David Geffen is one of the most powerful people in show business. He’s made a career out of seeing talent in others and combining it to maximize opportunities. He started as a Hollywood agent, moved into management, started a record label, worked at a movie studio, ran a record label for others, started a film company, backed Broadway musicals, started another even bigger record label, and then started an even bigger film company with two of the other most powerful moguls in show business. Let’s look at five fascinating facts about David Geffen.
Videos by American Songwriter
He Lied to Get His First Job As an Agent
As soon as he finished high school, Geffen left Brooklyn, New York, for the sunny beaches of California. His first brush with fame was an uncredited role as an extra in the 1961 movie The Explosive Generation starring William Shatner. He went on to work small production assistant jobs on The Judy Garland Show, The Red Skelton Show, Art Linkletter’s House Party, and The Danny Kaye Show. A casting director suggested he become an agent. Geffen didn’t know what that meant. She told him he didn’t have to know anything to take on that profession.
Geffen applied for a position at the William Morris Agency with the help of an exaggerated resume. He got the job, but as soon as he felt comfortable, he discovered a co-worker had been dismissed for lying on his application. Geffen had falsely claimed to be a graduate of UCLA and feared the repercussions of the truth being found out. He arrived early every day to sort the mail in the mailroom and intercepted the letter that would sink his future. Geffen steamed the envelope open and replaced it with a letter stating he did graduate from the institution.
He became obsessed with finding talent. Geffen signed Jesse Colin Young and The Youngbloods and secured a record deal with RCA Records. Out of fear of being drafted into the U.S. Army, Geffen intimated to the draft board he had homosexual tendencies, which got him out of serving in the military.
He Started a Management Company with Joni Mitchell’s Manager
While scouting young talent, Geffen discovered folk singer Laura Nyro and helped her set up a publishing company and get a recording contract with Columbia Records. Her debut album Eli and the Thirteenth Confession failed to live up to the hype and produced disappointing record sales. Geffen started a campaign to get her songs recorded by other successful acts such as Peter, Paul & Mary, The 5th Dimension, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Frank Sinatra. Three of her songs were in the Top 10 at the same time. Geffen convinced her to sell their publishing company while it was at its most profitable point, leading to a $4 million payday.
Joni Mitchell’s manager, Elliot Roberts, was working similar territories and the two managers merged their talents and started the management team of Geffen-Roberts. They assisted Crosby, Stills & Nash in getting out of their existing individual contracts to be allowed to sign their own record deal as a group. Geffen connected them with Atlantic Records. Poco was offered as a trade to Columbia Records for the release of David Crosby and Graham Nash. Geffen-Roberts was in a building on Sunset Boulevard owned by the legendary musician Hoagy Carmichael.
He and Elliot Roberts Started Asylum Records
Singer/songwriter Jackson Browne sent a demo tape, and Geffen was hooked. He took the new discovery to every label in town with no takers. He then went back to Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Records. He said, “Listen, Ahmet, I brought you Crosby, Stills & Nash, I’m bringing you Jackson Browne, and I’m telling you that Jackson Browne is going to be one of the biggest stars in the world. You’ll make a lot of money with him.”
Ertegun replied, “I have a lot of money. Why don’t you record Jackson Browne, and then you, too, can have a lot of money?”
Geffen agreed to a deal with Ertegun to start Asylum Records and promptly signed Jackson Browne. They also nurtured a group called The Eagles. Glenn Frey was in a duo with JD Souther. Geffen recorded an album with Souther as a solo act and told Frey he should be in a band. He put together what would become The Eagles.
Frey remembered, “David said, ‘Just worry about the music. I’ll take care of everything else.’ Yeah, he put me on a small salary so I could pay my rent and get a car. He turned me on to a dentist to get a couple of bad teeth fixed. He said, ‘You know, don’t worry, Glenn. You’re gonna be rich. I’m gonna be richer, but you’re gonna be rich.’ And that’s exactly what happened.”
Geffen released The Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits after only four albums. People advised against it as most acts waited until their careers began to decline. The collection became the biggest-selling album of all time.
Neil Young said of Geffen, “David was a legendary dealmaker, but really a performance artist. The art of the deal was his stage. He wasn’t a big chair, big desk, you’re little, I’m tall, my chair is taller than you. He’s not that kind of a guy. He’s like, ‘I’m already inside your head. I know everything that you think I know, and I know everything that you don’t think I know. I could be your friend. Or I could be your enemy.’”
In 1972, Asylum Records was sold to Warner Bros., which merged the label with Elektra Records. Geffen was hired to run the newly combined companies. He was working on a whole new level. He began dating Cher and encouraged Bob Dylan and The Band to record an album and tour behind it. The result was the studio album Planet Waves and then the live album Before the Flood. In 1975, Geffen began working at Warner Bros. Pictures. He rubbed people the wrong way by telling them the truth. He stepped down from that job in 1977 when he was falsely diagnosed with cancer.
He Founded Geffen Records
In 1980, Geffen started his own record label and immediately signed Donna Summer, Elton John, and John Lennon. Landing the ex-Beatle was a real coup. The singer had retired from performing in 1975 and expressed interest in making music again. He was courted by every major record label. Geffen wrote a letter to Yoko Ono to ask for a meeting. Every other label reached out to John. This simple act won over the couple who recorded Double Fantasy and released it on Geffen Records.
The label head remembered the night of December 8, 1980: “I got a call from somebody who said, ‘Yoko’s at the Roosevelt Hospital. You must go immediately, John’s been shot.’ And by the time I got there, the doctor pulled me aside and said to me, ‘He’s gone. You have to tell Yoko.’ I said, ‘Oh, I can’t. I can’t be the one to tell her.’ I put my arm around Yoko, and he came in, and he told her that John had died. And she said, ‘It’s not true. It’s impossible. He’s alive.’ She wouldn’t listen. She put her hands over her ears.”
He Co-Founded DreamWorks SKG
In 1983, Geffen sued Neil Young for making music “unrepresentative of himself.” A settlement was agreed upon and Young continued recording for the label. Geffen produced the movies Risky Business, Beetlejuice, After Hours, Little Shop of Horrors, and Lost in America, and backed the Broadway shows Cats and Dreamgirls. When it came time to restructure the agreement with Warner Bros., Geffen Records was not thriving. Geffen asked for a $5 million advance but was turned down. Instead, he proposed that 50% of the company would return to him after 10 years was up. Warner Brothers agreed. He signed Whitesnake, Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana, Enya, Peter Gabriel, Don Henley, Sonic Youth, Aerosmith, and Edie Brickell. Geffen Records was sold in 1994, making him a billionaire.
In 1994, Geffen teamed with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg to start DreamWorks SKG. They were not immediately successful, but eventually hit their stride with Oscar-winning motion pictures including American Beauty (Best Picture, 1999), Gladiator (Best Picture, 2001), and A Beautiful Mind (Best Picture, 2002),
In 2010, Geffen was awarded the Ahmet Ertegun Award from The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In addition, he has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to UCLA.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for AFI
