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think the fact that they couldn’t make me perspire drove them both a little crazy.

    Thirty years ago with three of the most beautiful women in the solar system, making me the envy of all the guys at my weekly poker game.
    Photo: Rosenzweig Personal Collection
    Christmas had come. I received my corporate gift from the company. It was a large glass urn filled with walnuts—perhaps a hundred pounds’ worth. I removed the card, replaced it with one of my own, and sent the vase to agent Broder. The new card read: “ Spelling and Goldberg have been chipping away at my nuts for the past four months; here’s your commission .”
    My life there was a misery, yet now as I get older and have run a company of my own, I do understand Spelling and Goldberg a bit better than I did. It is difficult to let go, to give authority to someone else on a project you have created and nurtured. It wasn’t entirely their fault. There is plenty of evidence that some men and women have had a real talent for working with these two. Many stayed with Spelling for years and profited substantially in the process. I was unable to make whatever adjustments were necessary. I do not say this proudly. It is simply a matter of fact. Neither Leonard nor Aaron were evil men. They had their eccentricities as I, in the years that have gone by, have developed mine. I didn’t see that so clearly then. I did hate working there and regard it as one of the worst, if not the worst, experiences of my professional life in Hollywood.
    I never wanted to be in that situation again. I needed to analyze what to do. I was honest, hardworking, and loyal—all good qualities for an employee, though not necessarily such a hot combo for an entrepreneur. I really didn’t mind being a hired hand and felt I had few entrepreneurial skills. I had, however, recently discovered that the primary problem with being an employee is the possibility of getting a Leonard Goldberg for an employer. I needed help. I decided I would seek out a partner, someone with some muscle and clout who could run the business, keep a lot of administrative stuff off my back, and allow me to do what I do. That’s when I met Mace Neufeld.

Chapter 5 
    “WE HAVE FOUND 
    CHRISTINE CAGNEY …” 
    Mace Neufeld wanted to expand into television production. His talent management company, BNB, 2 was a major success. With his partner, Sherwin Bash, BNB had been built into one of the premiere boutiques in the industry. Singers, rock groups, and other performers came under their protective wing. Now he was offering me the opportunity to lead this expansion into TV.
    The doorway to the reception room of their impressive Beverly Hills suite of offices announced not only the housing of BNB, but of a record company, a music publishing house, a motion picture enterprise, and something called Buckmace Productions, a joint venture between writer-director-actor Buck Henry and Mr. Neufeld (this last resulting in Quork , an unsuccessful television series produced by David Gerber).
    Bob Broder had received an offer for my services at Universal for a new series based on the comic book heroine Wonder Woman , so it was easy for my agent to voice disapproval of Mace’s offer (at $40,000 per year it was less than half of what Universal would pay for my services). I overruled my agent, believing this was my opportunity to fulfill a dream.
    We had little credibility and no talent under contract or projects on the shelves. There was no staff, only my secretary, Dorothy Blass, and myself. We were at ground zero. I told Mace it would take two years to make BNB Productions a reality.
    I hustled. I haunted libraries; I read incessantly. I wound up with something like thirty hours in various stages of development among the three networks. I was constantly meeting with someone in middle management at ABC, CBS, and NBC, or working with a writer on material for one of those companies. I had a miniseries in development, as well as