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"The Ventriloquist" The players in order of appearance are:
- Jack Valenti, President of the Motion Picture Association of America
The motion picture studios were permitted to "conspire" in a way, when dealing outside of the United States, under an anti-trust exemption granted by the Web-Pomerain Act. It was in 1974 when, at the behest of MCA, Valenti convened a big deal meeting of senior studio people at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The studios had joined together in an attempt to increase the price for their feature films in Sweden from the $2,000 per title paid by the government controlled Swedish network. There was an impasse with the Swedes refusing to spend more than $2,000, and the studios refusing to accept any less than $4,000 per title. Apparently during this stand-off (the Swedes continued to play movies from their inventory or those acquired from independents), there was a statistical increase in the theatrical business in Sweden. The meeting itself had been called by Wasserman to demonstrate to his studio associates that by withholding features the theatrical revenues could be increased. A lengthy discussion ensued that finally ran out of steam, in that no one seemed to care about the issue (other than MCA) and no one believed that by withholding features in other markets, that their theatrical business could be enhanced. That discussion was quickly followed up by Lew Wasserman telling the assembled executives that MCA had single-handedly carried the burden of increasing prices outside of the United States. He wanted to impress the CEO's and senior management of the other studio companies with their need to impress upon their international television sales management (like me) to follow the lead established by MCA, which would enable the industry to reap the rewards of higher pricing throughout the world. Because I was no smarter in 1974 than I am today, when Wasserman was finished, I raised my hand to respond and was recognized by Valenti. I pointed out to Wasserman that he was the only studio head who was in control from the beginning of international television (the 1950's) until today. I went on to say to him that every pricing agreement entered into by the MPAA in the prior ten years since my involvement, was undercut by one company, and that company was MCA. Our industry had refused to accept UK feature pricing at 5,000 Pounds per picture; the industry had agreed not to license our content in Australia while the Australians maintained a "pooling agreement". We had refused to accept pricing in Mexico, Bermuda, and many other countries, and one company broke each of these agreements, and that company was MCA. I could just as well have been speaking in Latin, in that Wasserman never looked at me and undoubtedly was not even aware that I was alive. When I sat down, Begelman leaned forward and said, "Norman, Lew does not care about anything you said and in fact wouldn't care if I said it as well." Sid Scheinberg was then recognized by Valenti and proceeded to almost repeat what Wasserman had said word for word. As he was speaking, Herb Lazarus whispered to Hirschfield, Begelman, and myself, "Look at Wasserman, he's moving his lips. I believe that Wasserman is a ventriloquist and he's the one actually speaking, not Scheinberg". The meeting ended about an hour later with nothing resolved, other than a senior MCA staffer said to me, "Boy, do I wish I could speak to Wasserman like that, but then again Norman, you'll never work for Wasserman or Scheinberg". Time passed, Hirschfield was fired, as was Begelman. Herb Lazarus had gone off to work for Metro Media, and I was working as President of Polygram Television. The industry was very vibrant and competitive, and was facing a vital issue, that the networks were continuing to fight at the FCC for the revocation of the Financial Interest and Syndication rulings. There were two groups fighting the networks at the FCC, one led by Valenti that had broad industry support, the second of lesser independents like Polygram. It was probably in 1983 that I visited Washington and the FCC with Gary Leiberthaul to meet with a single unnamed Commissioner and about six of his senior staff people. I was still relatively young and significantly naove. I believed that the Commission would notice the obvious, that American television and media was flourishing under the existence of the Financial Interest and Syndication rulings. All during our meeting, the staffers kept saying to Gary and I, "But that's not your industry position", or "Your industry leader disagrees with that". I finally asked the senior FCC staffer who kept repeating that, "Who is our industry leader". His reply was "Why, Jack Valenti of course!" I pointed out to him that Jack Valenti was not "our industry leader", but the leader of the MPAA. I went on to say that most people were unaware of the "Valenti truth" and that I wouldn't want it attributed to me, but in fact Wasserman is ventriloquist and Valenti comes before you and moves his lips, but all of the words you hear are spoken by Lew Wasserman. About half the people in the room laughed, and the other half said, "I didn't know Wasserman was a ventriloquist". I do give Wasserman credit however for undoubtedly being responsible at that time for beating back the attempts of the network to reimpose their power by controlling financial interest and syndication. The studios and their networks are now the same and the American media is much the worse for the change and it is an industry that misses the power, permanence, and imprimatur of Lew Wasserman who had an agenda for his company and fought hard for that agenda.
© 2000-2006 Norman Horowitz Company. All rights reserved.
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