Jack Valenti
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Jack Joseph Valenti (born September 5, 1921, in Houston, Texas, USA) is an influential American lobbyist and a long-time president of the Motion Picture Association of America. During his 38 year tenure in the MPAA, he was generally regarded as one of the most influential pro-copyright lobbyists in the world.
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[edit] Early life
Valenti was born in Houston, Texas, on September 5, 1921. During World War II, he was a pilot in the United States Army Air Corps, where he obtained the rank of lieutenant, flew 51 combat missions as the pilot-commander of a B-25 attack bomber, and received four decorations.
He received his B.A. from the University of Houston and M.B.A at the Harvard University. In 1952, he co-founded "Weekley & Valenti", an advertising/political consulting agency.
[edit] Political career
Valenti's agency was in charge of the press during the November 1963 visit of President John F. Kennedy and Vice-President Lyndon Johnson to Dallas, Texas. Following the assassination of President Kennedy, Valenti was present in the famous photograph of Lyndon Johnson's swearing in aboard Air Force One, and rode with the new president to Washington.
He then became the first "special assistant" to Johnson's White House. He lived in the White House for the first two months of Johnson's presidency. Valenti was so loyal to Johnson that it was once said of him "If LBJ dropped the H-bomb, Valenti would call it an urban renewal project."
[edit] Career in the MPAA
In 1966, he resigned his White House commission and became the president of the Motion Picture Association of America.
[edit] Movie rating system
In 1968, Valenti created the MPAA film rating system. The system initially comprised four distinct ratings: G, M, R, and X. The M rating would soon be replaced by GP, which was later changed to PG. The X rating immediately proved troublesome as, since it was not trademarked and therefore was used freely by the pornography industry, with which it became most associated. Films such as Midnight Cowboy and A Clockwork Orange were assumed to be pornographic because they carried the X rating. In 1990 the NC-17 rating was introduced to provide an "arthouse" X rating for non-pornographic adult oriented drama. The PG-13 rating was added in 1984 to provide a greater range of distinction for audiences.
The system that Valenti instituted in 1968 eventually proved to be effective in reversing negative trends in box office revenue for the major Hollywood studios.[citation needed] The MPAA rating system allowed for studios to explore more commercially successful themes.
[edit] Valenti on new technologies
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Valenti became notorious for his colorful attacks on the Sony Betamax VCR, which the MPAA feared would devastate the movie industry. He famously told a congressional panel in 1982, "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."
Despite Valenti's prediction, the home video market created by the VCR ultimately came to be the mainstay of movie studio revenues throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, until the DVD displaced the VCR in the American living room.
[edit] Digital Millennium Copyright Act
In 1998 Valenti lobbied for the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act, arguing that copyright infringement via the Internet would severely damage the record and movie industries.
[edit] 2003 screener ban injunction
In 2003, he found himself at the center of the so-called screener debate, as the MPAA barred studios and many independent producers from sending screener copies of their films to critics and voters in various awards shows. Under mounting industry pressure and a court injunction [Antidote Int'l Films Inc. et.al v MPAA (Nov. 2003)], Valenti consented to the injunction in 2004, narrowly avoiding a massive and embarrassing antitrust lawsuit against the MPAA.
The Coalition of Independent Filmmakers Jeff Levy-Hinte, IFP/Los Angeles executive director Dawn Hudson and IFP/New York executive director Michelle Byrd said in a joint statement, "By obtaining a court order to force the MPAA to lift the screener ban last December, the Coalition enabled individual distributors to determine when and in what manner to distribute promotional screeners." It was viewed as Valenti's greatest professional loss.
[edit] Retirement
His salary in 2004 was reported to be $1.35 million, which made him the seventh-highest paid Washington trade group chief, according to the National Journal.
In August 2004, Valenti, then 82 years old, retired and was replaced by Dan Glickman. The current head of the ratings system, Joan Graves, was appointed by Valenti.
Post retirement he has become involved in technology-related venture capital activities, most recently joining the Advisory Board of Legend Ventures. At Legend Ventures, Valenti advises on media investment opportunities.
[edit] Personal life
He has been married to Mary Margaret Valenti since 1962, and they have three children: John, Alexandra and movie producer Courtenay Valenti, who attended The Madeira School. Jack Valenti appeared in a 2006 documentary about the school.
In 2007 Valenti suffered and survived a stroke.[1]
[edit] Trivia
- Jack Valenti was featured "Ripley's Believe it or Not" getting his hair cut with fire.
- Jack Valenti was featured in a skit on the animated cartoon "Freakazoid", where he explains the MPAA Ratings System in a both serious and comical tone.
- Valenti is also featured in the documentary film This Film Is Not Yet Rated.
- The band Tub Ring has a song titled "The Subsequent Rating Given To the Life and Times of Jack Valenti" on its 2002 album Fermi Paradox.
[edit] Books by Jack Valenti
- Speak Up With Confidence (2002; ISBN 0-7868-8750-8)
- Protect and Defend (1992; Doubleday; ISBN 0-385-41735-7)
- A Very Human President (1976; ISBN 0-671-80834-6)
- The Bitter Taste of Glory (1971)
- Ten Heroes and Two Heroines (1957)
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- An interview conducted by a GNU/Linux user from MIT
- An MP3 recording of a debate with Lawrence Lessig
- Jack Valenti's Long Goodbye, Washington Post
- Testimony of Jack Valenti before Congress in 1982
- List of Jack Valenti interviews An extensive list of interviews
- Jack and wife Mary Margaret Valenti picture
- The Last Mogul -- Valenti's Ties to Hollywood Kingpin Lew Wasserman
- Jack Valenti at the Internet Movie Database
| Preceded by Eric Johnston |
President of the MPAA 1966–2004 |
Succeeded by Dan Glickman |
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Incomplete lists | 1921 births | Living people | Sicilian-Americans | People from Houston | Roman Catholic politicians | Roman Catholic activists | Cinema of the United States | Motion Picture Association of America | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Copyright activists | Harvard Business School alumni
