Dark Victory

by Moldea, Dan E. ; Miller, Mark Crispin;

  Universal’s “golden years” culminated just after its November 1946 merger with International Pictures, headed by Leo Spitz—who had negotiated the payoffs in Chicago between Willie Bioff, after he was hooked into the Chicago Mafia, and Barney Balaban, before he became the president of Paramount.

  Universal-International made a corporate decision to stop making the second-rate films it had become known for and to attract a classier audience. The studio bought the American distribution rights of J. Arthur Rank Productions, a first-rate English movie company, and thereby acquired such films as Laurence Olivier’s Academy Award-winning production of Hamlet, for which Universal shared its second Best Picture Oscar, and The Lavender Hill Mob and The Man in the White Suit, both starring Alec Guinness. Universal followed with such A-movies as Brute Force and Naked City.

  When Universal was bought by Decca Records* in 1952, it returned to its low-budget films, concentrating on science fiction dramas, like This Island Earth and The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and series comedies featuring Francis the Talking Mule and Ma and Pa Kettle. These box-office successes were followed by a long string of “women’s movies,” produced by Ross Hunter, ranging from tear-jerkers like Imitation of Life to the Doris Day-Rock Hudson romantic comedies like Pillow Talk.

  While the Antitrust Division tied up the loose ends of its litigation against MCA, Wasserman and Allen Susman met with government attorneys Leonard Posner and Malcolm MacArthur for a general discussion on October 1, 1962. According to the report of the meeting, Seven Arts appeared to have the inside track on the Universal post-1948 film library and eventually bought it for $21.5 million, with a $7.5 million down payment. The controlling interest in Seven Arts had been purchased by a business syndicate controlled by Louis A. Chesler, a Canadian financier and a long-time associate of Meyer Lansky. Also, Wasserman hinted that MCA would concentrate on the production of major motion pictures and their distribution. Clearly, the meeting between MCA and the government antitrust lawyers was cordial and congenial.3

  The day after his meeting with Wasserman, Posner resigned from his job with the Antitrust Division to join a prestigious Beverly Hills law firm, which specialized in protecting the components of the entertainment industry from government tax and antitrust regulations.†

  In the wake of the demise of MCA Artists, the biggest winner in the former MCA client sweepstakes was clearly the William Morris Agency, with its rolls climbing to seven hundred actors under contract. At its peak, MCA represented only six hundred actors among its fourteen hundred clients.

  Many MCA agents went into business for themselves, including Dave Baumgarten, who set up his own Agency for the Performing Arts, and Herman Citron and Arthur Park, who formed the Artists Agency Corporation, also known as Citron-Park. Other former MCAers, like Irving Salkow and Henry Alper, joined GAC, whose board of directors selected MCA vice-president Larry Barnett as its new president in 1963. Mike Levee, Jr., went with Rosenberg-Coryell, and four of MCA’s top New York agents—Bobby Brenner, Kay Brown, Phyllis Jackson, and Jay Sandford—brought nearly one hundred top artists into the stable of the fast-growing Ashley-Steiner Agency. All of these agents remained tight with MCA and were destined to have a significant impact on future MCA productions.

  MCA-Revue’s television lineup was none too shabby, as it again had a commanding impact for the 1962–63 season. It included such shows as ABC’s Wagon Train (which had moved from NBC), Leave It to Beaver, McHale’s Navy, and Alcoa Theater; NBC’s It’s a Man’s World, Laramie, and Wide Country; and CBS’s continuation of The Jack Benny Show and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (which had returned from NBC). MCA’s total contribution to network television was eleven hours of programming, led by ABC with five hours, NBC’s four and one-half hours, and CBS’s one and one-half hours.

