Jack Valenti dead at 85
04-26-07, 06:09 PM
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Jack Valenti dead at 85
Jack Valenti dies at 85
Remembered for tireless work with MPAA
By RICHARD NATALE
Valenti
Jack Valenti, the colorful, charismatic head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America for almost four decades and the prime mover behind the movie ratings system, died Thursday. He was 85.
Valenti had checked out of Johns Hopkins University Medical Center on Wednesday where he was hospitalized after suffering a stroke.
A private mass celebrating the life of Jack Valenti will be held in Washington. The family will announce details in the coming days.
The highly articulate and pugnacious Valenti, a former aide to President Lyndon Johnson who served as the industry's Washington, D.C., liaison from 1966 to 2004, was among the most visible lobbyists in the country, as comfortable testifying at a government hearing as he was appearing on the Academy Awards.
Even after he handed over the MPAA reigns to Dan Glickman, Valenti continued to cut a public profile. He spoke before congressional committees to publicly defend the ratings system, created just two years into his MPAA tenure, as a viable and successful alternative to government enforcement of content.
Valenti also was a staunch defender of the industry's importance in America's balance of trade. He frequently found himself embroiled in skirmishes over Internet piracy, TV ratings and the V-chip, the fin-syn rules, cable deregulation or the constant rise in the cost of movies -- about which he constantly carped, though he rarely was able to suggest a remedy.
His detractors complained that he protected the status quo of the major studios, even to what was viewed as a detriment to other parts of the industry. He championed the industry's 2003 ban on awards screeners as a way to guard against Internet piracy, despite protests from specialty arms and independent filmmakers. After some distributors sued, a court delivered an injunction lifting the ban.
Born Sept. 5, 1921, in a poor neighborhood of Houston, Texas, Valenti aspired to public life from an early age. He graduated high school at 15 and earned his B.A. from the U. of Houston, worked for a time in advertising at Humble Oil, then added a Harvard MBA. He flew 51 combat missions as an Army Air Corps pilot in World War II. After the war, he continued in advertising and branched out into political consulting.
In the early 60s, Valenti's agency Weekly & Valenti did leg work for President Lyndon B. Johnson . On Nov. 22, 1963, he was part of the presidential motorcade in Dallas when President Kennedy was assassinated, and is visible in the famous photo of Johnson taking the oath of office aboard Air Force One.
After taking office, Johnson took Valenti to Washington as his special assistant, and he gained a reputation as one of the President's most loyal staffers. In 1966, Lew Wasserman, then the most powerful man in Hollywood, had him appointed as head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, having first considered former Vice President Richard Nixon and ex-JFK press secretary Pierre Salinger. Valenti was hired at the then-princely salary of $200,000 per year. By the time he retired, he had a salary well over $1 million, and was one of the country's highest paid lobbyists.
Banding together with the National Assn. of Theater Owners, Valenti created the industry's standard voluntary ratings system in 1968. It overrode decades of local ratings systems, which often contradicted one another.
As old Hollywood was giving way to a new permissiveness, reflected in movies like "Bonnie & Clyde" and "Midnight Cowboy," the ratings sytem kept censorship wolves at bay but caused controversy within the industry. The X and then NC-17 ratings were seen as punitive to filmmakers' self-expression. But many agreed the ratings system was the only way to prevent possible government intervention.
In the mid-'70s, with videocassettes becoming a major revenue growth source for the industry, Valenti became a staunch supporter of anti-piracy programs to protect the studios' interests in 68 countries abroad. His non-stop crusading helped the at-first meagerly funded effort ($76,000) grow in budget size to $40 million over the years.
Valenti also participated in helping set a standard for television ratings in the mid 1990s when conservatives complained that the entertainment industry was hostile to "family values." President Clinton also heeded the prevailing winds and backed a V-chip to block certain programming. Valenti had been opposed to such a measure, but when it became inevitable, he stepped in to maneuver it the best way possible. However, the effect of the chip was minimal, as most viewers never took advantage of it.
Valenti was ever vigilant to abuses from emerging countries, particularly China -- a market, which like Korea, he had helped open to film trade. The Korean agreement alone helped boost revenues from that market from $8 million in 1987 to $135 million a few years later.
One of the battles he fought successfully for more than two decades and eventually lost was that over the networks' participation in the ownership and syndication rights to TV shows. Valenti was the major studios' and producers' most die-hard champion. But by the '90s, fears about the monopolistic tendencies of the Big Three had dwindled, thanks to the proliferation of rival weblets and cable channels.
