Word: mca
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...Memos. In this withering atmosphere of retreat and retrenchment, a brawny upstart is defying the trend. It is MCA Inc., the sprawling talent agency that controls a majority of Hollywood's biggest stars* and is thus largely responsible for the astronomical salaries they have forced on the older studios. MCA has grandly announced plans to "revitalize the film industry." Founded by dapper Jules Stein 38 years ago, MCA has long dictated casting to producers with "package deals" in which a buyer takes a mixed bag of stars and shows in order to get a few good ones...
Since 1946, MCA's operating head (and president) has been Lew Wasserman, 49, the austere and fanatically secretive protege of Founder Stein. Wasserman always dresses in black, and sees that his underlings do too. He is always accompanied by an aide who memorizes conversations so there will be a record of them in the event of Wasserman's death; in the best cloak-and-dagger style, MCA rarely keeps memos on any transaction...
...Because it simultaneously acts as agent for most of Hollywood's top talent, is the nation's largest producer and distributor of TV films, and holds TV rights to Paramount's pre-1948 film library, MCA Inc. is uneasily known in the film capital as "The Octopus." Though MCA's elusive President Lew Wasserman, 49, has refused to admit it, show-biz savants have long suspected that the octopus would like to stretch its tentacles into movie production. Last week directors of New York's Decca Records, Inc. approved Wasserman's offer of MCA...
...chairman and moderator, Mildred McA. Horton, former president of Wellesley College, expressed the opinion that women's opportunities are inhibited on a co-educational campus. "Some of the most ardent believers in equal opportunity think education is better on separate campuses," she commented...
Lord of this happy domain is Bold Venture's producer, Cincinnati's Ziv Television Programs, Inc. (runners-up: CBS Films Inc., MCA-TV, Ltd.). Founded in 1937 as a radio syndication outfit by Cincinnati Adman Frederic W. Ziv, the company went into TV eleven years ago with a good backlog of Hollywood feature films. Even better were its first self-produced show, Yesterday's Newsreels, and its first adventure series, Cisco Kid. Others followed, including Men of Annapolis, West Point, Harbor Command, and this season's Dial 999 and Bat Masterson. Today Ziv employs...