Lew Wusserman and MCA

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Lew Wusserman and MCA

• Connie Bruck (2003) When Hollywood had a king
• Random House

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MCA (1)

• Launched in 1924 by Jules Stein as band-booking
  agency in Chicago
• Stein dealt with musicians unions, commercial
  radio, and the mob
• Stein invented or perfected
• the one-night stand
• exclusive contracts with talent buyers
• product tie-ins
• provided buyers with a full seasons bookings
  (giving MCA a packaging fee in addition to
  commissions, and a taste of production

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MCA (2)

• In 1936 Stein
• moved MCA HQ to West Coast
• broadened focus to include movie ind
• hired 23-year old Lew Wasserman
• Cash-rich in era of depression, MCA
• bought out contracts of top and mid-range stars
  (B. Davis, R. Reagan)
• bought entire agencies, including Hollywoods
  top agentsDominated flow of talent into movies
  and television
• Invented new deals capital gains setups, formed
  independent production companies, back-end deals
  (50 of film revenues)

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MCA (3)

• Wasserman embraced television, recognizing its
  voracious appetite for talent and programming
• Created MCA-Revue to produce TV series and buy
  old movies for TV syndication
• Got Regans (president, Screen Actors Guild)
  permission to represent talent and produce TV
  series
• By late 1950s, MCA was leading supplier of
  prime-time TV
• Purchased Universal City in 1959, later Universal
  Pictures and parent company Decca Records
• Eluded antitrust actions by agreeing to terms
  that greatly favored MCA (dissolving agency in
  favor of TV)
• Introduced innovations such as long-form series
  and made-for-television movie.

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MCA (4)

• TV and Movies
• TV paid the bills during movie recession
• Early 70s movie successes American GraffitiThe
  Sting
• Produced Jaws in 1975. Jaws
• introduced Spielberg,
• introduced prototype Hollywood blockbuster
• High cost, high speed, high concept,
• Saturation release campaign, licensing and
  tie-ins, sequels and theme-park rides
• First film to return over 100m to distributor
• MCA-Universal ruled the movie industry by 1980
• Through relationship with Jack Valenti (head,
  Motion Picture Association of America) Wasserman
  exercised enormous clout in Hollywood and
  Washington re tax laws, union affairs, FCC
  regulation, etc.

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MCA (5)

• MCA was acquired by Matsushita in 1990, and later
  passed to Seagram in 1995 and now (2003) belongs
  to Vivendi, but Vivendi is likely to sell soon.