Moldea, Dan E. Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob. New York: Penguin Books, 1987. 390 pages.

Three months on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list, this is the definitive history of Mafia influence in Hollywood, the hub of which is MCA. The Music Corporation of America began in 1924 as a fledgling band-booking company. It soon monopolized the business, and today is Hollywood's most powerful TV, film, and recording conglomerate.

Ronald Reagan was nurtured by MCA influence since his days as president of the Screen Actors Guild. In 1962 he told a grand jury that he couldn't remember why the Guild negotiated an exclusive arrangement with MCA that extended their monopoly. Years earlier, as confidential informant T-10, Reagan provided the FBI with information regarding Guild members whom he suspected were Communists. Reagan's glad-handing, "ah-shucks" style, apparently oblivious to the powerful forces manipulating him, has been evident since the 1940s.

This is one of four books in NameBase by Dan Moldea, who has specialized in organized crime investigations since 1974. His interest in the Kennedy assassinations also continues; in 1990 he interviewed over 100 Los Angeles police officers, and concluded that more slugs were recovered than could have fit in Sirhan's gun. Moldea lives in Washington, DC.
ISBN 0-14-010478-X

Extract the names from this source

Back to search page