 | |
| Author | David Rensin |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Entertainment, Hollywood, interviews, tell-all |
| Publisher | Ballantine Books (U.S.) |
Publication date | 4 February 2003 (U.S.) |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) also AudioBook |
| Pages | 464 pp (US hardback edition) |
| ISBN | 0-345-44234-2 (US hardback edition) |
| OCLC | 51565606 |
| 791.43/09794/93 21 | |
| LC Class | PN1993.5.U65 R45 2003 |
| Preceded by | Where Did I Go Right?: You're No One in Hollywood Unless Someone Wants You Dead |
The Mailroom: Hollywood History from the Bottom Up is a 2003 book by David Rensin that recounts what it is like to work in the mailroom in Hollywood’s most prestigious talent agencies. Rensin interviewed over 200 mailroom graduates from agencies like William Morris Agency and Creative Artists Agency. Mailroom employees often aspire to become agents, themselves.
Rensin was already a successful ghostwriter for celebrities, including Tim Allen and Chris Rock. Ballantine Books bought The Mailroom for six figures in 2000 and the original title was reportedly The Mailroom: Big Dreams and Raw Ambition in Hollywood's Power Boot Camp.[1]
At the time of publication, graduates of Harvard Business School were known to turn down high-paying corporate jobs to instead work for less than $400 a week at major agencies.[2] During an interview with USA Today, Rensin was asked how competitive it was to obtain jobs in mailrooms, to which he replied, "They say it's tougher to get into the mailroom at a place like William Morris than to get into the Harvard Law School, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, or Stanford Business School. A New York Times story placed the ratio at 30-1, and EW said 10-1, so it's somewhere in there."[2]
- ^ Matthew Flamm (14 April 2000). "Between the Lines". Entertainment Weekly. Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 15 January 2024.
- ^ a b "The Mailroom: Hollywood History from the Bottom Up: David Rensin". usatoday.com. USA Today. 21 January 2005. Archived from the original on 2008-09-26. Retrieved 15 January 2024.