Inside Ari Emanuel’s Earliest Days in Hollywood: Coffee Runs, Couch Surfing and Replacing Michael Ovitz’s Toilet Paper

One of Ari Emanuel ‘s first appearances in the pages of The Hollywood Reporter came in our venerated Next Gen feature. Emanuel, then a 33-year-old agent at ICM Partners, was a member of the class of 1994. He listed his inspiration as his father, his power spots as The Palm and The Ivy, and his career goal was “Besides getting money and power, I haven’t figured it out yet.” Over 30 years later, as the head of two of the largest companies in entertainment and sports — he leads TKO as executive chair and CEO and is executive chairman of WME Group — Emanuel has money and power in spades. And, as of September 22, he can count himself as an author, too. In Roll the Calls , his new memoir, Emanuel tells his story from the beginning for the first time. Here, in honor of the book’s publication and his upcoming Los Angeles tour stop on Sept. 29, he shares with THR an exclusive excerpt about his earliest days in the mail room at Creative Artists Agency, the audiobook version of the excerpt as read by Bob Odenkirk and an updated version of his infamous Next Gen questionnaire.

My first day in L.A., after purchasing a used 1983 Le Car, lipstick red with a pullback black canvas top and white racing stripe (Le Car painted inside the stripe), I go all in for top-of-the-line auto insurance. Whatever else I skimp on, whatever else I do without, I splurge on the best car insurance. Of all things that might go wrong in Hollywood, my father is most worried about a smashup without adequate coverage.

Now the question is, Am I going to sleep in this Le Car? Because after blowing my wad to insure it like a Lamborghini, I can’t afford an apartment.

On the verge of sleeping in the park, I’m bailed out by my friend Mendelsohn. The same friend who first mentioned the idea of agent ing to me. By coincidence he’s moved out here too. His apartment, on Wilshire and La Cienega, has only one bedroom, but he graciously offers me his couch.

First night in town, going for burgers with Mendelsohn. The talk is all about mailrooms. He knows everything about them. He worked in the William Morris mailroom in New York, and long before that— when he was still a teenager— he landed a gig in the mailroom at The Tonight Show .

Some days he was plucked from the mailroom to drive Johnny Carson to and from Burbank. Carson would try out his monologue on Mendelsohn. Think that’s funny, Mike? Think they’ll laugh? Gee, Mr. Carson, it made ME laugh!

Mailrooms have been berry berry good to Mendelsohn, and yet he’s burned out. That’s why he’s working at a bank right now, step one in his master plan to acquire the financial know-how to become a producer.

Best of all, he says of the bank, normal hours! Vacations! Holidays! Weekends!

When the alarm goes off, I jump into Le Car and drive as instructed to a local bagel shop, where I buy dozens of plain and poppy seed and onion and raisin, plus several gallons of coffee, plus a vat of fresh- squeezed orange juice, plus two tubs of cream cheese, plus some fresh fruit.