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How is it that a 12-year-old Dakota Fanning gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but Lew Wasserman, with a 7 decade run as the most powerful man in Hollywood only gets one 5 years after his death?
Maybe the most powerful man in Hollywood didn't need the ego boost of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. You do have to pay for your own star, after all. It's not a recognition of anything. 66.65.41.238 ( talk) 14:35, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
Hi I was wondering if someone could help me out with this page, some one who could contribute on Wassermans relation to Jules Stein, Sidney Korshak, his alleged mob ties etc. i feel this article is still a stub. Thanks
It Hollywood politics at its best... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.89.84.86 ( talk) 22:23, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
Bustter ( talk) 12:59, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
Why does this section have Maffia with two f's but earlier in the article it only has one (Mafia)? Are they different things?
A long time friend of Reagan, the powerful and connected
Lew Wasserman — Chairman and CEO of MCA (
Music Corporation of America), the parent of
Universal Studios, until
1990 when it was sold to
Matsushita for $6.6 billion — protected Reagan from any taint of dirty money. Wasserman was "connected," but that it was not known precisely how and few wanted to know.
Julius Stein and Wasserman had had little choice — in order to succeed in show business in their day, they had to deal with the
Mob — especially Stein, who started out in
Al Capone's
Chicago, and formed a liaison with
James Petrillo, the head of the
American Federation of Musicians local in Chicago and, eventually, its national president. They did what they had to do — in the world of the
Great Depression. When MCA bought
Universal Studios, federal regulators forced Wasserman to dissolve MCA's agency wing because MCA was representing performers as their agent while its production company was hiring them; as this violated
anti-trust laws in
1962. Wasserman made an estimated $350 million from the sale, and was retained as a manager. When
Seagram bought MCA in 1995, he retired from management, but remained on the board of directors until 1998. Paradoxically, he was a committed
Democratic and one of
Bill Clinton's earliest backers.
In an recent article Death Valley Days John Waters reminds that: Connie Bruck stated in her book on Lew Wasserman When Hollywood Had a King: The Reign of Lew Wasserman, Who Leveraged Talent into Power and Influence, that Reagan used to go out whoring with the Hollywood mob fixer and lawyer Sidney Korshak.
Also Deadline Hollywood: Bye Bye, Bonzo talks of many examples of Reagan's double-dealing long before Iran-contra, Nikki Finke reports: Henry Denker, a well-known theater, TV and radio writer, penned a thinly disguised roman à clef about the “TCA” talent agency, its ties with the mob and a has-been actor turned Western state governor. The Kingmaker disappeared soon after publication, reportedly because Wasserman had it deep-sixed. It remains one of the hardest books about Hollywood to find. More easier to find is mystery and screenplay author Roger L. Simon's 2nd Moses Wine novel Wild Turkey which features mobster Meyer Greenglass who is clearly based on Sidney Korshak and deals with a mystery that focuses on that era in Hollywood.
Crusading muckraker Dan E. Moldea shows the three were connected as the rise of MCA and its move to Hollywood paralleled the rise of the Chicago Mafia and its infiltration of the motion picture industry. While MCA was representing some of the top motion picture stars, Chicago mobsters took control of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees ( IATSE), the major Hollywood labor union — through Willie Bioff, a small-time hood, who was supervised by Chicago mob lieutenant Johnny Roselli. Though soon Hollywood was told Sidney Korshak was their representative.
If the author is going to falsely accuse Reagan of being beholden to the Mafia the least he can do is spell mafia correctly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.129.194.79 ( talk) 00:42, 26 April 2017 (UTC)
'According to Dan E. Moldea's survey Dark Victory : Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob .. organized crime allegedly pushed Reagan's career within the Republican Party, obtaining many favors in return from the politician.'
A fairly huge amount of bandwidth goes into this discussion. The article isn't about Reagan. I am skeptical of these crazy-quilt tie-ins Dan E. Moldea makes. Maybe he could be questioned about his tactics or sources or conclusions. I know that he also has a book about how organized crime and the N.F.L. are cozy. Some really hot stuff. He raises truly disturbing questions about connections. But I have questions about too much sloppy journalism, and errors and unfounded insinuations. If I mention "The Killing of Robert F. Kennedy: An Investigation of Motive, Means and Opportunity", then hope I can let you guess what is in it. Can't guess? Well, everyone loves a good conspiracy theory. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was arranged by union boss Jimmy Hoffa and the Mafia. Outrageous? I say 'sure', and also, Hoffa and the mob are just a few of the stories that Moldea has written about in his career as a .. well, okay, as a journalist, I suppose, but how did his libel suit against the New York Times over its lying review of his 1989 book about professional football and the Mafia turn out? Dismissed. So we don't have to take my word for it about, in so many words, 'sloppy journalism'. DanLanglois ( talk) 05:22, 17 August 2018 (UTC)
Wasserman brokered James Stewart to Universal for Winchester'73. So why made this only Stewart enormously rich, but not Wasserman?? I cannot imagine Wasserman brokered Stewart (who was before tied to MCA) to Universal just for the sole profit of Stewart (and Stewart's own "one-man-company"). Why didn't made this Wasserman enormously rich too? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.133.204.231 ( talk) 19:08, 20 May 2011 (UTC)
I know they're related. What is the exact family relationship? Is Debbie involved with the Foundation in any way? Tks. Benefac ( talk) 16:24, 21 February 2016 (UTC)
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There's info available to the effect that MCA had strong mob connections. I've never read the assertion that Capone and/or the Outfit controlled it outright. An editor added this info not bothering about little details like reliable sources for reference. The info's been removed and the editor will be notified. Tapered ( talk) 02:37, 26 April 2018 (UTC)