Hollywood's Rudest Hang-Up Started to Save Money on Cell Minutes
What began as thrift inside a cash-strapped startup became the signature style of one of Hollywood's most powerful agents.
Founders · #436 Ari Emanuel's AutobiographyAri Emanuel, the Hollywood talent agent who built the agency Endeavor, hangs up on people mid-sentence, with no hello and no goodbye. He started doing it to avoid a big cell phone bill.
In 1995, Emanuel and three partners started a tiny, underfinanced agency. Each had a monthly allotment of cell minutes, with huge penalties for going over, so the rule was to keep every call quick.
Emanuel compares the discipline to Ernest Hemingway learning to write at the Kansas City Star. Forced to work inside tight word counts and deadlines, Hemingway made sparseness his style. Scarcity did the same for Emanuel, who wrote that he now felt "licensed to just hang up whenever," even while someone was still talking.
What began as thrift became a trademark. In Emanuel's words, "Goodbyes take time, and time is money," so he just rolls the next call.
Questions people ask
Who is Ari Emanuel?
Ari Emanuel is a Hollywood talent agent who founded Endeavor in 1995 and built it into a global sports and entertainment company. The company later bought IMG and the UFC, and went public before going private again. He is also known as the inspiration for the character Ari Gold on HBO's Entourage.
How expensive were early cell phone minutes?
Early cell plans in the 1990s typically included a set number of minutes per month, often a few hundred or fewer. Going over could cost 25 to 50 cents per extra minute, which added up fast for someone making hundreds of calls a day. For a cash-strapped startup, staying under the limit was a real business concern.