Jules C. Stein

Jules C. Stein
Born	Jules C. Stein April 26, 1896(1896-04-26) South Bend, Indiana, U.S.
Died	April 29, 1981(1981-04-29) (aged 85) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Physician, businessman
Spouse	Doris Jones Stein (died 1984); 2 daughters

Dr. Jules C. Stein (April 26, 1896 – April 29, 1981) was an American physician, and businessman who founded Music Corporation of America (MCA) with $1,000.

Stein was born in South Bend, Indiana and graduated from the University of Chicago before the age of 19, and later attended Rush Medical College, graduating in 1921. He founded Music Corporation of America (MCA) in 1924. While attending college, Stein played the violin and saxophone to help finance his studies, and his success in arranging band dates led to his move from medicine to show business.^{[citation needed]}

He arranged one-night bookings, rather than having bands seek engagements for whole seasons which was then the norm. He signed Guy Lombardo and other top bands of the day. Stein started package deals for complete shows for hotels and radio broadcasting. Spreading from the one-man start to bases in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Cleveland, Stein's organization by the mid-1930s represented more than half the nation's major bands, including those of Ted Weems, Isham Jones and Benny Goodman.^{[citation needed]}

In 1937, MCA opened shop in Hollywood and became the agent for such stars as Bette Davis, Betty Grable, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Eddie Cantor, Ingrid Bergman, Frank Sinatra and Jack Benny. By the mid-1940s it was estimated that half of the movie industry's stars were being represented by MCA. The MCA organization picked up the nickname the octopus due to its large reach in many different directions. In 1958, it acquired the 430-acre (1.7 km²) Universal Studios moving into producing television programs and motion pictures while still representing talent clients, garnering accusations of conflict of interest.^{[citation needed]}

In 1959, the company formally changed its name from Music Corporation of America to the shorter MCA which is was known by and took its stock public while withdrawing from its worldwide talent agency business. A federal antitrust suit was started against MCA in 1962. Stein had been sole owner of the organization until 1954, when he voluntarily distributed 53 percent of his interest to key executives and employees, with 10 percent of the stock placed in an innovative MCA profit-sharing trust. Stein served as president of MCA until 1946, when he named Lew Wasserman as his successor as chief executive. He continued as chairman of the board until 1973 and remained a director thereafter.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Dr. Jules Stein and his wife Doris founded the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA in the 1960s.

Jules Stein died in Los Angeles, aged 85, in 1981. His widow, Doris Jones Stein, founded the Doris J. Stein Foundation in Beverly Hills, California. Both Doris Stein, and her daughter, Mrs. Susan Stein Shiva, died from breast cancer. Susan Shiva died on January 3, 1983 at her home in Manhattan; her mother died in 1984, aged 82, in California. Susan Shiva's son, Andrew Shiva PHD, is founder of the National Currency Foundation http://www.nationalcurrencyfoundation.com/.

The Steins were also the parents of author/editor Jean Stein and the grandfather of the noted journalist and television personality Katrina vanden Heuvel, publisher of The Nation.

References

• "Jules Stein, MD (deceased)". The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. 2008. https://www.ascrs.org/Awards/Jules-Stein-MD.cfm. Retrieved 2008-01-17. 
• "About Jules Stein". Jules Stein Eye Institute. Jules Stein Eye Institute. http://www.jsei.org/About/about_jules_jstein.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-04. 
• Kihss, Peter (April 30, 1981). "New York Times Obituary". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/30/obituaries/jules-c-stein-85-founder-of-mca-dies.html. 

External links

• Portrait of Jules C. Stein by Margaret Holland Sargent