Valenti, Jack

Valenti was born in Houston , Texas , USA, on September 5, 1921. The son of Italian immigrants. During the Second World War, he served in the rank of First Lieutenant of the United States Army Air Force. Valenti had 51 sorties for combat missions as a B-25 bomber pilot. Received four awards, including an honorary cross and a medal . ^[five]

In 1946, Valenti graduated from the University of Houston . Received a bachelor's degree. While studying at the university, he worked as an employee of the university newspaper The Daily Cougar , was president of the university student self-government society, and later served on the board of trustees of the university.

After receiving a master's degree from Harvard University in 1948, Valenti went to work in the advertising department of the Texas gas station company, helping her increase sales. ^[6]

In 1952, he and his partner Weldon Weekely founded the agency The Weekly & Valenti. Their first customer was the oil company Conoco. In 1956, Valenti met Senator Lyndon B. Johnson . The company Weekly & Valenti began to engage in political activities .. ^[6] In 1960, his company participated in the presidential campaign, Kennedy-Johnson. ^[7]

Valenti acted as a liaison with the media on November 22, 1963, during the visit of President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson in Dallas, Texas . Valenti was on the presidential motorcade during the assassination of the president. After the assassination of President Kennedy, Valenti attended the ceremony of taking the oath of Lyndon Johnson on board the plane and flew with the new president to Washington. Then he became the first "special assistant" Johnson. ^[8] In 1964, Johnson commissioned Valenti to build relations with the Republican leadership of Congress, especially with Gerald Ford and Charles Halleck. ^[9]

In 1966, Valenti, at the insistence of Universal Studios, became the president of the Motion Picture Association of America .

Rating System

In 1968, Valenti created a rating system for evaluating films. Prior to the use of the rating system in the United States, there was a total ban on the widescreen display of scenes of violence and sex scenes. The system initially consisted of four separate ratings, denoted by letters: G, M, R, X. M, the rating was soon replaced by the GP, and later changed to PG. It was immediately difficult to use the X rating, since it was used for the free pornographic industry. So the films of the Midnight Cowboy and A Clockwork Orange are considered pornographic because they carried the X rating. In 1990, the NC-17 rating was presented as a trademark - “for adults only”, as a replacement for the X-rating trademark. The PG-13 rating was added in 1984 to provide a wider range of choices for the audience.

Rating designations: (G - no age restrictions (General Audiences); M - adolescent restriction from 11 to 13 years (Mature Audiences); R - persons under the age of 16, are allowed to a session only in the presence of parents; X - on A session is not allowed to persons under the age of 17 (Adults only).

Valenti and New Technologies

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Valenti became known for his outrageous performance on a Sony tape cassette recorder , because of which the film industry could suffer losses. He said: "I tell you that the VCR is an American film producer ... this Boston stranger is the woman at home alone." and 1990s.

Copyright Millennium Digital

In 1998, Valenti lobbied for a controversial millennium copyright law , arguing that copyright infringement via the Internet would seriously damage the film industry. ^[eleven]

In August 2004, Valenti retired at the age of 82. He was replaced by former US Congressman and Minister of Agriculture Dan Glikman. Responsible for the distribution of ratings was Joan Graves.

After retirement, Valenti became involved in venture-related technologies and was actively involved in the fight against counterfeit video production.

Valenti died April 26, 2007 in his home in Washington from a stroke . ^[12] Buried at Arlington National Cemetery .

Valenti was a bachelor for a long time. In 1962, at the age of 41, he married Mary Margaret Valenti. They had three children.

Valente received an honorary cross and a medal For service in the Air Force during the Second World War . In 1969, Jack Valenti received a bronze medallion - the highest civilian award. In 1985, Jack Valenti received the French Legion of Honor . ^{[13] [14]}

In 2002, Valenti became an honorary doctor of the University of Houston.

The American Filmmakers Association has established the Jack Valenti Award. The first winner of the Valenti Prize in 2007 was Clint Eastwood. For many years of work in the American Filmmakers Association, Valenti was awarded a personal star on the Walk of Fame.

• Ten Heroes and Two Heroines (1957)
• The bitter taste of glory (1971)
• Presidential Rights (1976; ISBN 0-671-80834-6 )
• Guard and protect (1992; ISBN 0-385-41735-7 )
• Speak with Confidence (2002; ISBN 0-7868-8750-8 )
• This time this place (2007; ISBN 0-307-34664-1 )

Memoirs of Valenti - My life in war, in the White House and in Hollywood were published on May 15, 2007, just a few weeks after his death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUNvG1mAIFA#t=298