![]() The label was revived in 2004 as an urban music operation, signing hip-hop artists such as Waka Flocka Flame, Cam’ron, Gucci Mane, Paul Wall, Mike Jones and Bun B. Later in the 1970s Geffen left Asylum, which was later acquired by Atlantic's parent company, Warner Communications, and merged with Elektra Records in 1972 to become Elektra/Asylum Records. Asylum became a generator of the Southern California folk-rock sound and signed artists such as Eagles, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon, Judee Sill, and J.D. The label was distributed by Atlantic Records at this time. The name Asylum was chosen because of the owners' reputations for signing artists who would struggle to find a record company that would contract with them. Geffen co-founded Asylum Records in 1971 with Elliot Roberts after Geffen was unable to get Jackson Browne a record deal anywhere else. When Geffen was engaged in the process of looking for a record deal for young Jackson Browne, Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun suggested that Geffen start his own record label. Geffen left William Morris to become a personal manager and was immediately successful with Laura Nyro and Crosby, Stills and Nash. His colleagues in the mailroom included Elliot Roberts, who later became Geffen's partner in a management company. In 1969, he was Executive vice president and talent agent for Creative Management Associates. In 1968, he was a talent agent for Ashley Famous Agency. From 1964 to 1968 he was a mailroom clerk and then agent at WMA. He modified the letter to show that he had attended and graduated, then submitted it to WMA. Because he worked in the mailroom, Geffen was able to intercept a letter from UCLA to WMA which stated that he had not graduated from UCLA. As he later reported in an interview, he claimed in his job application at WMA that he had graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). In order to obtain the WMA job, he had to prove he was a college graduate. Business careerĪfter a brief appearance as an extra in the 1961 film The Explosive Generation, Geffen began his entertainment career in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency (WMA), where he quickly became a talent agent. Geffen attributed his challenges in school to dyslexia. He attended Santa Monica College (then known as Santa Monica City College) in Santa Monica, California, but soon left. He then moved to Los Angeles, California to find his way in the entertainment business. He attended the University of Texas at Austin for a semester, and then Brooklyn College, before again dropping out. Geffen graduated from Brooklyn's New Utrecht High School in 1960 with a "barely passing 66 average". Both of his parents were Jewish immigrants who met in British Mandatory Palestine and then moved to the United States. Geffen's mother owned a clothing store in Borough Park called Chic Corsets by Geffen. David Geffen was born in Borough Park, Brooklyn, New York, to Abraham Geffen and Batya Volovskaya (1909–1988).
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