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The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood
The reviewer of the Boston Globe said point "Over the years, I've read hundreds of books on Hollywood and the movie business, and this one is right at the top."
As the elusive, tyrannical head of the Music Corporation of America (MCA) until the 1990s, Lew Wasserman was the most powerful and feared man in show business for more than half a century. His career spanned the entire history of the movies, from the silent era to the present, and he was guru to Alfred Hitchcock, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, and Jimmy Stewart, and to a new generation of filmmakers beginning with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. For more than four years, Dennis McDougal interviewed over 350 people who knew the man with the giant dark horn-rimmed glasses -- colleagues, relatives, rivals -- and drew on tens of thousands of pages of documents to produce this extraordinary and first-ever portrait of a legend and his times, a book that the New York Times Book Review called "thoroughly reported and engrossing" and that the Daily News called, simply, "a bombshell."
As the elusive, tyrannical head of the Music Corporation of America (MCA) until the 1990s, Lew Wasserman was the most powerful and feared man in show business for more than half a century. His career spanned the entire history of the movies, from the silent era to the present, and he was guru to Alfred Hitchcock, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, and Jimmy Stewart, and to a new generation of filmmakers beginning with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. For more than four years, Dennis McDougal interviewed over 350 people who knew the man with the giant dark horn-rimmed glasses -- colleagues, relatives, rivals -- and drew on tens of thousands of pages of documents to produce this extraordinary and first-ever portrait of a legend and his times, a book that the New York Times Book Review called "thoroughly reported and engrossing" and that the Daily News called, simply, "a bombshell."
600 pages, Paperback
Published April 20, 2001
11 people are currently reading
505 people want to read
About the author
Dennis McDougal
23 books61 followersDennis McDougal was an American author and newspaper journalist, who has been called "L.A.'s No. 1 muckraker". His book Privileged Son was described as "illuminating reading for anyone interested in 20th-century Los Angeles or modern-day newspapering" by The New York Times. A native of Southern California, he lived near Memphis, Tennessee.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 1, 2025
decades of Hollywood gossip!!!
July 9, 2021
This is a thoroughly researched book but benefits from not being dry nor dull. It was published in 1997, 7 years before Lew Wasserman's death, so although it does not cover his entire life, it pretty much covered almost all of it.
After about 100 pages it becomes a page-turner as the spotlight falls on Wasserman's rise in the ranks of the MCA (Music Cooperation of America) and his take over of Hollywood, initially by being the agent for all the bankable stars and then by owning and controlling Universal Studios.
This biography covers more than the life of Lew Wasserman. It touches upon the mob financing vaudeville entertainment, big bands, and the birth of Hollywood. It delves into the life of Jules Stein (the man who gave Lew all the breaks he needed) and the MCA take over of the live music industry in the 1920s - 1940s. It looks into the government investigations into the monopoly malpractices of the MCA. How Wasserman used the mob and political connections. It details how Stein and Wasserman bought Universal Studios and how they lost to the Japanese in the 1990s. It also explores the lives of the people who surrounded Lew and his family. So it is a pretty compelling book and educates the reader on how one man ended up controlling so much.
To its disservice, the book sometimes delves a little too deeply into the peripheral such as mobster ties to the American entertainment industry and the shenanigans of Ronald Regan in playing Hollywood politics to further his own political career. These sidetracks did sometimes derail the flow but McDougal always it back to Wasserman after several pages.
Lew Wasserman is someone most people have never heard of yet you would most certainly of heard of music he was once an agent of or seen a film he would have greenlit.
One of the biggest take-aways from knowing about him from this book is that he was a brilliant businessman but he sucked in picking good films or knowing what people wanted. He was very much the walking exemplar that in Hollywood "nobody knows anything".
After about 100 pages it becomes a page-turner as the spotlight falls on Wasserman's rise in the ranks of the MCA (Music Cooperation of America) and his take over of Hollywood, initially by being the agent for all the bankable stars and then by owning and controlling Universal Studios.
This biography covers more than the life of Lew Wasserman. It touches upon the mob financing vaudeville entertainment, big bands, and the birth of Hollywood. It delves into the life of Jules Stein (the man who gave Lew all the breaks he needed) and the MCA take over of the live music industry in the 1920s - 1940s. It looks into the government investigations into the monopoly malpractices of the MCA. How Wasserman used the mob and political connections. It details how Stein and Wasserman bought Universal Studios and how they lost to the Japanese in the 1990s. It also explores the lives of the people who surrounded Lew and his family. So it is a pretty compelling book and educates the reader on how one man ended up controlling so much.
To its disservice, the book sometimes delves a little too deeply into the peripheral such as mobster ties to the American entertainment industry and the shenanigans of Ronald Regan in playing Hollywood politics to further his own political career. These sidetracks did sometimes derail the flow but McDougal always it back to Wasserman after several pages.
Lew Wasserman is someone most people have never heard of yet you would most certainly of heard of music he was once an agent of or seen a film he would have greenlit.
One of the biggest take-aways from knowing about him from this book is that he was a brilliant businessman but he sucked in picking good films or knowing what people wanted. He was very much the walking exemplar that in Hollywood "nobody knows anything".
May 26, 2025
We just lost Dennis McDougal to an auto accident this year, which is a true loss to the biographical genre, because McDougal was a master and this was one of his crown jewels. Exhaustively researched, meticulously reported and stylishly written, "The Last Mogul" is a complete portrait of not only old-meets-new Hollywood, but the indisputable role Lew Wasserman had in building it.
You get a complete picture of Wasserman's role in shaping Hollywood through his rise into the most formidable agent in the country, then as the domineering, take-no-prisoners mogul behind Universal. You meet everyone from Mob figures to Marilyn Monroe and all sorts of folks along the way.
If you have an interest in Hollywood gossip, history and lore, this is a must-read book. Even if you don't, but have an interest in reading about one of the most anonymous titans of the 20th century, this is a must-read book.
You get a complete picture of Wasserman's role in shaping Hollywood through his rise into the most formidable agent in the country, then as the domineering, take-no-prisoners mogul behind Universal. You meet everyone from Mob figures to Marilyn Monroe and all sorts of folks along the way.
If you have an interest in Hollywood gossip, history and lore, this is a must-read book. Even if you don't, but have an interest in reading about one of the most anonymous titans of the 20th century, this is a must-read book.
June 3, 2023
THE LAST MOGUL reads like a history of Hollywood. It's primary focus is an in-depth discussion of the life and times of Lew Wasserman, the head (with Jules Stein) of MCA (The Music Corporation of America). In doing so, Denis McDougall discusses a cavalcade of American actors and their lives and antics throughout the 20th century.
Is it a good book? FASCINATING. Lew Wasserman was undoubtedly a genius. His ability to do mathematical calculations in his head were extraordinary. His charm and magnetism seems immeasurable. His ability to manage the rich and narcissistic population of Hollywood was surprising and entertaining.
With the current collapse of the movie industry, Wasserman's tyrannical and monopolistic control has resulted in an entertainment industry that lacks entertainment and success. It now acts as a propaganda tool of the CCP.
Is it a good book? FASCINATING. Lew Wasserman was undoubtedly a genius. His ability to do mathematical calculations in his head were extraordinary. His charm and magnetism seems immeasurable. His ability to manage the rich and narcissistic population of Hollywood was surprising and entertaining.
With the current collapse of the movie industry, Wasserman's tyrannical and monopolistic control has resulted in an entertainment industry that lacks entertainment and success. It now acts as a propaganda tool of the CCP.
December 18, 2024
"The Star-Spangled Octopus" as the Saturday Evening Post called it (back in the forties), MCA controlled a large share of the entertainment business for over fifty years. Lew Wasserman and his mentor (and boss) Jules Stein used hard-nosed negotiated contracts during the big band era, the radio era, and most especially the hollywood era (both movies and television) to represent much of the A list talent (for better or worse). With a little help from their friends in the mob. And in the Unions. And in Washington. Including a certain washed up B list actor named Ronald Reagan. And then they bought Universal. And made a bunch of money from the theme park. Pictures? Not so much. Remember Waterworld? Abandon most all your remaining naivete before reading.
