“I thought I knew you better than anyone, but after reading your book, I realize I didn’t know you at all. Now I love you even more.”
That’s Dolly Parton speaking to her agent, Sam Haskell, and she’s referring to Haskell’s book (written with the help of David Rensin), Promises I Made My Mother (Ballantine Books). But Parton was far from being Haskell’s only and biggest client at the William Morris Agency in Los Angeles, where he worked — from the mailroom fresh out of Ole Miss to heading the company’s worldwide television division — for 26 years.
Count, among Haskell’s clients and in no particular order: George Clooney, Bill Cosby, Kathie Lee Gifford, Ray Romano (the Gomer Pyle reference above appears in Romano’s foreword to the book), Whoopi Goldberg, Nell Carter, Debbie Allen, Delta Burke, Martin Short, Kirstie Alley, Tony Danza, Lily Tomlin, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Swoosie Kurtz, Lucie Arnaz, and His Royal Highness the Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex (youngest son of Queen Elizabeth).
And count, among the TV shows Haskell is most proud to have been behind and in no particular order: The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Mad About You, Everybody Loves Raymond, Lost, Murphy Brown, Sisters, Suddenly Susan, Live with Regis & Kathie Lee, King of Queens, and Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?.
What’s a guy from Amory, Mississippi (pop. 7,000, not far from Tupelo) doing in such company and behind such shows? He’s doing his best to honor the lessons taught by his mother, as promised in the title of his book. Haskell will be signing at Davis-Kidd Booksellers on Monday, June 22nd, at 6 p.m.
And note: All proceeds from the sale of the book go directly to the author’s favorite charities, among them the Rotary Foundation of America. Why the Rotary? Because, as Haskell said with a laugh in a recent phone conversation, “I was Rotary Boy of the Year in 1973!”
Here, in his own words: Sam Haskell.
