Talent Agents and the New Act, Part 1
History

©1987, 1996 Green & Green and Beverly Robin Green All Rights Reserved

The California legislature has long been concerned with the welfare of artists in the great entertainment industry state of California. This article is intended to address several issues of interest to the entertainment bar with respect to the latest developments in the California Talent Agency Act (Sections 1700 and 1700.47 of the California Labor Code). It is often an effort to discern the intention and direction of the California legislature with respect to the latest amendments to the Talent Agency Act, we will briefly review the evolution of the Act.

The original law developed out of the 1913 Private Employment Agencies Law, which included specific regulation of theatrical employment agencies and theatrical contracts. In 1923 that Act was amended to empower the Labor Commissioner to make rules and regulations, and conferred jurisdiction on the Labor Commissioner to hear and determine all controversies, subject to appeal within ten days to the Superior Court on a trial de novo basis. Since then, the California Labor Commissioner's office has been heavily involved in the licensing and regulation of talent agencies and the provision conferring initial jurisdiction on the Labor Commissioner to determine controversies has survived litigation and amendments to be retained as Section 1700.44(a) of the current Talent Agency Act. In 1937 the Private Employment Law was incorporated into the California Labor Code and finally, in 1943, "Artists' Managers" became a separate category for regulation.

In 1959 the "Artists' Managers Act" became its own separate Chapter of the Labor Code. This reflected the growing awareness by the legislature that the business of procuring employment in the entertainment industry, as the industry itself, is different and in many ways, more complex than the business of the normal employment agencies they also regulate. The growing confusion over who and what to regulate in the entertainment industry was fueled by the development of the "personal manager" profession, which as the common title implies, often finds this kind of manager personally involved in all aspects of the artists' career, including (and not the least important to the artist) the procurement of a record contract for a recording artist. Of course, until the artist has developed to the caliber usually necessary to procure a record contract, most successful talent agencies are not available to the artist to help seek "gigs", the live performance employment the performing artist needs. It is hard to avoid the growing confusion between these so-called "personal managers" and the employment or "talent agencies" in the entertainment industry.

Check out the other part to this story...find out what it takes to become a licensed Talent Agent in California, where it's happening: BETWEEN TALENT AGENCIES AND PERSONAL MANAGERS