![]() “I was 35 - no chicken,” he told WWD in an interview last year. Lazar enlisted in 1942, exchanging his apartment at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York for a metal cot in a wooden barracks building. His career rounded a corner a few years later, thanks to an unlikely source: the U.S. He received his law degree from Brooklyn Law School, she said.Īfter practicing law in New York for several years, he went to work for Music Corporation of America in 1936, working as a band-booker and getting gigs for such musicians as Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman. “The stars like to come because we give them a good dinner, some caviar, champagne - and no checks.”Īccording to Sohn, Lazar was born in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn on March 28, 1907, and graduated from Fordham University. ![]() “It began as a small gathering of friends, and it’s always been a success because the guests always had a stake in the winners and losers,” he said. For many people in the movie industry, not being invited to that party would have been even more crushing than failing to win an Oscar. It is ironic, then, that he and his wife, Mary, became the hosts of one of Hollywood’s glitziest social perennials, the annual Oscar-night extravaganza. They were kept hidden in closets and garages.” “In the Forties, agents were totally unacceptable socially,” he once recalled. When Lazar began his career roughly half a century ago, agents were held in low regard. ![]() He preferred being called Irving, but that desire generally went unfulfilled. He got his nickname from Humphrey Bogart after managing to put together a couple of deals for the actor in extremely rapid fashion. Lazar was a diminutive man whose bald head and owlish horn-rim glasses were as much a trademark as his ability to strike superb deals for a client roster that ranged from Cole Porter to Jesse Jackson and Richard M. He was such a wonderful man and led such a wonderful life.” “He was so in control all the way until the end. “He choreographed his life, and he choreographed his death,” said Barbara Davis, a long-time friend. A reception is being planned at Spago Restaurant in Los Angeles following the services. The service, to be held at an undisclosed location, begins at 1 p.m. Lazar, who was 86, was cremated over the weekend. The cause of death was kidney failure, according to Teresa Sohn, his social secretary. Lazar, a Hollywood and literary agent who became as much of a celebrity as many of his biggest clients, died last Thursday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. NEW YORK - An international cast of over 200 celebrities has been invited to a private memorial service on Thursday for Irving Paul (Swifty) Lazar.
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