Valenti was more successful in making certain that industry interests were taken into account in the establishment of the GATT foreign trade agreement, citing the entertainment business's favorable balance of trade.
But perhaps more than anything, Valenti acted as a conscience for Hollywood, reminding industryites about their responsibilities and excesses. However, he constantly defended show business from attackers, and rarely criticized the business himself. One rare example was his attack on Oliver Stone's 1991 "JFK." Valenti defended the Warren Commission (established by his mentor Johnson), casting aspersions on Stone's controversial film. However, his timing was, as always, discreet: he waited until four months after the film had opened, after the Academy Awards, before speaking out against the pic.
The silver-haired Valenti was a natty dresser and courtly gentleman, who enjoyed using five-dollar words and arcane historical and literary allusions as he spoke out on numerous issues, all of which seemed to get him into a high lather.
For example, in 1985 at ShoWest, he described new technologies as "metal skeletons whirling about in the heavens, hurling down beams of delivery systems."
The resurgence of JFK conspiracy theories in 1992 caused him to lament, "The Lord only knows how many more conspiratorial badgers are out there burrowing into the entrails of Alice's Nonsense Wonderland, ready to barter their gauzy and grotesque notions for gold in the publishing and movie marketplace."
Even in retirement, Valenti maintained a public profile. He wrote a column for the Politico, including one in which he expressed his opposition to the war in Iraq and made comparison's to Johnson's ill-fated efforts in Vietnam.
"Having served one president in wartime, I'm reluctant to criticize another chief executive because I'm aware of the personal agony they feel in ordering troops into harm's way," he wrote. "Yet in launching the war in Iraq, our commanders ignored the errors of other drawn-out conflicts, inclouding Vietnam. The mistakes made then were repeated in Iraq. How sad."
Valenti also authored several books, "The Bitter Taste of Glory," "Speaking Up With Confidence," "A Very Human President" and the political novel "Protect and Defend in 1992." His extensive memoir "This Time, This Place: My Life in War, the White House, and Hollywood" was due out in June, 2007.
The French government honored him with its Legion of Honor award for his efforts on behalf of the country's film industry.
He and wife Mary Margaret divided their time between Washington and Los Angeles. They had three children, Courtenay, John, and Alexandra.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be directed to the Jack Valenti Macular Degeneration Research Fund at Johns Hopkins University, c/o Dr. Neil M. Bressler, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 550 N. Broadway, Suite 115, Baltimore, MD 21205-2002.
Remembered for tireless work with MPAA
By RICHARD NATALE
Valenti
Jack Valenti, the colorful, charismatic head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America for almost four decades and the prime mover behind the movie ratings system, died Thursday. He was 85.
Valenti had checked out of Johns Hopkins University Medical Center on Wednesday where he was hospitalized after suffering a stroke.
A private mass celebrating the life of Jack Valenti will be held in Washington. The family will announce details in the coming days.
The highly articulate and pugnacious Valenti, a former aide to President Lyndon Johnson who served as the industry's Washington, D.C., liaison from 1966 to 2004, was among the most visible lobbyists in the country, as comfortable testifying at a government hearing as he was appearing on the Academy Awards.
Even after he handed over the MPAA reigns to Dan Glickman, Valenti continued to cut a public profile. He spoke before congressional committees to publicly defend the ratings system, created just two years into his MPAA tenure, as a viable and successful alternative to government enforcement of content.
Valenti also was a staunch defender of the industry's importance in America's balance of trade. He frequently found himself embroiled in skirmishes over Internet piracy, TV ratings and the V-chip, the fin-syn rules, cable deregulation or the constant rise in the cost of movies -- about which he constantly carped, though he rarely was able to suggest a remedy.
His detractors complained that he protected the status quo of the major studios, even to what was viewed as a detriment to other parts of the industry. He championed the industry's 2003 ban on awards screeners as a way to guard against Internet piracy, despite protests from specialty arms and independent filmmakers. After some distributors sued, a court delivered an injunction lifting the ban.
Born Sept. 5, 1921, in a poor neighborhood of Houston, Texas, Valenti aspired to public life from an early age. He graduated high school at 15 and earned his B.A. from the U. of Houston, worked for a time in advertising at Humble Oil, then added a Harvard MBA. He flew 51 combat missions as an Army Air Corps pilot in World War II. After the war, he continued in advertising and branched out into political consulting.
