Talk:Lew Wasserman

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[edit] Hollywood Walk of Fame

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)

[edit] Looking for help

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)

Try folding the below information into the article — Sparky 17:33, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Reagan's darker side: Reagan's Mob connections hid

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.