Remembering MPAA's Jack Valenti (1921-2007)

Today Hollywood is mourning the loss of one of the industry's strongest supporters and allies. Jack Valenti, who ran the Motion Picture Association of America for almost four decades, died yesterday at the age of 85. He had recently suffered a stroke. The Washington Post eulogizes Valenti "as important to Hollywood as any film star. Because of his craft, cunning and connections as the studios' top lobbyist--Valenti always disliked such a common term--his constituents reaped countless billions of dollars." Valenti, the grandson of Sicilian immigrants, was born in Houston, attended University there, earned an MBA from Harvard, flew 51 combat missions in WWII, and then branched out into politcal consulting. He eventually went to work as an aide for Vice President Lyndon Johnson and was in the Dallas motorcade on November 22, 1963, when JFK was shot. Valenti worked with Johnson until MCA's Lew Wasserman lured him Hollywood to head the MPAA. Valenti's most famous initiative was the industry's movie-rating system that employed self-regulation instead of legislation. He "was also a staunch defender of the industry's importance to America's balance of trade," Variety writes. "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 was rarely able to suggest a remedy." Critics complained that he would back the status qou of the studio system, even if it harmed the industry at large. But few would argue that he was a true gentleman, a colorful, larger-than-life personality with shiny silver hair and trademark cowboy boots. And he will be remembered for not only what he said but how he said it. "Of course, Valenti never just talked" the Washington Post writes. "In his many public utterances, he orated and declaimed, grandly and voluminously, as if addressing the Roman Senate about the urgency of conquering Gaul. A fan of Shakespeare and Yeats and Greek mythology, Valenti spoke in baroque phrases, filigreed and curlicued -- all inflected with a slight Texas accent. From his tongue, an opponent's proposal wasn't merely unacceptable; it was 'an arrow dipped in curare.' And as spun by him, America wasn't just a great and fine nation; it was 'a free and loving land.'" Valenti retired from the MPAA three years ago, handing over the reins to Dan Glickman, the former Kansas congressman and Clinton administration cabinet member who called Valenti "the ultimate leading man." He will be missed. Here's what leaders in the industry had to say about Valenti's passing.

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