agent for many of Hollywood’s boldest bold-faced names in the late 1960s and the ’70s. . . . Can I Go Now?—a title inspired by something Mengers often said to cut short conversations—offers plenty of dishy, inside-’70s-Hollywood stories, including tales from those soirees at her Beverly Hills home. . . . Kellow doesn’t shy away from highlighting her negative traits as well, qualities that often worked at odds with her strongest attributes.”
—Jen Chaney, The Washington Post

“Picture Joan Rivers with less of a filter, bulldozer-setting ramped up to 12, shpritzing venom alongside comic abuse. Imagine that, and you’ll start to get a vague idea of the lioness named Sue Mengers. . . . [Kellow’s] book is immensely readable and full of dish.”
—Scott Eyman, The Wall Street Journal
 
“Super-agent Sue Mengers handled some of the hottest stars in Hollywood. . . . Brian Kellow’s new biography, Can I Go Now? derives its title from one of her favorite ways to end a phone call. As one of the most powerful agents in Hollywood for two decades—Time magazine described her as a ‘cross between Mama Cass and Mack the Knife’—Mengers was uncensored. She also was a skilled negotiator. And a trail blazer for women in the male-dominated field.”
—Susan King, The Los Angeles Times
 
“Mengers was the first woman to amass the sort of power she did, representing Barbra Streisand, Gene Hackman, Michael Caine, Candice Bergen, Ryan O’Neal, Mike Nichols and so many more. But Mengers, as this insightful, often hilarious and celebrity-filled book relates, was a mass of contradictions.”
—Larry Getlen, New York Post

“[Kellow] brings her rollicking personality to life with outrageous anecdotes while pointing out the behaviors that doomed her. . . . In the 1990s, she walked into a party, looked around and muttered to her companions, 'Schindler's B-list.' Her biography, however, is A-list all the way.”
—Paul Teetor, LA Weekly

“‘Colorful’ is the kind of code word one uses when actual examples can’t be published in a review. Kellow fills his lively book Can I Go Now? with enough ribald tales of Mengers being ‘colorful’ to fill a crayon box. That she could be endearing as well as rude and insulting to the people she represented is surprising—and just one aspect of a fascinating personality Kellow places squarely in the context of the way the movie business worked at that time.. . . . Kellow give[s] Mengers the place in Hollywood history that she deserves.”
—Douglass K. Daniel, The Associated Press

“Before there was Ovitz or Ari, there was Sue Mengers. During the peak of her clout in the 1970s, the brash barrier-breaker helped popularize the idea of the Hollywood super-agent. The media lapped up her comic crudity . . . her legendary dinner parties attracted Tinseltown’s A-list, and 60 Minutes came calling to do a lengthy interview that captured Mengers dishing and deal-making. . . . She didn’t believe in gussying up hard truths and could be brutally candid with her clients. That lost her some accounts . . . but it also earned her respect. ‘Everyone prized her honesty,’ Kellow said. ‘In a town like Hollywood, that’s hard to come by. . . . She was a scrutinizing, tough Jewish mama.’”
—Brent Lang, Variety

“An absorbing read.”
—Clark Collis, Entertainment Weekly

“With his new book Can I Go Now?, Brian Kellow follows up his 2011 biography of film critic iconoclast Pauline Kael by telling the story of Sue Mengers, ‘the first enormously successful female agent in the movie industry.’ As the representative for many of the major players of the day . . . Mengers helped to define a new concept of Hollywood stardom for a new, post-studio system era. Mengers also set a new standard for female power in the workplace, with a brash, inimitable style that mixed sweet talk and harassment, employing ‘feminine wiles’ more often than not as a weapon. . . . The story of how a strong woman steamrolled through the Hollywood glass ceiling is an important one, but what makes Can I Go Now? worth reading is its careful chronicling of what happens after the glass shatters, and that woman has to figure out how to stay on top without revealing her wounds.”
—Karina Longworth, Slate

“A minor masterpiece of Hollywood history in its most exciting, glamorous, and gossip-wise period.”
—Liz Smith, New York Social Diary

“Mengers was a complicated, powerful trailblazer, one who barged down doors for women and changed the nature of the talent-agent business. Kellow's absorbing biography not only peels back the layers to reveal the true nature of this fascinating individual but also delves deeply into the film industry in the latter half of the twentieth century.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“Effortlessly readable, especially for Vanity Fair enthusiasts and film buffs.”
—Library Journal

“From the 1950s through the 1980s, Sue Mengers represented some of the most famous names in show business. . . . [The agent’s] coveted gatherings, her bawdy appearances at premieres and nightclubs, and a profile in Vanity Fair made her as recognizable as her glamorous roster of actors, and she worked tirelessly to promote them—not just to get them parts, but also higher and higher salaries. . . . Kellow, an admirer of Mengers’ spunk and achievements, serves her well in this deft, entertaining biography.”
—Kirkus Reviews
 
Praise for Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark
 
“[A] smart and incisive biography. . . . [Moviegoers] are in for a colossal eye-opening. [Kael’s] love for film has no present-day counterpart. . . . Mr. Kellow’s clear, independent view of his subject is his book’s most valuable surprise. . . . Kael liked to disparage what she called ‘saphead objectivity.’ Bur Mr. Kellow is no saphead, and he makes objectivity a great virtue.”
—Janet Maslin, The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)
 
“Illuminating.”
—The New Yorker (Reviewers’ favorites from 2011)
 
“[An] entertaining and insightful biography, as much a study of her criticism as a narrative of her life. . . . [Pauline] Kael emerges from [Kellow’s] biography as a great cinematic character, a kind of Citizen Kane, with a life lived and shaped by the dark.”
—Elaine Showalter, The Times Literary Supplement
 