In the early 60s, Valenti's agency Weekly & Valenti did leg work for President Lyndon B. Johnson . On Nov. 22, 1963, he was part of the presidential motorcade in Dallas when President Kennedy was assassinated, and is visible in the famous photo of Johnson taking the oath of office aboard Air Force One.
After taking office, Johnson took Valenti to Washington as his special assistant, and he gained a reputation as one of the President's most loyal staffers. In 1966, Lew Wasserman, then the most powerful man in Hollywood, had him appointed as head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, having first considered former Vice President Richard Nixon and ex-JFK press secretary Pierre Salinger. Valenti was hired at the then-princely salary of $200,000 per year. By the time he retired, he had a salary well over $1 million, and was one of the country's highest paid lobbyists.
Banding together with the National Assn. of Theater Owners, Valenti created the industry's standard voluntary ratings system in 1968. It overrode decades of local ratings systems, which often contradicted one another.
As old Hollywood was giving way to a new permissiveness, reflected in movies like "Bonnie & Clyde" and "Midnight Cowboy," the ratings sytem kept censorship wolves at bay but caused controversy within the industry. The X and then NC-17 ratings were seen as punitive to filmmakers' self-expression. But many agreed the ratings system was the only way to prevent possible government intervention.
In the mid-'70s, with videocassettes becoming a major revenue growth source for the industry, Valenti became a staunch supporter of anti-piracy programs to protect the studios' interests in 68 countries abroad. His non-stop crusading helped the at-first meagerly funded effort ($76,000) grow in budget size to $40 million over the years.
Valenti also participated in helping set a standard for television ratings in the mid 1990s when conservatives complained that the entertainment industry was hostile to "family values." President Clinton also heeded the prevailing winds and backed a V-chip to block certain programming. Valenti had been opposed to such a measure, but when it became inevitable, he stepped in to maneuver it the best way possible. However, the effect of the chip was minimal, as most viewers never took advantage of it.
Valenti was ever vigilant to abuses from emerging countries, particularly China -- a market, which like Korea, he had helped open to film trade. The Korean agreement alone helped boost revenues from that market from $8 million in 1987 to $135 million a few years later.
One of the battles he fought successfully for more than two decades and eventually lost was that over the networks' participation in the ownership and syndication rights to TV shows. Valenti was the major studios' and producers' most die-hard champion. But by the '90s, fears about the monopolistic tendencies of the Big Three had dwindled, thanks to the proliferation of rival weblets and cable channels.
Valenti was more successful in making certain that industry interests were taken into account in the establishment of the GATT foreign trade agreement, citing the entertainment business's favorable balance of trade.
But perhaps more than anything, Valenti acted as a conscience for Hollywood, reminding industryites about their responsibilities and excesses. However, he constantly defended show business from attackers, and rarely criticized the business himself. One rare example was his attack on Oliver Stone's 1991 "JFK." Valenti defended the Warren Commission (established by his mentor Johnson), casting aspersions on Stone's controversial film. However, his timing was, as always, discreet: he waited until four months after the film had opened, after the Academy Awards, before speaking out against the pic.
The silver-haired Valenti was a natty dresser and courtly gentleman, who enjoyed using five-dollar words and arcane historical and literary allusions as he spoke out on numerous issues, all of which seemed to get him into a high lather.
For example, in 1985 at ShoWest, he described new technologies as "metal skeletons whirling about in the heavens, hurling down beams of delivery systems."
The resurgence of JFK conspiracy theories in 1992 caused him to lament, "The Lord only knows how many more conspiratorial badgers are out there burrowing into the entrails of Alice's Nonsense Wonderland, ready to barter their gauzy and grotesque notions for gold in the publishing and movie marketplace."
Even in retirement, Valenti maintained a public profile. He wrote a column for the Politico, including one in which he expressed his opposition to the war in Iraq and made comparison's to Johnson's ill-fated efforts in Vietnam.
"Having served one president in wartime, I'm reluctant to criticize another chief executive because I'm aware of the personal agony they feel in ordering troops into harm's way," he wrote. "Yet in launching the war in Iraq, our commanders ignored the errors of other drawn-out conflicts, inclouding Vietnam. The mistakes made then were repeated in Iraq. How sad."
Valenti also authored several books, "The Bitter Taste of Glory," "Speaking Up With Confidence," "A Very Human President" and the political novel "Protect and Defend in 1992." His extensive memoir "This Time, This Place: My Life in War, the White House, and Hollywood" was due out in June, 2007.
The French government honored him with its Legion of Honor award for his efforts on behalf of the country's film industry.
He and wife Mary Margaret divided their time between Washington and Los Angeles. They had three children, Courtenay, John, and Alexandra.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be directed to the Jack Valenti Macular Degeneration Research Fund at Johns Hopkins University, c/o Dr. Neil M. Bressler, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 550 N. Broadway, Suite 115, Baltimore, MD 21205-2002.
04-26-07, 06:32 PM
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Yeah, I was trying to think of something smarmy to say about death and ratings, but I got nuttin'..
04-26-07, 06:42 PM
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Well even though I wasn't a fan of his at least he was smart enough to be against the "War" in Iraq...
Other than that I dont really know what else to say except to recommend This film is Not Yet Rated which is a decent documentary and features some interesting info on Valenti...
Other than that I dont really know what else to say except to recommend This film is Not Yet Rated which is a decent documentary and features some interesting info on Valenti...
04-26-07, 07:24 PM
#7
Originally Posted by chris_sc77
Well even though I wasn't a fan of his at least he was smart enough to be against the "War" in Iraq...
Is there a person in Hollywood that isn't? Anyway, it's too bad his precious MPAA didn't die with him.
04-27-07, 12:31 AM
#10
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Originally Posted by Suprmallet
I wonder if the next head of the MPAA will ease things up, or if it will be a ratings Nazi.
04-27-07, 07:19 AM
#12
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The man's dead, show some respect. Let's have a moment of silence in his honor. Oh... wait, my moment of silence is actually encrypted using DRM that I lost the license key for. I'd reverse engineer it but I don't want to get in trouble...
04-27-07, 07:21 AM
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Seems kind of shallow to celebrate the death of someone, especially someone who exerted an inordinate amount of control over something as ultimately trivial in the whole scheme of life as film ratings/censorship. Especially in this era of the 'unrated' DVD. Kind of makes it all a moot point.
Sure, the whole concept was too far right for my tastes, and I get how wrong it was to force directors to alter films in order to get a coveted rating. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I don't support the MPAA, I'm ant-censorship, I didn't follow Valenti's way of thinking, I "backup" DVDs often (and did so with VHS) and certainly support an artist's right to expression. Just seems like bad karma to make jokes, though.
He was a guy, with a family, who died. I can disagree with what he did in life, but that doesn't mean I'm glad to see him dead.
I guess I'm getting soft in my old age...
Sure, the whole concept was too far right for my tastes, and I get how wrong it was to force directors to alter films in order to get a coveted rating. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I don't support the MPAA, I'm ant-censorship, I didn't follow Valenti's way of thinking, I "backup" DVDs often (and did so with VHS) and certainly support an artist's right to expression. Just seems like bad karma to make jokes, though.
He was a guy, with a family, who died. I can disagree with what he did in life, but that doesn't mean I'm glad to see him dead.
I guess I'm getting soft in my old age...
Last edited by Pointyskull; 04-27-07 at 07:27 AM.
04-27-07, 11:47 AM
#15
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I felt this was a fitting tribute:
EXIT VALENTI
04.26.07
By Jeremy Smith
Jack Valenti, hero and villain to the American film industry, died today at the age of eighty-five, three years after releasing his viselike grip on the Motion Picture Association of America. I hope he enjoyed his brief retirement, but I'll hazard a guess and assume he missed the day-to-day bare-knuckle brawling with Congressmen, studio chiefs, filmmakers, theater owners and his myriad critics in the media; the man relished a fight. He was never more eloquent than when defending a fiercely held ideal or protecting the legacy of his old friend, and fellow Texan, Lyndon B. Johnson, for whom he served as Special Assistant until Lew Wasserman lured him away to head up the MPAA in 1966.
But Valenti wasn't mean; though he wanted his opponent to know they'd been in a fight, he sought common ground, not the coup de grace. "I like to pour all the blood, muscle and sinew I can into a fight," he once boasted, but then added this caveat: "Downplay your own self-interest and make a senator look like a hero for voting with you."
Valenti was a throwback to an era of bi-partisanship. Mentored by "The Master of the Senate" himself, Valenti was an eloquent defender of the give-and-take philosophy abandoned in the post-"Contract with America" years. Having lobbied successfully on behalf of the film industry for close to forty years, he understood the difference between vigorous debate and blood feuds. No one swung with more gusto than Valenti, but no one was quicker to pick his combatant up off the canvas when the battle was done.
