MCA: The Octopus' Tentacle That Wraps Around The World
Reaching terminal velocity at the fulcrum of entertainment and (non-)governmental crime
The Octopus Murders docuseries has caused quite the sensation since it was released February 28th on Netflix. This article will assume the reader has some familiarity with Danny Casolaro’s investigation into the murky alliance between intelligence operators and global organized crime.
Danny’s entry point into the Octopus’ tentacles purportedly began with the government sanctioned heist of the PROMIS software, which included the active participation of the Department of Justice in the cover-up. A good summary of this complicated tale can be found in chapter 17 of Mary Seymour’s book The Last Circle.
I got sucked into the grip of the Octopus by the bizarre case of Britney Spears’ conservatorship. Immediately, I knew that the story being spun was completely implausible. I’m three years into my investigation; my conceptual model of the conspiracy is anchored in bedrock facts.
Can you have a parasocial relationship with a dead journalist? My social network fully identifies with Danny Casolaro’s friend’s perspective that tentacles of his investigation were suffocating the life out of him. This statement from echoes across the decades right into my eardrum:1
Who am I to think I’m a better investigator than Danny? My investigation has consumed my RAM and my life circumstances have fared the same: broke and without a book deal. Yet, my ultimate prize feels just around the next corner; I feen my next breakthrough and feign interest in any topic that does not pertain to my hunt.
For the record, I’m a notorious fainter during blood draws. You will find it noted multiple times in my medical records.
My entry point into this deep sea dive was a product of being intensely subsumed by my Parkinson’s symptoms. My miswired body operates with different laws of physics; this exponentially increases the time required for routine daily tasks. The only thing I can do efficiently is read, watch, listen, and think. Now my body of work? - Well, it is a pristinely calibrated interface to synthesize data in an era of information overload.
Danny’s work is a far off outpost where I have been prospecting for truth. I just came to learn Danny felt he was developing symptoms of multiple sclerosis and he believed it may be due to being targeted by a bioweapon. My Parkinson’s can feel like a form of torture - both in its physical symptoms, as well as fruitlessly ruminating on its' etiology.
In 1991 a journalist asked Michael Riconosciuto about Danny’s concern he was developing a brain disease:
[Michael Riconosciuto] promptly said, “Oh, yes. He, uh, was concerned. And that was one of the reasons he had such an obsession [with this story]. Because he felt he had been hit by these people.”
“Hit by them?”
“He confided this to me to try to get me to talk further” about biological warfare projects he’d discovered, Riconosciuto explained.
It is a circuitous route to get from stolen software to bioweapons or a pop star’s conservatorship to the Octopus. Nonetheless - the goal of embarking on a deep dive is to resurface with your findings. Don’t forget to breathe or you might pass out.
MCA: The Severed & Regenerative Tentacle
The only way people earn a “Get Out of Jail Free Card” is if they are associates of some kind of monopoly. Isn’t the U.S. federal government best suited to dole out unofficial pardons? By my estimation it would be preferable to a presidential or governor’s pardon - as the governmental sanctioning of those crimes is a matter for the public record.
Upon viewing The Octopus Murders I was very surprised there was no content regarding MCA. This Substack was specifically created to dive into the history of the entertainment industry. You see - I have to tell the story of MCA in order for people to understand that Live Nation-Ticketmaster is its offspring. So I shall call them “The Squid” and I fixated on them because of the inordinate amount of power they had to profit from Britney’s conservatorship.2
The Fall of the Hollywood Studio System
The Paramount Decrees
The swift collapse of the Hollywood studio system was precipitated by the 1948 landmark ruling by the Supreme Court in the antitrust case United States v. Paramount. The monopolistic fiefdoms of the big studios (Paramount, Loews, RKO, Warner Brothers, Twentieth Century-Fox, Columbia, Universal, and United Artists) who together had control over every aspect of the movie industry. Even the biggest stars were poorly compensated contract players and many of the studios controlled the distribution and exhibition of their films.
The outcome of the Paramount case would entirely restructure the industry, such as forcing the studios to sell their movie theaters. The public trial demonstrated how the movie studios’ oligopoly was guilty of widespread corruption in every aspect of the industry.
After a trial, the district court found that the defendants had engaged in a widespread conspiracy to illegally fix motion picture prices and monopolize both the film distribution and movie theatre markets. On appeal, the Supreme Court sustained those findings. See United States v. Paramount, 334 U.S. 131 (1948). Subsequently, each of the defendants entered into a consent decree with the Department (collectively, “the Paramount Decrees”).
- The Paramount Decrees, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice
The fall of the Hollywood studio system was a boon for actors’ earning power, stature and creative freedom. Yet, this industry restructuring was even more beneficial to talent agents who were now able to have the upper-hand by bundling superstars into package deals. Ironically, the Paramount Decrees had forced the studios to stop bundling their films, which made theaters have to agree to exhibit less popular movies if they wanted the hits.
Wasserman was a visionary who was beloved by the constellation of Hollywood.3 For example, he facilitated the end of multiple labor strikes, initiated profit sharing for actors on their films and cannily forecasted the (seemingly obvious) success movies would have on tv.
In 1958, MCA paid $10 million for Paramount’s library of pre-1948 films. Some people thought those 700 movies were useless relics; TV was still relatively new, and nobody was sure what viewers wanted. But within a week, MCA had made $30 million in deals for TV airing of these oldies, and the library continued to mint money for MCA for decades.
With this much success… there's always something cooking behind the scenes.
The De Havilland Law
The industry was ready for a reconfiguration of power by the time the Paramount Decrees debuted in Hollywood. In 1943 the actress Olivia de Havilland legally challenged her exclusive contract with Warner Brothers. The contract was for 7 years, yet the studio argued her time had not been served due to her suspensions for refusing roles she didn’t want to play.
The case De Havilland v. Warner Bros. lead to the creation of the “Seven Year Rule”or “De Havilland Law”, which meant stars could no longer be bound to contracts beyond seven years and the clock on de Havilland’s contract didn’t stop due to her suspensions.
The application of the “Seven Year Rule” was far slower in the music industry. In the past few decades the law was successfully invoked by artists like Courtney Love and Kanye West to fight their recording contracts.
Despite the successful antitrust fights of the 20th century, Americans are facing a renewed crisis of corporate consolidation. In August 2020 “a federal judge approved a motion from the U.S. Department of Justice to end the Paramount consent decrees, which have dictated the movie industry's licensing rules for over 70 years.” A new wave of antitrust enforcement has been underway since the beginning of the Biden administration. The bipartisan effort to reign in monopolies/oligopolies is essential consumer rights, as well as creative freedom for artists.
An aside: I met Olivia de Havilland when I volunteered at Robert Osborne’s Classic Film Festival in 2005. To this day I have never seen anyone in person wearing so many jewels, especially while I was dressed as Robin Hood.
The Octopus
Jules Stein founded the Music Corporation of America (MCA) in 1924. MCA began as a talent agency booking bands in Prohibition era Chicago nightclubs. From the beginning MCA had mafia ties, which was mandatory to operate in Al Capone’s Chicago. Yet, MCA’s tentacle to organized crime figures in Chicago stayed intact over for decades to come.4
MCA ultimately relocated their headquarters to Hollywood where it would expand to representing actors as well. They were always known for their aggressive business tactics and faced multiple investigations during their reign. MCA began to receive national attention in 1946 during a federal antitrust case.
In deciding against MCA, the judge called the talent agency “the Octopus ... with tentacles reaching out to all phases and grasping everything in show business.”5
- Dan Moldea, Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob
MCA and an Actor Named Ronald Reagan
This article cites an abundant number of sources where you can learn more about the consequential junction of Ronald Reagan’s political career and MCA’s dominance in the entertainment industry. Here is a quick rundown: Lew Wasserman became the head of MCA, Inc. in 1946. Wasserman was Reagan’s talent agent and facilitated his rise to becoming President of SAG (1947-1952; 1959-1960), Governor of California and ultimately President of the United States. Furthermore, as an actor Reagan was also an informant to the FBI on alleged communist sympathizers during the Red Scare.
As President of SAG Reagan gave MCA a waiver in 1952 so they could represent talent and enter into the television production business. This is a conflict of interest because a worker’s employer and union become the same entity. Conversely, this was a groundbreaking deal for SAG members because MCA agreed to pay residuals to actors when their work was rebroadcasted on television. This was a huge win for actors and set the standard for all production studios to pay residuals.
Whatever Reagan's personal interest in the deal might have been, SAG did not give MCA its waiver without extracting a substantial price. As part of the negotiations, MCA became the first producer to agree to pay actors residuals when television programs in which they performed were rebroadcast. Obtaining such residual payments was the union's highest priority in contract negotiations then simultaneously under way with the producers; once MCA broke the united front of opposition, the remaining producers capitulated. "Every writer, actor and director in this town ought to get down and kiss Ronald Reagan's feet," insists one former MCA agent, "because the man got television residuals. That has paid for most of the houses in the [San Fernando] Valley."
- The Power and the Glitter, 1990, p. 1836
MCA’s 1962 Antitrust Case
A Department of Justice antitrust investigation into MCA began when John F. Kennedy became president in 1961, which was under the purview of the freshly appointed Attorney General Robert Kennedy. At that time MCA had “700 actors and actresses under contract, 300 Broadway actors, all the “Big Bands” and major nightclubs in the largest cities.”7
The government had evidence that MCA had engaged in numerous civil and criminal violations of law and empaneled a federal grand jury to hear the specifics of its charges, which included restraint of trade, conspiracy with SAG to monopolize talent and film program productions, extortion, discrimination, blacklisting, and the use of predatory business practices. Among those called to testify was Ronald Reagan, who displayed a remarkable loss of memory while on the witness stand. Soon after, the federal income tax records of Reagan and his wife were subpoenaed for the years following the MCA-SAG blanket waiver.
- Dan Moldea, Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob8
On July 13, 1962 the federal government filed an antitrust case against MCA.9 It was quickly apparent that MCA would be willing to give up its entire stake in the talent agency business.10 In less than two weeks MCA agreed to dissolve their talent agency.11
The final judgment in the case of United States v. MCA Inc. was entered on October 18, 1962. Everything had been resolved behind closed doors without any admission of guilt or significant consequences. Selling off their talent agency was a no-brainer as it was only a tiny fraction of their profit stream. MCA did have restraints placed upon their future mergers and acquisitions; although there was no issue with their recent acquisition of Decca Records and Universal Pictures.
A Back Door Deal?
In the wake of the 1962 antitrust case Wasserman realized he needed to build stronger connections in DC. He focused on cultivating a strong relationship with Lyndon B. Johnson and became a leading campaign fundraiser.12
"At a typical fundraiser at Lew's there would be an enormous cross section of powerful Southern Californians: aircraft industry people, retailers, writers, entertainers to be sure . . . heads of other studios, people who had some inherited wealth"
- The Power and the Glitter, 1990
Why would Wasserman cultivate relationships with people in the aircraft industry? In future articles I will explore in greater detail the intersection of the entertainment industry and the military industrial complex.
People may dismiss this relationship as a logical leap… but consider Keith Richards assertion that Decca Records used money made from the Rolling Stones to manufacture tech for bombs dropped on North Vietnam.13 Or how strange it is that Louis Armstrong’s trip to the Congo coincided with the assassination of the democratically elected Patrice Lumumba.14
The mafia indisputably collaborated with the CIA in an attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro.15 The mafia has always played an outsized role in the music industry.16 Now we can ask:
How connected is the music industry to the intelligence services?
Did this partnership help MCA Records escape from DOJ and FBI investigations in the 1980s?
As my investigation progressed I would yammer on about MCA, but no one knew what I was talking about. Only recently did I realize my fatal mistake was not referring to MCA as Universal. Decca Records would become MCA Records and MCA would rebrand itself as Universal. Rebranding is a flavor of movie magic.
The Squid Is A Whale
Devolution: The 2010 Merger of Live Nation & Ticketmaster
Irving Azoff is the former head of MCA Records who faced federal scrutiny while he held that position in the 1980s. Yet, he and the MCA corporation were specifically immunized from any sort of criminal repercussions. Azoff has been accused of financial impropriety for decades beyond whatever he may have done at MCA Records. His bold heists span from stiffing Robert Evans out of profits for the 1980 Urban Cowboy soundtrack to recently skimming of ancillary tour profits from the band Journey. Why has Azoff continued to have criminal invincibility?
In 2008 Azoff would merge his Front Line Management company, the largest musician management company in the world, with Ticketmaster and be installed as the top boss. Soon thereafter Ticketmaster announced their plan to merge with Live Nation. By 2010 they successfully merged and created the largest live entertainment monopoly in the world. Why was Azoff the one who was able to get the job done?
Jam Productions, a music promoter and competitor of Live Nation, filed an Opposition to the Final Judgment that permitted the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster.17 Jerry Mickelson of Jam Productions even cited MCA’s 1962 antitrust case in the document.
For well over a decade people have asked: How was this merger able to take place? Live Nation has even violated their consent decrees with the Department of Justice and faced. a slap on the wrist.
After Ticketmaster’s highly publicized failure during Taylor Swift’s ticket sale the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing in January 2023. Jerry Mickelson of Jam Productions was one of the witnesses to testify at the hearing.18 The progeny of the Octopus is still reporting record profits.
In the documentary Sold Out: Ticketmaster and the Resale Racket the industry veteran Naima Cochrane stresses “Nobody knows how this passed. Literally nobody knows.”
I have an idea how it got through. It will take me time to explain, but the Squid is the Octopus’ baby. And oh baby - business is booming.
Note: Live Nation-Ticketmaster is currently facing federal investigations by the Department of Justice and Senate’s Permanent Committee on Investigations, numerous proposed bills in the House and Senate, as well as multiple fan and investor lawsuits.
The Strange Death of Danny Casolaro. Vanity Fair. December 1991.
"Giant Squid" by KarenLKay is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Hollywood Studio System: A History. Douglas Gomery. 2005.
Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob. Dan Moldea. 1986.
The Power and the Glitter. Richard Brownstein. 1990.
LBJ: From Mastermind to “The Colossus". Philip Nelson. 2014.
Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob. Dan Moldea. 1986.
M.C.A. IS ACCUSED IN ANTITRUST SUIT OF DOMINATING TV; U.S. Civil Action Also Seeks to Upset Recent Mergers of the Talent Agency DUAL FUNCTION IS CITED Complaint Says Position as Producer Gives Concern an Unfair Advantage Antitrust Suit Accuses M.C.A. Of Dominating the TV Field. New York Times. July 14, 1962.
MCA Pix Actors Up For Grabs? Variety. July 18, 1962.
Lew Wasserman: Still Remembered as Hollywood’s Ultimate Mover and Shaker. Variety. March 22, 2016.
LBJ: From Mastermind to “The Colossus". Phillip Nelson. 2014.
Keith Richards: The Rolling Stones Interview. Rolling Stone. August 19, 1971.
Louis Armstrong and the spy: How the CIA used him as a ‘trojan horse’ in Congo. The Guardian. September 12, 2021.
Inside the CIA’s Plot to Kill Fidel Castro - With Mafia Help. Politico. February 24, 2018.
Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, The Music Business, and the Mafia. Entertainment Weekly. April 30, 1993.
Opposition to the Final Judgement. Jam Productions. January 25, 2010.
Sen. Dick Durbin and committee grill Ticketmaster after Taylor Swift concert sales fiasco. Chicago Sun-Times. January 24, 2023.