  However, one long-running MCA show was on the verge of biting the dust, CBS’s General Electric Theater, featuring Ronald Reagan, then opposite the top-rated Bonanza on NBC.*

  In his role as General Electric’s celebrity spokeman, Reagan had become increasingly controversial, bitterly attacking the Kennedy administration for its policies toward big business. Reagan had been particularly incensed by the breakup of MCA, calling the government’s action “a meat-ax operation.” Reagan started quoting Thomas Paine (“Government is a necessary evil; let us have as little of it as possible”) and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (“Strike for the jugular. Reduce taxes and spending. Keep government poor and remain free”).5

  In 1962, influenced by MCA’s Jules Stein and Taft Schreiber, Reagan officially switched political parties and became a Republican. Life-long conservative Republicans, Stein and Schreiber had watched Reagan closely on the “mashed-potato circuit” for General Electric and discovered that he was speaking their language. “Both on the air and in the GE plants,” wrote Reagan biographer Lou Cannon, “Reagan exceeded even Schreiber’s high expectations.… Reagan accepted the various published descriptions of himself as a ‘prominent conservative spokesman,’ although he always bridled when the word ‘right-winger’ was added to the description. He thought of himself as an orthodox and patriotic American who was drawing attention to a problem of government growth that would destroy the country if it wasn’t corrected. While still a registered Democrat, Reagan realized he had become a Republican.”6

  His political views became so reactionary that they even started offending the conservative high command of General Electric—to the point where both GE and the BBD&O advertising agency began holding private meetings, considering whether to replace Reagan with a new, more moderate host.

  Stanley Rubin, who was GE Theater’s executive producer from 1959 to 1962, said, “There was a time when I heard from the executives from MCA-Revue that Ronnie was unhappy with the kind of liberal content, liberal point of view of the stories. To me, they were studies of the human condition.… Suddenly, he got the right to come to me with a couple of stories and to produce them.… I didn’t like his selection at all. His stories were extremely political—right-wing political. They were exposés of communists in America.”7

  Rubin later added, “There came a time in the making of GE Theater in early 1961—while I was preparing scripts—a major executive at GE called me. He said they were coming out to the West Coast before the beginning of the new season. And he said, ‘What do you think about a new host for the new season, and who would you suggest for the role?’ I was kind of stunned. I said, ‘Why don’t you talk to Taft Schreiber?’

  “Then they called back a couple of days later and asked ‘What would you think of multiple hosts? Maybe Ronnie could be the host for the dramas, and maybe someone else could do the comedies, another could do the romances.’ I told them it was possible but again suggested that they talk to Schreiber. They said they would be the following week. But, when they arrived, they said, ‘Forget it.’ I assumed that they had talked to Schreiber, who killed the idea of replacing Ronnie.

  “I got one of the executives to the side and asked what had happened. He said, ‘You know that Ronnie, as the spokesman for GE, has been going around talking to all kinds of groups. And his speeches to these groups have been so ultraconservative that he has become an embarrassment to the GE executive suite.’”8

  Finally, at the end of the 1961–62 season, General Electric Theater was canceled and the former president of the Screen Actors Guild was without steady work. Once again, MCA stepped in.*

  *In The New York Times, Murray Schumach wrote: “Financially, MCA is probably in a stronger position than any movie company in Hollywood. Its assets exceed $80 million. It owns a savings and loan association with assets of more than $63 million.

  “Despite MCA’s enormous expenditures for expansion in recent years, its net income has risen steadily and last year [1961] reached a record of nearly $7.5 million. At the start of this year the retained earnings of the company exceeded $33 million. During 1961 its current assets of some $50 million were double its current liabilities.”1

  *Decca Rec
ords had originally been founded in Great Britain and then moved to the United States after World War II. Among other artists, Decca signed Guy Lombardo, Louis Armstrong, and Bing Crosby. In 1954, Milton Rackmil, who had been responsible for boosting the careers of Bill Haley and the Comets and Buddy Holly and the Crickets, became the president of both Decca and Universal. He remained as the head of Universal after the studio was bought by MCA.

  †(Three months later, Leonard Posner was found dead in his apartment after being stricken by an apparent heart attack. Posner, who had no history of heart trouble, was survived only by his father. No foul play was suspected.