I emphasize this because I could easily vilify the man at length for his many missteps as the head of the MPAA. I could inveigh against his stubborn defense of the ratings system, which began to promote the kind of censorship its creation was meant to ward off when the X-rating became synonymous with pornography. I could enumerate the ways in which his compromise, the NC-17, was nothing more than a sidestepping of an issue he deftly addressed head-on in the late 1960s. And, by god, I could compose a fiery screed savaging his adherence to outmoded copyright laws and his old-school fear of emerging technology ("I say to you that the VCR is to the American producer and the American public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone.")
Today, however, I want to honor Jack. I want to thank him for the way he transformed an industry struggling to redefine itself in the post-mogul era (more often than not, he saved the Hollywood from itself). In an age of "ums" and "ers", I want to express my admiration for his stunning, off-the-cuff oratorical brilliance (his only living equal in this department is Bill Clinton). And I want to say how much I'll miss the salty old bastard. He ran the MPAA for thirty-eight years, and we'll probably be debating his influence, good and bad, on filmmaking for the rest of our lives.
For a real obit, give this NY Times piece a read.
04.26.07
By Jeremy Smith
Jack Valenti, hero and villain to the American film industry, died today at the age of eighty-five, three years after releasing his viselike grip on the Motion Picture Association of America. I hope he enjoyed his brief retirement, but I'll hazard a guess and assume he missed the day-to-day bare-knuckle brawling with Congressmen, studio chiefs, filmmakers, theater owners and his myriad critics in the media; the man relished a fight. He was never more eloquent than when defending a fiercely held ideal or protecting the legacy of his old friend, and fellow Texan, Lyndon B. Johnson, for whom he served as Special Assistant until Lew Wasserman lured him away to head up the MPAA in 1966.
But Valenti wasn't mean; though he wanted his opponent to know they'd been in a fight, he sought common ground, not the coup de grace. "I like to pour all the blood, muscle and sinew I can into a fight," he once boasted, but then added this caveat: "Downplay your own self-interest and make a senator look like a hero for voting with you."
Valenti was a throwback to an era of bi-partisanship. Mentored by "The Master of the Senate" himself, Valenti was an eloquent defender of the give-and-take philosophy abandoned in the post-"Contract with America" years. Having lobbied successfully on behalf of the film industry for close to forty years, he understood the difference between vigorous debate and blood feuds. No one swung with more gusto than Valenti, but no one was quicker to pick his combatant up off the canvas when the battle was done.
I emphasize this because I could easily vilify the man at length for his many missteps as the head of the MPAA. I could inveigh against his stubborn defense of the ratings system, which began to promote the kind of censorship its creation was meant to ward off when the X-rating became synonymous with pornography. I could enumerate the ways in which his compromise, the NC-17, was nothing more than a sidestepping of an issue he deftly addressed head-on in the late 1960s. And, by god, I could compose a fiery screed savaging his adherence to outmoded copyright laws and his old-school fear of emerging technology ("I say to you that the VCR is to the American producer and the American public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone.")
Today, however, I want to honor Jack. I want to thank him for the way he transformed an industry struggling to redefine itself in the post-mogul era (more often than not, he saved the Hollywood from itself). In an age of "ums" and "ers", I want to express my admiration for his stunning, off-the-cuff oratorical brilliance (his only living equal in this department is Bill Clinton). And I want to say how much I'll miss the salty old bastard. He ran the MPAA for thirty-eight years, and we'll probably be debating his influence, good and bad, on filmmaking for the rest of our lives.
For a real obit, give this NY Times piece a read.
04-28-07, 07:01 AM
#16
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
..... I wonder how Kirby Dick feels?
I hate the MPAA and everything it stands for but he had a wife & 3 children and even through I hated some of the things he did I feel for the family of Valenti.
It's just to bad that i can't feel much sympathy for this for some reason. I really hated him and changing your opinion's just because he's dead isn't what i do. When Anna N. Smith died it didn't bother me one bit, she was a horrible person, so people that say she was a great woman just because they don't want to speak i'll of the dead is silly in my opinion.
I hate the MPAA and everything it stands for but he had a wife & 3 children and even through I hated some of the things he did I feel for the family of Valenti.
It's just to bad that i can't feel much sympathy for this for some reason. I really hated him and changing your opinion's just because he's dead isn't what i do. When Anna N. Smith died it didn't bother me one bit, she was a horrible person, so people that say she was a great woman just because they don't want to speak i'll of the dead is silly in my opinion.
