Film industry lobbyist Jack Valenti dies

Rating system has critics
The ratings system has met with recent disapproval from many film critics, cinema fans and moviemakers, especially directors of independent films who say the system is stacked in favor of big studio productions and against edgier, low-budget fare. Critics also say the system is overly prudish on sex while allowing excessive violence. Recently, tobacco opponents have even sought to add smoking to the list of activities deemed too sensitive for younger viewers.

Director Kirby Dick’s 2006 documentary “This Film Is Not Yet Rated” depicted the system as a secretive and inconsistent process that did not provide adequate methods to appeal decisions.

The system did undergo changes over the decades. A PG-13 rating (parental guidance strongly recommended) was added in the 1980s. The X rating for adult films was transformed into the NC-17 rating in the 1990s.

But the format Valenti laid out in the late 1960s generally has remained intact. Valenti was always quick to rebut critics, saying frequent MPAA surveys found that parents with young children felt the ratings system was a helpful guide.

Without the ratings system, Valenti said, Hollywood could be faced with a labyrinth of local censorship boards with conflicting standards.

Seduced by movies
Born in Houston, the grandson of Sicilian immigrants, Valenti swept floors and made popcorn in a local theater as a boy. He never lost his wonder at what he called the “miraculous, unfathomable alchemy” of moviemaking.

After earning the Distinguished Flying Cross for piloting bombing missions over Italy in World War II, he worked his way through night school at the University of Houston, then earned a master’s in business administration from Harvard.

In 1952, he co-founded an advertising and political consulting agency. He was introduced to Senate Majority Leader Johnson three years later and was “mesmerized,” Valenti recalled. “I felt a primal force was in my presence.”

He met his future wife, Mary Margaret Wiley, through his budding friendship with the senator — she was Johnson’s longtime secretary. They had three children.

Valenti wrote a handful of books, including one on Johnson, “A Very Human President,” and a novel, “Protect and Defend,” published in 1992 by Doubleday with the help of one of its senior editors, Jacqueline Kennedy.

By the time he retired, the movie business had been on a growth spurt for more than a decade, with admissions climbing to their highest level since the late 1950s.

“I’m the luckiest guy in the world, because I spent my entire public working career in two of life’s classic fascinations, politics and Hollywood,” he said in 2004. “You can’t beat that.”

MORE FROM MORE NEWS AND OTHER FEATURES

Streep: ‘No sell-by date on my forehead’

Streep: ‘No sell-by date on my forehead’ SAG stakes fight on made-for-Internet content Hollywood studios agree to meet with SAG 'Star Wars' game bridges gap between films Studios, SAG mum after latest meeting 'Meet Dave' can flop, it won't hurt Murphy Writer revises ‘Passion’ lawsuit against Gibson Actors Brolin, Wright arrested in brawl Studios say SAG has rebuffed ‘final offer’ Producers set Aug. deadline for SAG contract   Add More news and other features headlines to your news reader: