Music Corporation of America
The Music Corporation of America (legal name MCA Inc. ) was an American media company. It was mainly active in the music and television industries.
MCA Records was the company's best-known label that MCA had in its name. The company is now part of the Universal Music Group (subsidiary of the Vivendi media group ). It was merged with Geffen Records in 2003 , with only the Geffen name remaining as a brand.
history
founding
MCA was founded by Jules Stein in Chicago in 1924 and originally managed bookings for musicians and bands. With the advent of talkies, the MCA began to represent actors.
From 1948
The legal dismantling of the old Hollywood studio system in 1948 released the obligation to contract for actors who could now decide from film to film which studio they wanted to work for - the MCA gained influence as it now represented countless actors vis-à-vis the studios. The onset of the crisis in the film studios, triggered by the broken old structures and the new medium of television , the MCA used in 1958 to buy the 1.5 km² Universal City studio area from the financially troubled Universal Pictures for 11 million US dollars. Although the MCA only owned the premises and not the film studio, they exerted a great deal of influence on Universal by modernizing the studio premises and contracting Universal's MCA clients in return.
In 1952, the then President of the Screen Actors Guild and actor , Ronald Reagan , allowed the MCA, although an artist agency , to also produce entertainment such as TV shows. Up until then, the two functions were strictly separated, as the interests of the actors and producers are sometimes contradicting one another. This contract enabled MCA to operate extremely successfully. MCA, with which Reagan was also under contract, returned the favor by repeatedly helping him out of financial bottlenecks, for example by arranging engagements and advertising appearances. In 1962 there was a lawsuit and MCA had to restore the separation and sold the artist agency. Proceedings against MCA were closed after Ronald Reagan's presidency began
From 1962
In 1962 MCA entered the record business with the takeover of the American record company Decca Records Inc. , a former branch of the British Decca Records . With this purchase, the film studio Universal-International Pictures Inc. , which has belonged to Decca Records Inc. since 1953 , was also acquired. The name of the studio was the takeover back to Universal Pictures changed, controlled the parent company, studio, production and sales, has been in MCA / Universal Pictures Inc. renamed.
Since Decca Records USA only had the naming rights to Decca in the USA, one published outside the USA under the labels Brunswick Records and Coral Records . The MCA therefore formed the label MCA Records in 1968 , in which the labels Brunswick and Coral were merged. In 1973 the name Decca was finally given up in the USA by the MCA in favor of MCA Records .
In 1975 the book publisher GP Putnam's Sons became part of the company.
1979 until today
From 1979 MCA expanded its music division by acquiring ABC Dunhill Records , Chess Records (1985) and the legendary Motown Record Company (1988). In 1990 GRP Records and Geffen Records followed .
In 1990 the entire MCA holding company was bought out by the Japanese electronics company Matsushita for 6.1 billion US dollars - similar to what competitor Sony had done with other US media companies.
When the Canadian conglomerate Seagram acquired 80% of MCA from Matsushita for 5.7 billion US dollars in 1995, the new owners immediately changed the name: MCA Inc. became Universal Studios Inc. , while the music business became MCA Music Entertainment Group in Universal Music Group was renamed.
Motown was sold to Polygram in 1993 .
In spring 2003 the label MCA Records was merged with Geffen Records. The country music label MCA Nashville Records is the last MCA Records label still active.
See also
Web links
- Official website (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Documentary: Ronald Reagan - A Tailored President , arte, France 2015.
- ^ Dan E. Moldea: Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, McA, and the Mob , ISBN 978-0670809035 .
- ↑ New York Times: REAGAN WAS A SUBJECT OF 60's SCREEN INQUIRY. Retrieved on 2017-03-14.