Creative Management Associates (CMA) was an American talent booking agency. Co-founded by Freddie Fields and David Begelman, CMA was instrumental in the development of movie stars, prominent directors, and popular musicians.
CMA is credited with pioneering the movie "package", where the talent agency put their stars, directors, and writers together on a single project. The agency was deeply involved with numerous blockbuster films, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, American Graffiti, and Star Wars.
CMA was one of two agencies that formed International Creative Management in 1975.
History
CMA was founded as a boutique agency in 1960 by Fields and Begelman. (Both Begelman and Fields had previously worked at the Music Corporation of America.) One of CMA's first partners was producer Richard Shepherd.
In 1968, CMA absorbed fellow talent agency General Artists Corporation (GAC) (with the parent company called "GAC, Inc.").
Begelman left CMA in 1973 to take over the floundering Columbia Pictures.
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).
Notable clients
CMA was instrumental in the development of such stars as Judy Garland, Henry Fonda, Marilyn Monroe, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Peter Sellers, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Natalie Wood, Faye Dunaway, James Coburn, Al Pacino, Jack Carter, Liza Minnelli, Gregory Peck, Jackie Gleason, Fred Astaire, Woody Allen, and Barbra Streisand; producers and directors like Irwin Winkler, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas; and popular musicians like Burt Bacharach and Neil Young.
Notable employees and agents
CMA developed numerous agents, including Alan Ladd Jr., Sue Mengers, Guy McElwaine, David Geffen, Mike Medavoy, Michael Gruskoff, and Sam Cohn.
Medavoy became vice president of CMA's motion picture department in 1967, working with Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola, among others. He left for International Famous Agency in 1970.