 Final logo, used from 1976 to 1996 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Entertainment |
| Founded | 1924; 101 years ago (1924) (as Music Corporation of America) Incorporated as MCA, Inc. on November 10, 1958 |
| Founder | Jules Stein William R. Goodheart, Jr. |
| Defunct | December 9, 1996; 28 years ago (1996-12-9) (as MCA Inc.) |
| Fate | Acquired bySeagram and later reincorporated asUniversal Studios, Inc. |
| Successors | Universal Studios |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Parent | Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.(1990–1995) Seagram(1995–1996) |
| Divisions | Universal Pictures Universal Television MCA Records |
| Subsidiaries | Decca Records |
MCA Inc.(originally an initialism forMusic Corporation of America) was an Americanmedia conglomerate founded in 1924. Originally atalent agency with artists in the music business as clients, the company became a major force in the film industry, and later expanded into television production. MCA published music, booked acts, ran theMCA Records music label, represented film, television and radio stars, and eventually produced and sold television programs to the three major television networks, especiallyNBC.
MCA was the legal predecessor ofVivendi Universal and therebyNBCUniversal. Its otherlegal successor is Universal Music Group Holding Corp, aholding company owned byUniversal Music Group (which has absorbedPolyGram).
MCA was formed in 1924 byJules Stein and William R. Goodheart, Jr., asMusic Corporation of America, a music booking agency based in Chicago, Illinois. MCA helped pioneer modern practices of touring bands and name acts. Early on, MCA booked such prominent artists asKing Oliver andJelly Roll Morton for clubs andspeakeasies run by legendary notorious Chicago mobsters such asAl Capone and others.
Lew Wasserman joined MCA in 1936 at the age of 23 and rose through the ranks of MCA for more than four decades, withSonny Werblin as his right-hand man. Wasserman helped create MCA's radio show,Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge, which debuted onNBC Radio that same year. Following that success, Stein installed Wasserman in New York City in 1937, but Wasserman convinced him thatHollywood was the best place for the company's growth.
The company was guided by a codification of Stein's pet policies known as "The Rules of The Road".[1][2] The Rules were passed down from theProhibition era, Chicago–area MCA (referenced in books likeCitizen Cohn andThe King and Queen of Hollywood) to the 1940s Los Angeles–area firm, which focused on representing movie actors.
The Rules were next passed to the 1950s generation of MCA talent agents, includingJerry Perenchio, who later owned and headed a number of businesses includingUnivision from 1992 to 2007. Perenchio was well known for his version of the Rules (up to twenty rules),[2] which varied from year to year and had some internal contradictions (In 2006, Perenchio pointed out that while there was a "no nepotism" rule, he was aware his son was on the company's board of directors at the time).[3]
In 1939, based on Wasserman's recommendation, MCA's headquarters moved from Chicago toBeverly Hills, California, creating a movie division. The company began to acquire talent agencies, representing established actors such asJames Stewart,Henry Fonda,Bette Davis,Jane Wyman andRonald Reagan, whom Wasserman became very close with personally. In later decades, Wasserman became a guiding force in Reagan's political ambition by helping Reagan to win the presidency of theScreen Actors Guild (SAG), then election as Governor of California in 1966, and finally President of the United States in 1980.
By the end of the 1930s, MCA had become the largesttalent agency in the world, with over 700 clients, including movie stars, recording artists, Broadway actors, radio stars, and directors. The company's aggressive acquisition of clientele in all entertainment sectors earned MCA the nickname of "The Octopus".[4] The company's activities ledU.S. Department of Justice agents to investigate not only whether MCA was a monopoly breaking antitrust laws, but also its suspected connections to underworld criminal activities. This investigation continued for the next few decades.[5]
In 1948, Jules Stein moved up as MCA's first chairman, giving Lew Wasserman charge of day-to-day operations of the company as president. That year, Stein and Wasserman decided to get into a new medium that would soon change the entertainment industry: television. Although many motion picture studios would not touch this new medium, thinking it was just a fad and would fade away, MCA decided to embrace it. First, however, the company needed to get a waiver from theScreen Actors Guild, which ruled at the time that talent agencies such as MCA were prohibited from producing TV shows or films. Thanks to the newly elected SAG president, Ronald Reagan (an MCA client), MCA was granted a waiver to start producing TV shows.[6][7][8]
After the waiver was granted, the company formed MCA Television Limited forsyndication. In 1950,Revue Productions, once a live concert promotion division that produced "Stage Door Canteen" live events for theUSO during World War II, was re-launched as MCA's television production subsidiary. By 1956, Revue became the top supplier of television for all broadcast networks, spanning three decades of television programs such asArmour Theater,General Electric Theater,The Jane Wyman Show,Leave It to Beaver,Wagon Train, and many others. Prior to 1958, all Revue's shows were filmed at the oldRepublic Pictures studio lot inStudio City, California.
In February 1958, MCA acquiredParamount Pictures' pre-1950 sound feature film library[9] for $10 million, through a newly created MCA subsidiary,EMKA, Ltd.
In December 1958, MCA bought the 423-acre (1.71 km2) Universal Studios lot fromUniversal Pictures for $11,250,000 and renamed it, as well as the actual television unit,Revue Studios.[10] As part of the deal, MCA leased the studios back to Universal for $2 million a year, plus unlimited access to MCA's clients such as Jimmy Stewart,Rock Hudson,Doris Day andAlfred Hitchcock to make films for Universal.
Stein, who by this time was the sole owner of MCA, decided to take the company public by giving 51% of his ownership of MCA to his employees, which included a 20% stake forWasserman. The company wentpublic on theNew York Stock Exchange and was incorporated as MCA Inc. on November 10, 1958.[11] A couple of years later,Alfred Hitchcock gave MCA his rights toPsycho and his television anthology in exchange for 150,000 shares, making him the third largest investor in MCA, and his own boss at Universal.[12]
On June 18, 1962,Decca Records shareholders agreed to MCA's buyout offer[13] after the record label had entered into talks about amerger that April.[14] Decca at the time ownedCoral Records andBrunswick Records, and an 89% stake inUniversal Pictures Company, Inc.
On July 13, 1962, theUnited States Department of Justice filed suit against MCA, charging that its acquisition of Decca's controlling interest in Universal violatedantitrust laws.[15] To retain Universal, MCA would have to close its talent agency, which represented most of the industry's biggest names (a select few handled by Wasserman personally). In reality, MCA's talent agency arm became defunct the day the DOJ filed the suit; dissolving it that October was a mere formality.[16]
MCA's now-former agents quickly formed new agencies, many of which are woven into the corporate fabric of today's talent management;Jerry Perenchio's Chartwell Artists representedElizabeth Taylor andMuhammad Ali. Former MCA agentsFreddie Fields andDavid Begelman formedCreative Management Associates, another important new agency.
By the end of 1962, MCA assumed full ownership of Universal.
In 1964, MCA entered the music publishing business when it acquiredLou Levy's Leeds Music,[17] and formed Universal City Studios the same year in effort to merge under one umbrella both Universal Pictures and its Revue Studios division, which was later reincorporated asUniversal Television in 1966.
On July 15, 1964, MCA established theStudio Tour, which provided guests a behind-the-scenes glimpse of film and television production at Universal Studios. This established a footprint of what is now known asUniversal Studios Hollywoodtheme park. Over the next few decades, similar parks were built and expanded under MCA forUniversal Orlando Resort inOrlando, Florida andUniversal Studios Japan inOsaka.
In 1966, MCA formedUni Records inHollywood, California,[18] and in 1967, MCA bought New York–basedKapp Records.[19] That same year MCA also acquired guitar makerDanelectro[20] and mall retailerSpencer Gifts.[21]
In 1967, theMCA Records label was established outside the United States and Canada to issue releases by the MCA group of labels. Decca, Kapp, and Uni were merged into MCA Records atUniversal City, California in 1971; the three labels maintained their identities for a short time but were soon retired in favor of the MCA label. The first MCA Records release in the US was former Uni artistElton John's "Crocodile Rock" in 1972. In 1973, the final Decca pop label release, "Drift Away", a No. 5 pop hit byDobie Gray, was issued.