“A smart and eminently readable examination of the life and career of one of the twentieth century’s most influential movie critics.”
— Los Angeles Times (blog)
 
“To appreciate Kael’s trailblazing, you have to see it in its broader context. Luckily, that backdrop is filled in with sure-footed sophistication by Brian Kellow in Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, a fair-minded and deeply reported Kael biography.”
— Frank Rich, The New York Times Book Review
 
“[A] rich, thorough, and admirably fair biography.”
—Entertainment Weekly (Best Nonfiction Books of 2011)
 
“[Pauline Kael] got into my bloodstream more than any other critic. So I have been waiting most of my life for a smart, insightful biography like [Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark] to take me beyond and beneath the hypnotic thrill of her prose.”
—Ben Brantley, The New York Times (Critics’ Picks)

From the Publisher

A new biography by Brian Kellow, Can I Go Now?, raises the question of whether [Mengers] can stand on her own two feet as a subject, and the answer, I am happy to report, is an emphatic "Yup!" This is hardly the first time the ultra-femme Mengers, for many years a curiosity in a mostly male field, has been singled out for journalistic scrutiny…But Kellow is the first to pull back the caftan, to consider what really made Mengers Mengers. He has made a specialty of forceful showbiz women—previous subjects include Pauline Kael and Ethel Merman—and she fits easily into that pantheon…

The New York Times Book Review - Alexandra Jacobs

09/07/2015
Kellow, who specializes in biographies of accomplished women (Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark), turns his attention to Sue Mengers, Hollywood's first female "superagent." She was already a chain-smoking, caftan-wearing, coarse-mouthed legend in 1973 when client Dyan Cannon parodied her in the movie The Last of Sheila. Menders, raised in humble circumstances in Utica, N.Y., and the Bronx, promoted herself with hard work, chutzpah, and an eye for good material, and became a vital force in male-dominated 1970s Hollywood. With renowned friends (Gore Vidal, Robert Evans), superstar clients (Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Peter Bogdanovich), and headline-making deals (getting Gene Hackman an unheard-of $1 million salary for the box-office turkey Lucky Lady), Mengers became a feminist trailblazer, though she had no interest in the movement. But when the ‘70s ended and Hollywood switched from star-driven pictures to special effects blockbusters, her career, for all intents and purposes, was over. She led a life worthy of a Harold Robbins or Jacqueline Susann novel, but Kellow's writing is more dutiful than inspired (and dogged by errors, such as misidentifying NYU grad Martin Scorsese's alma mater as UCLA). Kellow fails to fully bring to life this larger-than-life character whose ultimate undoing was her desperate need to shine brighter than her clients. Agent: Edward Hibbert, Donadio & Olson. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

08/01/2015
Kellow's chatty (and sometimes catty) biography of the contrarian 1970s Hollywood agent to the stars Sue Mengers (1932–2011) delivers on entertainment value. Mengers rose from the secretarial pool to break the glass ceiling at a time when talent agencies gained more power after the collapse of the studio system. She was also noted for her pot-filled, A-list parties as well as for her trenchant wit and brutal bluntness. According to Anjelica Huston, Mengers was "unparalleled in her honesty." (The book's title comes from her impatient sign-off after a drawn-out conversation.) Kellow describes her as "a combination of bawdy bar maid and precocious brat," with plenty of examples to prove his point. Throughout, he keeps the narrative flowing thanks to primary sources Barbra Streisand (Mengers's prized client, with whom she had a spectacular falling-out), Ali MacGraw, Candice Bergen (her "glamorous shiksa goddesses"), Michael Caine, and other marquee names. VERDICT Effortlessly readable, especially for Vanity Fair enthusiasts and film buffs who remember such actors as Lisa Eichhorn and Nancy Allen.—Kent Turner, School Library Journal

Library Journal

2015-06-15
The life of the influential Hollywood agent.From the 1950s through the 1980s, Sue Mengers (1932-2011) represented some of the most famous names in show business, including Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Candice Bergen, Ali McGraw, Ryan O'Neal, Michael Caine, Gene Hackman, Elliott Gould, and, most notably, superstar Barbra Streisand. Not only did she admire the singer's talents, but the parallels of their lives—growing up poor, losing their fathers while still young, battling judgmental mothers—made her feel they were kindred spirits. As Opera News features editor Kellow (Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, 2011, etc.) amply shows in this gossipy, star-studded biography, Mengers considered Streisand her "alter ego." Chain-smoking, often with a Gauloises cigarette in one hand and a joint in the other, hard-drinking, and outrageously vulgar, Mengers was smart, savvy, and manipulative. "After a little while with her, people thought they were her best friends," writes the author. New talent didn't interest her; stars did, and she pursued them relentlessly until she gained their trust—and business. Unlike agents who kept a low profile, Mengers promoted herself as well as her clients, throwing parties for "top, above-the-title Hollywood stardom." Those coveted gatherings, her bawdy appearances at premieres and nightclubs, and a profile in Vanity Fair made her as recognizable as her glamorous roster of actors, and she worked tirelessly to promote them—not just to get them parts, but also higher and higher salaries. In the 1970s, movie stars' earnings were modest; by the time Mengers retired, they had grown to millions of dollars per picture. The author rightly points to Streisand's defection as a turning point in Mengers' career. Streisand had been "the closest and most powerful reminder to Sue of her own exalted stature in Hollywood," and when she left for another agent, Mengers was devastated and bitter. Kellow, an admirer of Mengers' spunk and achievements, serves her well in this deft, entertaining biography.

Kirkus Reviews