Several folks — first and foremost, ace writer Joe Adamson — have e-mailed me about this paragraph in the obit for MCA mogul Lew Wasserman that appeared in The New York Times. (Here's a link to the entire obituary.)
…for "Jaws," Mr. Wasserman took out prime-time television commercials for weeks before the movie was screened, and then had it released simultaneously in nearly 1,000 theaters nationwide. The same type of sweeping national publicity campaign was used with equal success for other MCA blockbusters, like "Star Wars," "Indiana Jones" and "E.T." Rival studios took notice and began marketing their big films the same way.
Yes, MCA (Universal) put out E.T. But Star Wars was a Twentieth-Century Fox release…and the Indiana Jones movies (none of which has yet been named Indiana Jones) have been from Paramount. Y'know, there once was a day when The New York Times didn't make this kind of mistake…
Another paragraph in the obit is, alas, correct. It has to do with how Wasserman went from representing actors as an agent to being a producer whose company was soon able to purchase Universal Studios…
In time, he decided to involve his agency directly in film and television production. "I felt our organization was capable of earning more than 10 percent, and that we could do better on the other side of the table," he said of his strategy to The New York Times. This represented an obvious conflict of interest because MCA would be hiring actors and directors whom it was supposed to be representing. But in 1952, Mr. Wasserman obtained from the Screen Actors Guild a blanket exemption from union rules that forbade talent agencies from involving themselves in production. It helped that Ronald Reagan was president of the guild at the time: he was an MCA client grateful to Mr. Wasserman for having recently negotiated a long-term million-dollar contract for him with a studio.
In 1959, MCA/Universal purchased a number of film libraries, including Paramount's, to put on television. In 1960, the Screen Actors Guild went on strike over residuals and wound up making one of the worst deals in Hollywood history — one that meant billions to MCA and nothing to actors whose pre-1960 films were run on television. The head of the actors' negotiating team who rammed the deal through SAG was Ronald Reagan. (And Reagan performed other services for Wasserman: In 1962, when MCA was the subject of a government anti-trust probe, Reagan was called as a witness and developed total amnesia. Shortly after, MCA got involved in a number of real estate transactions with Reagan that made him a multi-millionaire.)
This is why we have dishonest government in this country: Because guys like Reagan not only get away with such deals but wind up claiming that they stand for honor and integrity. This also applies to various deals by presidents named Bush, our current vice-president and many others including — to be fair — a hefty number of Democrats, as well. I think I would have been more willing to believe that Bill Clinton was morally unfit to be president if any of the folks claiming this had any problem with the way some of our other elected officials have become very, very wealthy.