Former Head of the MPAA

Background:

“I don’t know any other business that tells you not to go in and buy their product.” Jack Valenti on the rating of films

Jack Valenti is widely known as a long-time president of the Motion Picture Association of America, a position he held from 1966 to 2004. During his 38 years term in the MPAA, he was most famous for creating the film ratings system and commonly considered as one of the most powerful pro-copyright lobbyists in the world. Prior to his leadership career, Mr. Valenti was the special assistant and advisor for President Lyndon B. Johnson, who directly replaced President Kennedy after his murder.

As a leader in the movie industry, Valenti has received a number of awards. He won a Berlinale Camera at the 1987 Berlin International Film Festival and a 1999 Visionary Award from the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Additionally, he took home a 2001 Directors Guild of America for Honorary Life Member and a Leadership Award from Hollywood Film Festival in 2002. In 2003, he was handed a Milestone Award form the PGA Golden Laurel. Valenti also has been given a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

Valenti has been married to Mary Margaret Valenti since 1962. He is the father of actor John Valenti, director-writer Alexandra Valenti, known for her work on the 2001 short D.C Smalls, and movie producer Courtenay Valenti. In 2006, he appeared in a documentary film about The Madeira School, which was once attended by Courtenay.


Boom-Boom

Childhood and Family:

Jack Joseph Valenti was born on September 5, 1921, in Houston, Texas. He graduated high school at age 15, making him the youngest graduate in the city, and served in the Army Air Corps during the Second World War. An accomplished young pilot, Jack, known by family and close friends as Boom-Boom, gained the position of lieutenant, flew 51 combat missions as the pilot-commander of a B-25 attack bomber and earned four decorations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the European Theater Ribbon with four battle stars. He received a B.A from the University of Houston in 1946 and two years later, an M.B.A from Harvard University.

In 1962, Jack married Mary Margaret Valenti. They have two daughters, Courtenay and Alexandra, and a son, John.


From White House to Cinematic Industry

Career:

After serving as an Air Force pilot, Jack Valenti, who once worked as an office boy in the Humble Oil Company (now Exxon), co-founded Weekley & Valenti Inc. in 1952, a Houston-based advertising and political consulting agency in which he was executive vice president. Three years later, he met Lyndon B. Johnson, the then Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate, and his political career began when he was recruited as the Senator’s assistant. During the 1963 visit of President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Johnson to Dallas, Texas, Valenti’s agency was responsible to handle the press. Within hours of the assassination of President Kennedy, he was on his way to the White House, serving as the new President Johnson’s special assistant and advisor.

The loyal aide left his White House commission on June 1, 1966, when he was elected the president and chief executive officer of the Motion Picture Association of America. In 1968, Mr. Valenti created a history in the cinematic industry for pioneering the MPAA movie ratings system. The system originally consisted of four distinct ratings: G, M, R and X. The M rating was soon replaced by GP, which was later changed to PG. The X ratings verified bothersome because it was used freely by the pornography industry. The NC-17 rating was later added in 1990 to provide an “art house” X rating for non-pornographic adult oriented drama. Before that, in 1984, the PG-13 was added to give a larger range of distinction for audiences. With the rating system, the major Hollywood studios could repeal negative trends in box office proceeds. It also allowed the studios to search more commercially triumphant themes.

Valenti shared a degree of notoriety during the late 1970s and early 1980 for his vivid attack on the Sony Betamax VCR. The MPAA feared it would spoil the film industry. Away from his protest, the home video market made by the VCR ultimately became the foundation of movie studio revenues throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, until the DVD dislocated the VCR in the American living room. In 1998, Valenti lobbied for the contentious Digital Millennium Copyright Act. He argued that copyright encroachment through the Internet would brutally harm the record and movie business.

After 38 years, in 2004, Valenti retired and was replaced by Dan Glickman. By then, his salary was reported to be $1.35 million, which established him the seventh-highest paid Washington trade group chief. After the retirement, he has participated in technology-related project capital activities, and most recently, joined the Advisory Board of Legend Ventures. There, he counsels on media investment prospects.

So far, Valenti has published four books, a political novel, Protect and Defend, and three non-fiction books, The Bitter Taste of Glory, A Very Human President and Speak Up With Confidence. He also has written a number of essays for such publications as The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, Reader’s Digest, Atlantic Monthly, to name a few.


Awards:

• PGA Golden Laurel: Milestone Award, 2003
• Hollywood Film Festival: Leadership Award, 2002
• Directors Guild of America: Honorary Life Member Award, 2001
• Palm Springs International Film Festival: Visionary Award, 1999
• Berlin International Film Festival: Berlinale Camera, 1987