Abe Lastfogel
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| name = Abe Lastfogel
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| birth_date = May 17, 1898
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| death_date = August 27, 1984
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| occupation = Talent agent
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| spouse = Frances Armus
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Abraham Isaac Lastfogel (May 17, 1898 – August 27, 1984) was one of the first employees and a long-time president of the William Morris Agency, a large diversified talent agency.{{cite news|title=Abe Lastfogel, Agent, Dead; A William Morris Executive|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/27/obituaries/abe-lastfogel-agent-dead-a-william-morris-executive.html|access-date=2 October 2015|work=The New York Times|date=27 August 1984}}
Early life
Lastfogel was the seventh son of a Jewish animal skinner who had fled Russia in 1889 to escape the pogroms. He was raised in a cold-water flat in New York.{{cite book|last1=Rose|first1=Frank|title=The Agency: William Morris and the Hidden History of Show Business|date=1996|publisher=HarperBusiness|location=New York|isbn=978-0-887-30807-9|edition=1st pbk.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/37128759|oclc=37128759}}{{rp|34}}{{cite book|url=http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=purduepress_previews|first=Vincent|last=Brook|title=From Shtetl to Stardom: Jews and Hollywood: Chapter 1: Still an Empire of Their Own: How Jews Remain Atop a Reinvented Hollywood|pages=10 |publisher=Purdue University Press}}
Career
The William Morris Agency hired Lastfogel in 1912 as an office boy. Finding success in the rapidly growing firm, Lastfogel moved to Hollywood in 1932 to manage WMA's Los Angeles office. He became chairman of the agency{{cite news|last1=Buckley|first1=Tom|title=William Morris Agency Marks 75 Years of 10% vaudeville headliner when|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/12/03/91042683.pdf|access-date=2 October 2015|work=The New York Times|date=3 December 1973|pages=77, 85}} while William Morris Jr. served as president.
= USO shows =
During World War II, Lastfogel oversaw USO camp shows,{{cite news|title=USO Camp Show Head Back from England: Lastfogel Arrives on Clipper After Entertainment Survey|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1942/12/17/85064641.pdf|access-date=2 October 2015|work=The New York Times|date=17 December 1942|page=42}} which were wartime entertainment events featuring more than 7,000 performers seen by an estimated 200 million servicemen.{{rp|82}}{{cite magazine|last1=Kahn Jr.|first1=E. J.|title=The Quiet Guy in Lindy's|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1946/04/20/the-quiet-guy-in-lindys|access-date=2 October 2015|magazine=The New Yorker|date=20 April 1946|page=35}}
{{cite magazine|last1=Kahn Jr.|first1=E. J.|title=The Quiet Guy in Lindy's II|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1946/04/27/the-quiet-guy-in-lindys-ii|access-date=2 October 2015|magazine=The New Yorker|date=27 April 1946|page=27}}
Personal life
In 1927, Lastfogel married Frances Arms, a former Vaudeville performer. They had no children.
Lastfogel died of a heart attack in 1984{{cite web|title=Abraham Lastfogel - United States Social Security Death Index|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V9Y8-35M|website=FamilySearch|access-date=2 October 2015}} at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and was interred at the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery.
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- Rose, Frank. [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/37128759 The Agency: William Morris and the Hidden History of Show Business.] New York: HarperCollins, 1995. {{ISBN|978-0-887-30807-9}} {{OCLC|37128759}}
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Category:People from Manhattan
Category:People from Los Angeles
Category:American talent agents
Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Category:Burials at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery