When Toronto filmmaker Barry Avrich began to prepare a documentary about Hollywood studio head Lew Wasserman, he got the chance to shake the mogul’s hand at a party in Los Angeles. There, Avrich told Wasserman he planned to make a movie about the executive’s six-decade career.
Wasserman’s response: “Not while I’m alive, and not while I’m dead.”
Avrich did not abide by the studio head’s wishes. Regardless, his 2005 doc, The Last Mogul, became a stellar tribute to one of Hollywood’s hungriest power players.
The director announced production in 2002, on the day Wasserman died. Avrich’s doc then found critical praise and Oscar buzz during its time on the festival circuit in 2005. On April 26, the film celebrates its 10th anniversary with a retrospective screening at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto.
Even though the film is just a decade old, the industry has changed so drastically since the early 21st century that the doc feels like more of a period piece.
“How Lew operated could not possibly exist today,” Avrich told The CJN from his office in Toronto. “If I were shooting [The Last Mogul] today, I’d have to shoot it against the backdrop of what the industry has become.”
Unlike the Ivy League grads that Avrich says are at the helm of much of the film industry today, Wasserman didn’t even have an MBA. Wasserman’s reign included a great deal of influence in Washington, and he had close relationships with many presidents, including Ronald Reagan, a former actor.
The mogul’s career spanned much of the rise and changing face of the Hollywood studio system.
Born to Jewish Russian immigrants in Cleveland, Wasserman grew up around gambling dens, speakeasies and vaudeville shows. He began his prosperous career as an usher for a local movie house and later worked as a publicity director for a casino.
Early in his career, he landed a job at the Music Corporation of America (MCA) as a booking agent. The young film lover left for Los Angeles in the late 1930s to work as the head of MCA’s movie division.
“He came from a mobbed-up world where a deal was a handshake,” Avrich says. “This was a guy who came from nothing, a street guy who just understood the art of the deal and power and knew where to find it.”
One of Wasserman’s greatest tactics in the business was how he packaged films. At MCA, he represented many A-list actors, musicians and filmmakers, giving him the power to pitch projects with several of the studio’s clients.
He helped to negotiate better studio deals for many of these big-name stars, including Bette Davis, James Stewart and Judy Garland.
Twenty-five years later, working as an executive for Universal Studios, he helped to spawn the rise of the summer blockbuster with the box office behemoth Jaws.
Although one of the mightiest figures in Hollywood history, Wasserman was a very private, secretive man. He didn’t own a cell phone and his desk was always clean, since he abhorred making notes and keeping records.
It is no wonder he was so cautious of people writing books and making films about him.
Even after Wasserman died, Avrich says he found it challenging to find powerful Hollywood figures and politicians to sit with him for an interview. Wasserman’s widow, Edie, and grandson Casey tried to yield their influence to sabotage the production.
“I would literally be in the anterooms of power waiting with my crew, and Lew’s grandson and widow were making phone calls and sending out emails, saying, ‘This is unauthorized and you will not participate with him,’” Avrich says.
Despite doors slamming in Avrich’s face, The Last Mogul boasts a stellar ensemble of talking heads, including Larry King, Suzanne Pleshette, MPAA president Jack Valenti, producer Robert Evans and former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.
Industry opinion on the documentary has gotten warmer over time. Avrich received a rave review from Universal studio head Ron Meyer, who met with him at a private L.A. screening room to view the film.
Avrich says he believes Edie eventually saw the film. “Years after the film came out, friends of mine were at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills and she was by the pool with some friends having lunch,” he tells The CJN.
“My friends introduced themselves to her and she said, ‘You’re from Toronto? A fine young man made a film about my husband from Toronto.’”
Since Mogul’s release a decade ago, Avrich has made acclaimed documentaries about other industry power players like Harvey Weinstein and Garth Drabinsky.
After the anniversary screening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on April 26, there will be a panel conversation with today’s industry experts and moguls. None of them, Avrich insists, could compete with Wasserman’s stature in the film industry.
“When I made The Last Mogul, the number one question people asked when we were shooting was, ‘Is Lew Wasserman truly the last mogul?’” he says.
“Without a doubt. There couldn’t be one powerful man like Lew ever again.”