MCA had two failed mergers in 1969. Initially, it planned a merger withWestinghouse Electric Corporation but that collapsed in April, and in July, they announced a proposed merger with theFirestone Tire and Rubber Company, but this too was called off in September.[22]
In 1973, Stein stepped down from the company he founded and Wasserman took over as chairman and chief executive officer, whileSidney Sheinberg was appointed president and chief operating officer of MCA.[23] Other executives within MCA were Lawrence R. Barnett, who ran the agency's live acts division during its glory agency years in the 1950s and 1960s, andNed Tanen, head ofUniversal Pictures. Tanen was behind Universal hits such asAnimal House, andJohn Hughes'sSixteen Candles andThe Breakfast Club.
MCA issued soundtrack albums for most films released by Universal Pictures.
In 1975, the company entered thebook publishing business with the acquisition ofG. P. Putnam's Sons.[24] In 1979, it acquiredABC Records along with its subsidiariesParamount Records,Impulse! Records, andDot Records. ABC had acquired the Paramount and Dot labels when it purchasedGulf+Western's record labels in 1974, then the parent company ofParamount Pictures.
From 1983 to 1989,Irving Azoff was chairman of MCA Records and is credited for turning around the fortunes of the label.[25]
TheChess Records catalog was acquired from the remnants of Sugarhill in 1985.Motown Records was bought in 1988 (and sold toPolyGram in 1993).[26]GRP Records (which became for some years MCA'sjazz music label and thus began managing the company's jazz catalogue) andGeffen Records (which served as another mainstream music subsidiary) were acquired in 1990.[27]
MCA also acquired other assets outside of the music industry. It became a shareholder inUSA Network in 1981, eventually owning 50% of the network (the other half was owned by Paramount).[28] In 1982, its publishing division, G. P. Putnam's Sons, boughtGrosset & Dunlap fromFilmways.[29] In 1984, MCA boughtWalter Lantz Productions and its characters, includingWoody Woodpecker. In 1985, MCA bought toy and video game companyLJN.[30] It also bought a TV station in New York City,WWOR-TV (renamed from WOR-TV), in 1987, fromRKO General subsidiary ofGenCorp, which was in the midst of a licensing scandal.
In 1982, MCA decided to start out its video game unit, MCA Video Games, led by technicians of theMCA DiscoVision unit.[31]
In 1983, MCA Videogames, the video game division of MCA itself and video game developer/publisherAtari Inc. entered into a partnership to start out Studio Games, a joint venture that would develop video games based on MCA's film and television properties, most notably from then-sister Universal Pictures, and decided that they would give them access to all motion picture and television properties coming from the unit.[32]
In 1990, MCA hiredHanna-Barbera executive Jeff Segal to start out its MCA Family Entertainment arm (aka Universal Family Entertainment) and hadUniversal Cartoon Studios as its subsidiary.[33][34]
On November 26, 1990, Japanese multinational conglomerateMatsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. agreed to acquire MCA for US$6.59 billion.[35][36] MCA was forced to sell WWOR-TV in 1991 to Pinelands, Inc. because of theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) rules that foreign companies could not own over 25% of a U.S. TV station.
In 1995,Seagram acquired 80% of MCA from Matsushita.[37][38] On November 26, 1996, MCA announced that it would acquire television syndication companyMultimedia Entertainment fromGannett, who acquiredits parent company in 1995, for $40 million.[39][40][41]
On December 9, 1996, the new owners dropped the MCA name; the company becameUniversal Studios, Inc.[42] MCA's music division, MCA Music Entertainment Group, was renamedUniversal Music Group. MCA Records continued to live on as a label within the Universal Music Group. The following year, G. P. Putnam's Sons was sold to thePenguin Group subsidiary ofPearson PLC.
In the spring of 2003, MCA Records was folded intoGeffen Records.[citation needed] Itscountry music label,MCA Nashville Records, is still in operation. MCA's classical music catalog is managed byDeutsche Grammophon.[citation needed]
In 1952, when Mr. Reagan was president of the actors' union and MCA was his talent agent, the company got a special waiver from SAG's rules that allowed it to engage in unlimited production of television shows. That let MCA act both as an employer of actors and as their talent agent, supposed to negotiate the best terms for them. MCA, then the largest talent agency in Hollywood, was the only one ever given such a blanket exemption.
uni + decca + kapp.
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