Driving Marilyn

Norman Brokaw was CEO and Chairman of the William Morris Agency from 1989 to 1997, but his legacy may lie in his ascent from mailroom clerk to agent for some of Hollywood’s most iconic figures of the late 20th Century: Marilyn Monroe, Kim Novak, Elvis (and Colonel Parker), Natalie Wood, Loretta Young, Clint Eastwood, Danny Thomas, Dick Van Dyke, Berry Gordy, Bill Cosby, Donna Summer, Brooke Shields plus many more. Under his guidance, the agency created a television department in the early 1950s, where he persuaded many skeptical Hollywood stars to make the move to the new medium. Under his influence on the late 1970s the agency began representing politicians, most notably among them President Gerald Ford. Much of what came to be known as American popular culture had its epicenter at William Morris, and Norman’s fingerprints can be found on most of it. As actress Kim Novak has said, “I have never known anyone who was so eager, so interested, or so positive.”