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Lew Wasserman was a Hollywood agent and studio exectuive credited with first creating and then taking apart the studio system in a carrer spanning more than six decades. Born the son of russian-jewish immigrants in Chicago Wasserman started out as a booking agent for MCA(Music Corporation of America) under Dr Jules Stein, its founder. Under his watch MCA branched out into representing actors and actresses in addition to musicians and in the process created the studio system driving up prices for studios.
As an agent Wasserman's MCA came to dominate Hollywood representing stars like Bette Davis and Ronald Reagan, who Wasserman later helped become SAG president.
Following the rising postwar popularity of TV and the resulting near bankruptcy ofmany studios Wasserman bought Universal running it for nearly 30 years before seeling it to Japanese consumer electronics congolmerate Matshushita
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