Talk:General Electric Theater
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[edit] Reagan
Reagan — then not just the talent agency’s client but boss Lew Wasserman’s first million-dollar client — misused his power as head of the Screen Actors Guild. Back in 1952, the Hollywood scandal swirling around him was his granting of a SAG blanket waiver to MCA, which allowed it both to represent and employ talent for its burgeoning TV franchises. This is as clear a case of wanton conflict of interest. He went from host and program supervisor of General Electric Theater to actually producing and claiming an equity stake in the TV show itself. Before the windfall, Ronald Reagan had been working Las Vegas as song-and-dance act's master of ceremonies. Dennis McDougal, author of the unauthorized Wasserman biography The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, McA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood commented that “He and his board engineered it, thus giving MCA carte blanche control over US television for the next six years.” It appears he first utilized his failing memory trick as he failed to recall his role in the waiver when he was hauled before US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s grand jury in 1962.” It was In 1945 that Wasserman brokered Ronald Reagan's unprecedented seven-year, $1 million deal with Warner Brothers.
