Synopsis:
ABOUT THE FILM
"What you've got to understand is, if Hollywood is Mount Olympus, Lew Wasserman is Zeus." – Jack Valenti
"In effect, Wasserman was the man who put the inmates in charge of the...
ABOUT THE FILM
"What you've got to understand is, if Hollywood is Mount Olympus, Lew Wasserman is Zeus." – Jack Valenti
"In effect, Wasserman was the man who put the inmates in charge of the Hollywood asylum." – Neal Gabler
"The legendary rages would begin with an ominous tapping of the sword-like letter opener on his immaculate antique desk and leave a grown man in a $1,500 suit hugging the toilet in fear." – Michael Ovitz
There are those that say Hollywood was born the day Lew Wasserman came to town. For six decades, there was only one man who had the consummate power to run the industry and his reign forever defined Hollywood as we know it. Lew Wasserman is THE LAST MOGUL.
During his 59-year career, he worked with everyone from Alfred Hitchcock to Steven Spielberg, James Stewart and Kevin Costner. His legendary deal making was respected, his temper reviled and his ability to predict the future of his industry uncanny. His talent, vision and power not only made him a billionaire, but changed the manner in which studios operated, films were produced and talent represented. Using politics and fear to keep the entire industry on a leash, the former Chairman and CEO of MCA and then Universal, Wasserman was the undisputed king of Hollywood.
This rags to riches story began in the mob-controlled speakeasies of 1920’s Cleveland and ends in the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles. Wasserman, an impoverished band-booker would become the greatest power-broker that Hollywood would ever know. From reputed mob connections to union chiefs, and political heavyweights the likes of Jack Valenti to President Ronald Reagan, Lew Wasserman controlled everybody.
THE LAST MOGUL follows Wasserman’s meteoric rise to power and his tragic final days and is complete with candid stories about corruption, scandals and political power plays. Featuring interviews with Hollywood’s elite including Robert Evans, Jack Valenti, Dominick Dunne, Richard Zanuck, Alan Ladd, Jr., Michael Ovitz, Frank Price, President Jimmy Carter, Suzanne Pleshette and many others, THE LAST MOGUL is a must see for everyone who thinks they know and love Hollywood.
ABOUT "THE LAST MOGUL"
Lew Wasserman was the movie mogul who ruled Hollywood with an iron fist for more than half a century.
As Chairman and Chief Executive, Wasserman was the undisputed ruler of MCA, the parent of Universal Studios. When MCA was sold in 1990 to Matsushita for $6.6 billion, Wasserman's take was put at $350 million. He remained on the board of directors until 1998.
During a 59-year career at MCA, he worked with everyone from Hitchcock to Spielberg, from James Stewart to Kevin Costner. His power was unequaled.
Wasserman was born on March 15, 1913 in Cleveland to Russian-Jewish immigrants. After a three year education at Jules Stein's Music Corporation of America (MCA), Wasserman moved to Hollywood to run the optometrist-turned-showbiz mogul's new motion picture unit in 1938.
From that point, back when MCA was primarily a band-booking agency, Wasserman expanded the movie business until his client list included such greats as Clark Gable, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Soon after, he pioneered the concept of "packaging" his agency's talent (long before Mike Ovitz) by making one deal for a movie's writers, director and lead actors, thus commissioning as much as possible per movie.
Wasserman also pioneered the now routine practice of negotiating percentages of a movie's profits for his clients.
In the process of expanding his power beyond that of any movie mogul before or since (notably, he reanimated Ronald Reagan's acting career and maintained a close relationship with the future President), Wasserman also expanded into television and music, transforming MCA from agency to a powerful studio. The studio was a hit machine featuring box office winners like The Sting, E.T., Pyscho, and Jaws (even though he fought hard not to have Spielberg direct). With Jaws, Wasserman spawned the blockbuster culture that dominates the modern movie industry. Despite his initial doubts about Jaws, Wasserman (maybe because he understood sharks) knew how to market it. Defying the movie industry's natural suspicion of television, he saturated the airwaves with ads for coming attractions. And in place of the traditional model of premiering a movie in New York and Los Angeles, Jaws simultaneously swam onto screens across the country. The movie made $192 million in its first year, single-handedly driving serious movies off the summertime calendar.
But why was this 89-year-old talent-agent turned Universal Studios titan the man whom the New York Times dubbed the "Last of the Hollywood Moguls" and why was he so feared? Why would no one go on record and talk about Wasserman?
Wasserman's entire career was built around an unspoken credo: The deal. Unless there is a deal there is no deal. His great triumph as an agent was the 1950 arrangement under which Jimmy Stewart starred in the film Winchester '73 for a hefty cut of the profits rather than a flat fee. It was an epic transformation in the fiscal life of Hollywood. Where once the studios reigned THE LAST MOGUL production notes, p. 5 of 6 supreme during the golden age of the movies, power shifted to the stars and the big-name directors, most of whom were represented by Wasserman's agency, MCA.
Wasserman personally made a fortune from the 1990 sale of MCA (which owned Universal) to the Japanese conglomerate Matsushita. And even during his five unhappy years working for Matsushita, he remained a towering figure. He had reached a stage in life where he no longer had to scream. His presence radiated power and commanded instant respect. (Except to the Japanese, who in a final 1995 humiliation sold Universal to Seagram without ever informing Wasserman.) Lew Wasserman died on June 3, 2002 at the age of 89.
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