Jules C. Stein

Dr. Jules C. Stein (26 April 1896 – 29 April 1981) was an American musician, physician, and business leader who built a band booking agency with $1,000 of capital into MCA Inc., a billion-dollar force in the world of mass entertainment. Stein's creation, MCA Inc. calls itself the world's largest producer of film entertainment. It produces and distributes television programs, distributes motion pictures, and produces and publishes works of music.

Stein was born in South Bend, Indiana and received degrees from the University of Chicago and Rush Medical College. He founded the Music Corporation of America (MCA) in 1924.

While attending college, Stein played the violin and saxophone to help finance his studies, and his success in arranging band dates led to his move from medicine to show business. He arranged one-night stands, instead of having bands seek engagements for whole seasons which was innovative and led to signing up Guy Lombardo and other top bands of the day. Next, he started package deals for complete shows for hotels and radio broadcasting.

Spreading from the one-man start to bases in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Cleveland, Mr. Stein's organization by the mid-1930s represented more than half the nation's major bands, including those of Ted Weems, Isham Jones and Benny Goodman.

In 1937, MCA invaded Hollywood and became the agent for such stars as Bette Davis, Betty Grable, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Eddie Cantor, Ingrid Bergman, Frank Sinatra and Jack Benny. By the mid-1940s it was estimated that half of the movie industry's stars were being represented by MCA.

The MCA organization picked up the nickname the octopus due to its large reach in many different directions. In 1958, it acquired the 430-acre Universal Studios moving into producing television programs and motion pictures while still representing talent clients; quickly picking up criticisms of conflicts of interest.

In 1959, the company formally changed its name from Music Corporation of America to the shorter MCA which is was known by and took its stock public while withdrawing from its worldwide talent agency business. Despite these moves, a federal antitrust suit was started against MCA in 1962.

Mr. Stein had been sole owner of the organization until 1954, when he voluntarily distributed 53 percent of his interest to key executives and employees, with 10 percent of the stock placed in an innovative MCA profit-sharing trust. Mr. Stein served as president of MCA until 1946, when he made Lew R. Wasserman his successor as chief executive. He continued as chairman of the board until 1973 and remained a director thereafter. At the start of last year, he still owned or controlled more than 19 percent of the stock.

Stein and his wife Doris founded the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA in the 1960s.

He died in Los Angeles, aged 85.

His widow, Doris J. Stein, founded the Doris J. Stein Foundation in Beverly Hills, California. Doris Stein, and her daughter, Mrs. Susan Shiva, both died from breast cancer the same year (1984) within months of each other.

Dr. Stein was the father of author/editor Jean Stein and the grandfather of the noted journalist and television personality Katrina vanden Heuvel, who publishes The Nation

References

• "Jules Stein, MD (deceased)". The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. 2008. https://www.ascrs.org/Awards/Jules-Stein-MD.cfm. Retrieved 2008-01-17. 

• "About Jules Stein". Jules Stein Eye Institute. Jules Stein Eye Institute. http://www.jsei.org/About/about_jules_jstein.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-04. 

External links

• Jules C. Stein at Find a Grave
• Portrait of Jules C. Stein by Margaret Holland Sargent

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