Sue Mengers

Sue Mengers (September 2, 1932[4] – October 15, 2011) was a talent agent for many filmmakers and actors of the New Hollywood generation of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.[5]

Sue Mengers
Born
Susi Mengers

(1932-09-02)September 2, 1932
Hamburg, Germany
DiedOctober 15, 2011(2011-10-15) (aged 79)[1][2][3]
Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
CitizenshipAmerican
OccupationTalent agent
Spouse(s)Jean-Claude Tramont (m. 1973–1996; his death)

Early life

Susi Mengers was born to a Jewish family in Hamburg, Germany, the daughter of George and Ruth Mengers (née Levy).[5][6][7] Several years of birth have been published,[8][9][10][11] and while she was living, reporters stated "she won't say just when" she was born.[12] In 1938, she arrived at age five in New York with her parents on the ship S.S. Koenigstein from Antwerp.[13][14] Neither of her parents spoke English at the time.[15] Settling in Utica, New York, her father became a traveling salesman.[16] After her father's suicide in a Times Square hotel, she relocated to the Bronx with her mother, who took a job as a bookkeeper.[17]

Career

Mengers entered the talent agency business in 1955 as a receptionist at MCA.[5] She also worked for a while as a secretary for freelance theatrical agency Baum & Newborn. Eventually, she was hired as a secretary at the William Morris Agency, a powerhouse in the emerging television industry,[18] where she remained until 1963, when a former Baum & Newborn colleague, Tom Korman, formed his own agency and hired her as a talent agent.[19]

Her first big addition to her books was actress Julie Harris, who was primarily a stage performer. To Mengers' surprise, Harris wanted to appear on an episode of Bonanza. Mengers contacted the producer, who commissioned a specially written episode for Harris.[20] Mengers represented Anthony Perkins, who had not worked in the United States since Psycho (1960). She contacted producer Ray Stark and obtained for Perkins a role in director René Clément's film Is Paris Burning? (1966).[20]

In the late 1960s, she was hired by Creative Management Associates (CMA), a boutique agency owned by Freddie Fields. CMA's clients included Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and Robert Redford.[21] On December 30, 1974, Fields sold the agency to Marvin Josephson's International Famous Agency (IFA); the two companies merged to become International Creative Management (ICM).[22] Mengers represented Candice Bergen, Peter Bogdanovich, Michael Caine, Dyan Cannon, Cher, Joan Collins, Brian De Palma, Faye Dunaway, Bob Fosse, Gene Hackman, Sidney Lumet, Ali MacGraw, Steve McQueen, Mike Nichols, Nick Nolte, Tatum O'Neal, Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shepherd, Barbra Streisand, Gore Vidal, and Tuesday Weld, among others.[6] Mengers ceased to be Streisand's agent, she told the Los Angeles Times, after a disagreement over Yentl (1983), which gained Oscar nominations but was not a big box-office hit.[5] She retired from ICM in 1986 and returned to the William Morris Agency for a brief period from 1988-90.

When the Manson family murders took place, Mengers reportedly reassured Streisand: "Don't worry, honey, stars aren't being murdered. Only featured players."[23]

Personal life

On May 5, 1973,[24] she married Belgian writer-director Jean-Claude Tramont (May 5, 1930 – December 27, 1996). Barbra Streisand was her maid of honor.[25] Tramont died on December 27, 1996, aged 66, from cancer.[26]

Death

Mengers died on Saturday, October 15, 2011, from pneumonia at her home in Beverly Hills, California, at age 79. Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter posted a written tribute the following morning.[27]

Legacy

References
  1. United States Social Security Death Index, Sue Mengers, 2011
  2. "Ms. Mengers claimed to be 78, although some sources listed her age as 79 or 81." Chmielewski, Dawn C.; Kaufman, Amy (October 17, 2011). Sue Mengers, Hollywood talent agent, dies in Beverly Hills. Washington Post
  3. According to the U.S. 1940 census, Mengers was born Susi Mangars and her age is given as 7 in April 1940, which would correspond to 1932 as her year of birth
    Estimated Birth Year: abt 1933
    Gender: Female
    Race: White
    Birthplace: Germany
    Marital Status: Single
    Relation to Head of House: Daughter
    Home in 1940: Utica, Oneida, New York
    Street: Stueben Street
    Inferred Residence in 1935: Hamburg, Germany
    Residence in 1935: Hamburg, Germany
    Citizenship: Alien
    Sheet Number: 8A
    Household Members:
    • Name Age
    • George Mangars 33
    • Ruth Mangars 31
    • Susi Mangars 7
  4. The New York Daily News obituary (p. 24, October 17, 2011: "Mengers claimed to be 78 [sic], but she was believed to be 81.") indicates Mengers may have been born as early as 1930.
  5. Cieply, Michael (October 16, 2011). "Sue Mengers, Hollywood Agent, Dies at 79". The New York Times. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
  6. Time Magazine article, March 26, 1973; retrieved May 26, 2009.
  7. Brook, Vincent. From Shtetl to Stardom: Jews and Hollywood: Chapter 1: Still an Empire of Their Own: How Jews Remain Atop a Reinvented Hollywood. Purdue University Press. p. 10.
  8. Staff report (1985). Sue Mengers 1938-. Contemporary Newsmakers Gale Research Co.; ISBN 978-0-8103-2201-1
  9. McBride, Joseph (1983). Filmmakers on filmmaking: The American Film Institute seminars on motion pictures and television, Volume 1. J.P. Tarcher, ISBN 978-0-87477-266-1: "Born in Germany in the mid-1930s, she left with her parents in 1939 and settled in the Bronx."
  10. Rosenfield, Paul (July 26, 1987). Power players: Hollywood's Love-Hate Relationship With Agents. Los Angeles Times
  11. Staff report (April 7, 1988). Los Angeles County.Los Angeles Times
  12. Biskind, Peter (2004). Gods and monsters: Thirty years of writing on film and culture from one of America's most incisive writers Nation Books, ISBN 978-1-56025-545-1
  13. United States INS - Port of New York - Manifest of Alien Passengers aboard the S.S. Koenigstein from Antwerp 13 August 1938.
  14. Abramowitz, Rachel (2000). Is That a Gun In Your Pocket? Women's Experience of Power in Hollywood (hardcover ed.). New York: Random House. p. 39.
  15. Obituary: Sue Mengers, Daily Telegraph, October 21, 2011
  16. Kemper, Tom. "Sue Mengers." In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 5, edited by R. Daniel Wadhwani. German Historical Institute. Last modified October 10, 2013.
  17. Abramowitz, p. 40.
  18. Abramowitz, p. 41.
  19. Abramowitz, p. 42.
  20. Abramowitz, p. 43.
  21. Abramowitz, pp. 44-5.
  22. Abramowitz, p. 51.
  23. Sue Mengers obituary in The Telegraph (UK)
  24. California Marriage Index 1960-1985, County Record #70 17446, State File #50007
  25. Abramowitz, p. 50
  26. Social Security Death Index entry for Jean Claud Tramont, SS# 106-24-7005
  27. Carter, Graydon (October 26, 2011). "Remembering Sue Mengers: Everybody Came to Sue's" Vanity Fair
  28. Playboy interview with Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards (December 1982).
  29. Keck, William (February 12, 2001). "Scandal's History for 'These Old Broads'". Los Angeles Times.
  30. Walters, Barbara (2008). Audition: A Memoir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 310. ISBN 978-0-307-26646-0.
  31. Bette Midler on Her Return to Broadway (Video - The New York Times)
  32. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-marvelous-mrs-maisel-sherman-palladino-20171129-story.html
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