  *According to a Justice Department memorandum, when GE Theater started having problems, MCA quickly intervened. Wasserman went to Jimmy Stewart and said, “Jimmy, I need a favor. The General Electric Theater has been lagging lately. We need a name. We need you to do a show. Please do it for me.” Because of the relationship between Wasserman and Stewart, the actor agreed to do the program, even though he did not want to perform on television.4

  *One long-time MCA loyalist whom neither Jules Stein nor Lew Wasserman could help was James Petrillo, who had given up his position as national president of the American Federation of Musicians in 1958 but kept control of his home local in Chicago. Running for reelection in Local 10 on December 5, 1962, Petrillo was narrowly defeated 1,690 to 1,595 by a rank-and-file reform candidate, dance-band leader Bernard “Barney” F. Richards, who sought an end to Petrillo’s reign of terror within the union. By the end of his career, Petrillo rarely shook hands with people, fearing that another’s germs would be passed along to him. At the conclusion of his farewell speech to his AFM brothers and sisters, he tearfully collapsed in the arms of his close friend, comedian George Jessel.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Sidney Korshak had become, by 1962, a full-time resident of California with a home in the exclusive Bel Air section of Los Angeles—although he never officially practiced law in the state and never applied for the California bar. However, he continued to maintain his legal practice and businesses in Chicago. A confidential FBI report stated that he “is somewhat of a mystery man. He makes regular plane trips to Las Vegas and on occasion to Chicago as well as other places. He reportedly has an interest in the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas.”1

  Another FBI report stated that “negotiations were being carried on whereby the Chicago organization [Mafia] was to obtain a tighter grip on Las Vegas hotels and casinos and that allegedly negotiations were being made through Sidney Korshak,” who was later described in that same report as “one of the most powerful individuals in the country.”2

  One FBI source identified Korshak as “possibly the highest-paid lawyer in the world. The source stated that Korshak primarily represented a group in Las Vegas … the ‘Chicago group,’ who were in the opinion of this source the biggest single factor on the Las Vegas scene.”

  When in Las Vegas, he usually stayed in the Presidential Suite of the Riviera. He would occasionally give his quarters to Teamsters general president Jimmy Hoffa when he came into town, looking for investments for the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. According to a Los Angeles Police intelligence report, on October 12, 1961, Korshak came into Las Vegas unexpectedly while Hoffa was in the Presidential Suite at the Riviera. When Korshak arrived at the hotel, Hoffa yielded to Korshak, moving out of the suite to a smaller room across the hall.

  In late 1961, Korshak was asked to represent the Nevada Downtown Hotel Association in a strike involving the Las Vegas local of the Culinary Workers Union. He was also frequently spotted by law-enforcement officials meeting with Harvey Silbert, who was a Beverly Hills attorney close to Allen Dorfman, the fiduciary manager of the Teamsters pension fund.

  Hoffa and the Teamsters, via the Central States Fund, had been extremely generous to Las Vegas, loaning hundreds of millions of dollars to the gaming establishments in Nevada, especially to midwestern gangster Morris Dalitz.

  Moe Dalitz had been a key figure in Detroit’s Purple Gang during the early 1930s, leaving for Ohio after a bloody war with a rival mob group. While in Michigan, Dalitz had become an important ally to young Jimmy Hoffa, introducing him to major Mafia figures throughout the country. Settling in Cleveland, Dalitz locked in with Ohio jukebox czar William Presser, who soon became head of the Ohio Teamsters—with the support of Dalitz, Hoffa, and their underworld friends. He also helped the Chicago Mafia bring George Browne and Willie Bioff to power in IATSE.

  In 1949, Dalitz left Cleveland and moved to Las Vegas, where he and some associates bought the controlling interest in the Desert Inn. Dalitz selected Duke University graduate Allard Roen to manage the casino. Later, Dalitz and his business associates purchased the Stardust hotel/casino as well. Dalitz received $24 million in loans from the Central States Pension Fund for his Las Vegas casinos and nearly $100 million from the pension fund for the construction and subsequent renovation of his La Costa Country Club in Carlsbad, California—all personally approved by Hoffa and Allen Dorfman.

  Korshak, according to a confidential FBI report, “was to act as a ‘go-between’ between John Factor [“Jake the Barber”] and the Desert Inn group made up of Morris Dalitz and Allard Roen in the sale of the Stardust property in Las Vegas, Nevada, owned by Factor.…

  “Korshak was to keep the signed option and agreements in his personal possession concerning this transaction.”

