The Basement Tapes/Recently Dead

Legendary talent agent Ruth Webb died last week in Los Angeles after a long pulmonary illness. She was 88. Webb, known as the "Auntie Mame of agents," began in showbiz as a summer stock and Broadway actress, appearing in the original production of On the Town. She posed on the covers of magazines and was a featured model for Chesterfield cigarettes. Later, she worked for her own agent, and eventually started her own firm, repping stars on both coasts, from Ginger Rogers to Joey Buttafuoco. When World of Wonder caught up with her in 1997 at her Hollywood office for an HBO pilot called TV Man, she was in her Buttafuoco phase. In this clip, Webb (above, on the phone) and her business partner Sherri Spillane pitch their clients. (Watch here)

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