Obit: Movie Ratings chief Jack Valenti-4/2004

Subject: Obit: Movie Ratings chief Jack Valenti-4/2004
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 12:30 AM

Jack Valenti, father of the modern movie rating system, died at age 85 this week.

This (at www.showbuzz.cbusnews.com) is a long and detailed story about him. The story may move from that URL, but here is the beginning of it:

(CBS/AP) Jack Valenti, the former White House aide and film industry lobbyist who instituted the modern movie ratings system and guided Hollywood from the censorship era to the digital age, died Thursday. He was 85.

Valenti had a stroke in March and was hospitalized for several weeks at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore. He left the hospital on Tuesday, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

He died of complications from the stroke at his Washington, D.C., home, said Seth Oster of the Motion Picture Association of America.

"In a sometimes unreasonable business, Jack Valenti was a giant voice of reason," Steven Spielberg said in a statement. "He was the greatest ambassador Hollywood has ever known, and I will value his wisdom and friendship for all time."

Kirk Douglas said Valenti, his friend for more than 45 years, visited him in New York City in March for a talk by the actor at a YMCA.

"Two days later, I got a call about his stroke. My wife and I flew to Johns Hopkins Hospital immediately," Douglas said. "He was in a coma. I held his hand and talked to him. Maybe he heard me. My only consolation is that he did not suffer."

Valenti was a special assistant and confidant to President Lyndon Johnson when he was lured to Hollywood in 1966 by movie moguls Lew Wasserman and Arthur Krim. A lifelong film lover, he once cited the 1966 film "A Man for All Seasons" as his all-time favorite.

When he took over as president of the Motion Picture Association of America, Valenti was caught between Hollywood's outdated system of self-censorship and the liberal cultural explosion taking place in America.

Valenti abolished the industry's restrictive Hays code, which prohibited explicit violence and frank treatment of sex, and in 1968 oversaw creation of today's letter-based ratings system.

"While I believe that every director, studio has the right to make the movies they want to make, everybody else has a right not to watch it," Valenti told The Associated Press shortly before his retirement in 2004. "All we do is give advance cautionary warnings and say this is what we think is in this movie."

Follow that link for the rest.

Subject: RE: Obit: Movie Ratings chief Jack Valenti-4/2004
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 11:36 AM

I posted this last night thinking a few disgruntled movie fans might swing through and offer a little insight (or invective) in this guy's honor. Let's run him back to the top and see if anyone notices his passing.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Movie Ratings chief Jack Valenti-4/2004
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 05:48 PM

I can't say anything all that nasty about him. He took a terrible system and made it workable. The whole Hayes Office thing was a nightmare and although still a bit flawed, Valenti developed a workable system that has been modified and still is working today. More a guideline than anything else where the Hayes Office was blatant censorship.

More though was his friendship and service with and to LBJ. At the very least he saw what Johnson wanted and was able to take the rough edges off of Lyndon's Great Society.    Johnson may have had it all against him in office but I would bet dollars to donuts that the day will come in 50 years or so when he will be viewed as one of the greatest domestic Presidents of the 20th century. If that happens it will be because of some of those around him like Jack Valenti. Although Kennedy was the one known for the brilliant cabinet and advisors, history may show that Johnson was also surrounded by a staff he used well.

Jack Valenti gets no dissing from me.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Movie Ratings chief Jack Valenti-4/2004
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 07:13 PM

I agree with you about LBJ, Spaw.