Daily Inspiration Quote by Lew Wasserman

Nostalgia with an edge: Wasserman is praising change while quietly reminding you who made it happen. By invoking "Mr. Mayer" - shorthand for Louis B. Mayer and the old MGM monarchy - he compresses an entire regime into a single proper noun: the studio boss as patriarch, gatekeeper, and disciplinarian. The line works because it sounds like a neutral industry observation, but it carries a verdict. "Control" is the operative word, and Wasserman repeats it to make the old system feel not just outdated, but faintly indecent.

The specificity of "artists or directors or producers, as the case may be" does double duty. On the surface, it's inclusive; underneath, it's a roll call of newly empowered players who used to be interchangeable cogs. Wasserman, a key architect of modern talent representation, is also laundering a power shift into common sense: of course the studios "no longer" control them. The phrasing frames decentralization as inevitable progress rather than a hard-won rebalancing driven by agents, stars, unions, and antitrust pressure.

Context matters: post-studio-system Hollywood, after long-term contracts and mogul paternalism gave way to packages, profit participation, and talent as portable brands. Wasserman isn't just documenting a collapse; he's legitimizing a new order where power didn't disappear - it migrated. The subtext is almost a warning: don't romanticize Mayer's era. The leverage now sits with the people who can walk, and with those savvy enough to negotiate that mobility.