  John Factor, an owner of the Stardust, was a wealthy international swindler, according to a Los Angeles Police report, who had served six years in prison in a mail-fraud scheme involving $1.2 million. The report also identified him as a “long-time friend of [the] Capone group from Chicago.”

  According to another FBI document, the government had learned that Korshak “had advised Hoffa not to make any loans from the Central States, Southeast, and Southwest Areas Pension Fund to the operators of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. That he, Hoffa, already had too many loans to Las Vegas gambling interests … that if the Teamsters membership ever found out about Hoffa’s handling and misuse of the pension funds, he, Hoffa, would never get out of jail.”3

  The FBI was also investigating Teamsters pension fund loans to finance the Skyway Hotel at Miami’s International Airport. Korshak was said to be the intermediary between the hotel group and Hoffa.

  Back in Chicago, Korshak and his brother Marshall hosted a dinner in honor of the Cardinal Stritch Medical School of Loyola University. Meantime, Bernard “Pepi” Posner—who was identified in a confidential FBI report as the Korshaks’ cousin but was no relation of Leonard Posner—was placed in charge of the underworld’s bookmaking operations in the city’s Hyde Park area. At the same time, Herman Posner, a rank-and-file dissident from Chicago’s IATSE local and no relation to either Leonard or Pepi, was found knifed to death after preparing to turn state’s evidence on extortion schemes and kickbacks involving local union leaders.

  In New York, Korshak’s name cropped up during an investigation of the New York State Liquor Authority and Ralph Berger, an organized crime associate who had reportedly gained “control over certain officials of the State Liquor Authority in New York, and of the Illinois State Liquor Control Board in Chicago.…

  “Berger was a close associate of both Sidney and Marshall Korshak and resided in the same apartment building as Marshall Korshak and spent considerable time in the law offices of the Korshaks at 134 La Salle [in Chicago], and … Berger was a contact man between Korshak and … the chairman of the Illinois Liquor Control Board.”

  Federal investigators thereby assumed that Berger was fronting for the Korshaks. “[I]f Berger was able to exert any influence with certain members of the State Liquor Authority … he undoubtedly would do so as a representative of the Korshaks and not in his own right,” the Justice Department document stated. “It was believed that any conniving Berger might do with the [New York] State Liquor Authority or with the Illinois State Liquor Control Board would be done on behalf of and under the instructions of the Korshak brothe
rs.”4

  At the time of this New York investigation, Marshall Korshak was an Illinois state senator. He was also the president of Windy City Liquor Distributors, Inc., in Chicago. Judith Korshak, Marshall’s wife, was the vice-president of the firm, and Mary Oppenheim was the secretary-treasurer. Oppenheim was also a secretary in the Korshaks’ law firm.

  In Los Angeles, Korshak was into everything from representing a drive-in theatre chain to putting together international deals for corporations. Court records also showed that Joe Glaser of the Associated Booking Company had legally given Korshak all “voting rights, dominion and control” over his interest in ABC. Although Glaser continued to head the agency, the legal maneuver would eventually give Korshak full authority.5 An FBI report alleged that he was part owner of the Bistro Restaurant, although his name appeared on none of the company’s records. A fashionable spot with a French decor and ambience on North Canon Avenue in the heart of Beverly Hills, the Bistro had become one of the most popular restaurants among those on Hollywood’s fast track. According to several sources, the Bistro has been the favorite restaurant of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. “They’ve been coming here for years,” said a long-time employee of the restaurant, who added that the Reagans had been given their own table.

  Korshak was also personally involved in the negotiations between the California Federation of Race Tracks and the Pari-Mutuel Clerks Union. According to Korshak, he became involved in the dispute when Mervyn Leroy—the one-time MGM director who had introduced Ronald Reagan to Nancy Davis—was president of the Hollywood Park Racing Association and asked Korshak for help to head off an employees’ strike at Hollywood Park. Although there were twenty-eight other attorneys involved in the negotiations, Korshak received sole credit for ending the strike. Even though some thought the contract to be sweet—with the employees being forced to compromise their benefits—Korshak said that he “merely brought union and management into accord through some of his contacts.”6