February 23, 2019
This is long and sometimes slow - but a valuable lesson about "old Hollywood" and how the biggest "wheeler - dealer" of them all !
April 18, 2019
Comprehensive history of the founders of MCA and how they impacted Hollywood.
Read
May 17, 2025No backing down.
Confidence in your importance and leverage it.
Cultivate relationships - everywhere.
Always look at what’s next - where’s the adjacency and growth.
Confidence in your importance and leverage it.
Cultivate relationships - everywhere.
Always look at what’s next - where’s the adjacency and growth.
July 24, 2014
If you are in the entertainment industry or have even a passing interest in it, read this book.
It has its flaws. For example, with all of its footnotes and extensive citations, there are assertions made about situations the author would have no firsthand knowledge of, yet are not supported with references. There is one episode about Marilyn Monroe, in particular, that would have so much more power if there were a citation...There is also a bit of a knowing, insider tone that presumes the reader knows certain historical events or milestones that no lay person would have reason to know. In what is ultimately a non-academic, pop history book, these should be fatal flaws, except...
The story the book tells, how it tells it and the people whose voices are included make the good far outweigh any bad. There simply won't be another general interest book covering this period or point of view. I am not aware of a revised edition, but there is easily room for one as the main subject was still living when the book was published and the business he left behind went through a convulsive period in the years following publication.
Read this book.
It has its flaws. For example, with all of its footnotes and extensive citations, there are assertions made about situations the author would have no firsthand knowledge of, yet are not supported with references. There is one episode about Marilyn Monroe, in particular, that would have so much more power if there were a citation...There is also a bit of a knowing, insider tone that presumes the reader knows certain historical events or milestones that no lay person would have reason to know. In what is ultimately a non-academic, pop history book, these should be fatal flaws, except...
The story the book tells, how it tells it and the people whose voices are included make the good far outweigh any bad. There simply won't be another general interest book covering this period or point of view. I am not aware of a revised edition, but there is easily room for one as the main subject was still living when the book was published and the business he left behind went through a convulsive period in the years following publication.
Read this book.
December 20, 2011
The Last Mogul is an exhaustive history of MCA and the evolution of Lew Wasserman from band booker to agent to studio head to entertainment mogul. The book gave a detailed accounting of the evolution of business in Hollywood from the 1930's through 1990's; this is both the book's greatest asset and it's greatest detractor. The book takes frequent tangents to explain the deal making behind this star's contract or that bit of labor negotiation. The result is a comprehensive history but also a thick, tiring, slowly paced book. All that said, for those who want to know the history of Hollywood, this is the best account I've read yet.
November 6, 2012
This was good with a lot of information. The author made a big deal of how hard it is to get to know Lew Wasserman and really see what made him tick and it seems like rule worked for this book too. On the other hand, a lot of time biographers think they know what makes their subjects tick and it gets... subjective. I would give this book an OK. Some of the steamier stuff might be exaggerated or taken out of context or from anecdotal accounts. The author rags on Hitchcok's last movies and as I have ranted elsewhere, I don't think that's fair or right. If you are a Hitchcock person, consider this fair warning.
left-for-dead
April 12, 2011An interesting look at the formation of agencies and the gestation of different entertainment mediums, focusing on Wasserman who "ruled" Hollywood for years, including a look at Reagan and his connections to MCA. However, 600 pages about Hollywood was about 350 more than I could handle...
August 19, 2012
Highly recommend for anyone working or interested in the media industry.
June 18, 2015
I love any book that pulls back the curtain on the rich and powerful. A great read for anyone who enjoys a glimpse into the entertainment business of old.
March 1, 2017
Decent book, but an example of how journalist started putting themselves into subjects. Of course, now you find few that don't do that.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews