Politics & Power Quote by Lew Wasserman

Power in Hollywood rarely announces itself with a gavel; it shrugs, demurs, and somehow still sets the agenda. Lew Wasserman's line is classic mogul misdirection: the repeated "through" reads like a firm retirement notice, but it functions as a soft-focus alibi for continued influence. He isn't just saying he's done. He's insisting on it, twice, then padding it with "incidentally", the verbal equivalent of looking away while keeping a hand on the wheel.

Context matters: Wasserman was the model of the modern power broker, the producer-lawyer-operator who made talent into leverage and leverage into access. In 1968, politics and entertainment were rapidly fusing on the national stage, with television transforming campaigns into performances and donors into quasi-producers. His admission that he "did become involved... at the last minute" is the tell. It's framed as a minor, reluctant cameo, but it's also a claim of indispensability: the crisis hits, the phone rings, and the fixer appears.

The specific intent is reputational. "Manager" is a loaded word in Hollywood - it implies day-to-day manipulation, personal deals, and ethically gray brokerage. By declaring himself "through as a manager", Wasserman draws a bright line between grubby operational control and the cleaner-sounding role of elder statesman. The subtext: I don't manage people anymore; I manage outcomes. It's a power move disguised as modesty, calibrated for a world where being seen as influential is valuable, but being seen as pulling strings is dangerous.