The Last Mogul
Wasserman was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Russian Jewish immigrants, Isaac Wasserman and Minnie Chernick. He began his show business career as an usher in a Cleveland theater in 1933. He later became a booking agent for the Music Corporation of America(MCA), founded by Jules Stein.Under Wasserman, MCA branched out into representing actors and actresses in addition to musicians and in the process created the star system, which drove up prices for studios. MCA struggled to gain ground in Hollywood since major agencies like those belonging to Charles Feldman, Myron Selznick, and Leland Hayward had already grabbed up most of the major talent. However, in the mid-1940s, when it purchased Hayward's agency, MCA finally gained bargaining leverage with the studios. As an agency, Wasserman's MCA came to dominate Hollywood, representing such stars as Bette Davis and Ronald Reagan, whom Wasserman was instrumental in helping to become president of the Screen Actors Guild.
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