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Gumption and Guts
Ron Meyer was 14 when a friend gave him his first tattoo, a crude design done with ink and a needle. Like many of the guys he hung out with in West Los Angeles, Meyer was a high school dropout, a kid quick with his fists who seemed to get into fights somewhat regularly.Today, Meyer is the president and COO of Universal Studios. As one of the most successful business leaders in Hollywood, he heads up Universal Pictures and Universal Parks & Resorts. He's the guy who oversees the production of multimillion-dollar extravaganzas like King Kong and Cinderella Man.
Even though Meyer could easily afford it, he has no interest in getting his tattoos removed. They symbolize just how far he has come, and they remind him of the choices he made -- good and bad -- along the way.
Meyer's story sounds like the plot of one of his motion pictures. The son of German immigrants, he grew up in a modest home where there was little disposable income. It was a big deal to go to a restaurant.
At 15, he quit high school and spent his time shooting pool, boxing at a nearby gym and hanging out with the neighborhood toughs. With little education or direction and few options, he figured he'd be drafted. So when he heard about a boxing program in the Marine Corps, he signed up.
At one point, he was quarantined with the measles, with no TV and nothing to do. His mother sent him two books. One was The Amboy Dukes, a novel about kids in street gangs. The other was The Flesh Peddlers, now out of print, about a guy in the talent-agency business who was living a glamorous life. "I realized," he says, "that I was no longer that idiot kid I had been, and I wanted to change my life."
Meyer knew he was up against considerable odds, but he finally had a goal: to become an agent and live the sort of lifestyle described in The Flesh Peddlers. He says he must have interviewed at all of the major talent agencies. "Everyone said no to me. I didn't have a formal education. I came from no influence, no money. There was no obvious reason to give me a job."
But the gumption and guts that helped him to excel as a boxer in the Marines kicked in. "I was afraid to fail," he says. "Also, I couldn't afford to fail. I had to make a living -- I needed to make money."
Meyer took any job he could get. He worked as a busboy and short-order cook. He cleaned grease off duplicating machines. He sold shoes. "Once I got a job, I put all I had into it," says Meyer. "When I was a busboy, I wanted to be the best busboy."
That attitude made an impression on people. While he was working at a clothing store, the Paul Kohner Agency called. Their messenger had quit, and they remembered the guy named Ron who was willing to take whatever job they offered. At the clothing store, he was making $35 a week. Kohner was going to pay him $75. That was on a Friday. He started the next Monday.
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