Milton Pickman; Publicist for Ziegfeld, Agent for Film Stars

Milton Pickman, 83, veteran Hollywood executive and agent who once represented Ethel Merman, Michael Caine and Van Heflin. Pickman graduated from Columbia University and earned a law degree from St. Lawrence University before beginning his career as a reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle. He worked as a publicist for Florenz Ziegfeld and managed several big bands, including those of Tommy Dorsey and Ted Lewis, before moving west to help establish the Beverly Hills office of the mammoth agency MCA in the late 1930s. When he was not operating his talent agency, he served as assistant to Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures, Jerry Wald of RKO and Columbia, Samuel Goldwyn of MGM, and Buddy Adler of 20th Century Fox. He later managed Jack Wrather Enterprises and was a partner of literary agent Irving Lazar. On Friday in Beverly Hills of cancer.