Gerald Levin, the visionary executive in the early days of HBO whose career will be forever marred after he orchestrated the merger of Time Warner and AOL, a debacle that destroyed the value of employees’ retirement accounts and culminated in a historic $100 billion write-down, has died. He was 84.
Levin died Wednesday in a hospital, his grandchild Jake Maia Arlow told The New York Times. He had battled Parkinson’s disease since being diagnosed in 2006 and lived most recently in Long Beach, California.
Levin was an attorney who worked for a year in Iran before joining HBO at its inception in 1972 as a programming executive. He was promoted to CEO a year later, and a year after that he convinced parent company Time Inc. to take HBO to cable companies nationwide via satellite technology, earning him the nickname of “resident genius.”
The Philadelphia native and University of Pennsylvania Law School graduate...
Levin died Wednesday in a hospital, his grandchild Jake Maia Arlow told The New York Times. He had battled Parkinson’s disease since being diagnosed in 2006 and lived most recently in Long Beach, California.
Levin was an attorney who worked for a year in Iran before joining HBO at its inception in 1972 as a programming executive. He was promoted to CEO a year later, and a year after that he convinced parent company Time Inc. to take HBO to cable companies nationwide via satellite technology, earning him the nickname of “resident genius.”
The Philadelphia native and University of Pennsylvania Law School graduate...
- 3/14/2024
- by Paul Bond
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ronald Reagan once famously asked, “How could anyone be president of the United States without having first been an actor?” His question was not entirely rhetorical. Reagan understood the importance of celebrity cool and celebrity power, and if he were around at this moment, he’d predict a massive detonation in the coming presidential election – one that likely will be history’s most contentious, as befits the era of Donald Trump.
Louis B. Mayer, MGM’s studio oligarch, also coveted celebrity power but would have been appalled by Trump’s approach to it. Mayer’s aim was to mobilize the icons of pop culture, not alienate them. He wanted all his stars to vote Republican, and even opened a unit to train conservative zealots. James Stewart and Jeannette MacDonald were among his recruits along with every president of SAG, including Robert Montgomery and, later, Reagan.
As today’s stars venture further into the political arena,...
Louis B. Mayer, MGM’s studio oligarch, also coveted celebrity power but would have been appalled by Trump’s approach to it. Mayer’s aim was to mobilize the icons of pop culture, not alienate them. He wanted all his stars to vote Republican, and even opened a unit to train conservative zealots. James Stewart and Jeannette MacDonald were among his recruits along with every president of SAG, including Robert Montgomery and, later, Reagan.
As today’s stars venture further into the political arena,...
- 6/18/2020
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Ann Sarnoff, who is just a few days into her tenure as Warner Bros CEO, met the workforce in a town hall Wednesday.
According to employees who attended the hour-long session, it offered a dose of positive energy for a company that has had a fairly arduous 2019. When one employee asked the new boss why risk-taking has traditionally not been rewarded in the Warner Bros. culture, she drew applause with her brisk reply, “They will be now!” Creating an environment where workers can learn from failure without blame or finger-pointing will be a central goal, Sarnoff added, so that Warner Bros, founded in 1923, can thrive for another century.
Sarnoff, a Viacom and BBC veteran who was named as Kevin Tsujihara’s replacement in June, spoke one-on-one onstage with studio communications chief Dee Dee Myers at the packed Steven J. Ross Theater on the Burbank lot. Employees also watched and...
According to employees who attended the hour-long session, it offered a dose of positive energy for a company that has had a fairly arduous 2019. When one employee asked the new boss why risk-taking has traditionally not been rewarded in the Warner Bros. culture, she drew applause with her brisk reply, “They will be now!” Creating an environment where workers can learn from failure without blame or finger-pointing will be a central goal, Sarnoff added, so that Warner Bros, founded in 1923, can thrive for another century.
Sarnoff, a Viacom and BBC veteran who was named as Kevin Tsujihara’s replacement in June, spoke one-on-one onstage with studio communications chief Dee Dee Myers at the packed Steven J. Ross Theater on the Burbank lot. Employees also watched and...
- 9/4/2019
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
Ann Sarnoff has yet to begin her new job as chairman-ceo of Warner Bros., but she already has deep family ties to the entertainment company.
When she made her first visit to the Burbank lot last month, she was touched to find that studio staffers had framed for her a memo her father-in-law, Bill Sarnoff, wrote back in 1977 approving a then-unknown Christopher Reeve to play the Man of Steel in the studio’s first live-action “Superman” film.
Bill Sarnoff, who worked with the legendary Steve Ross in the late 1960s, had orchestrated the acquisition of DC Comics for Ross’ Kinney Corp. in 1968. The superhero troupe became part of Warner Bros. the following year, when Kinney Corp. bought the studio.
Flash-forward 50 years, and the DC trove is more important to the studio’s health than ever.
The weight of her new role as the leader of the industry’s largest studio...
When she made her first visit to the Burbank lot last month, she was touched to find that studio staffers had framed for her a memo her father-in-law, Bill Sarnoff, wrote back in 1977 approving a then-unknown Christopher Reeve to play the Man of Steel in the studio’s first live-action “Superman” film.
Bill Sarnoff, who worked with the legendary Steve Ross in the late 1960s, had orchestrated the acquisition of DC Comics for Ross’ Kinney Corp. in 1968. The superhero troupe became part of Warner Bros. the following year, when Kinney Corp. bought the studio.
Flash-forward 50 years, and the DC trove is more important to the studio’s health than ever.
The weight of her new role as the leader of the industry’s largest studio...
- 7/30/2019
- by Cynthia Littleton
- Variety Film + TV
More than 3,500 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District participated in the second year of Warner Bros.’ storytelling educational initiatives WB Story Lab and WB First Cut during the 2018-19 school year. The studio plans to continue both programs for a third year in partnership with nonprofit orgs Young Storytellers and Ghetto Film School.
Warner Bros. noted that the just-concluded second year of the programs saw double the number of participants at middle schools and high schools in the Lausd, which is the nation’s second-largest public school district (behind New York City) with more than 600,000 students and more than 1,000 schools.
Administered through WB Good, the studio’s social impact platform, the programs offer classes for students that are designed to cultivate storytelling skills and access to the entertainment industry.
“One of the pillars of our WB Good platform is to give young people the tools and space to be storytellers.
Warner Bros. noted that the just-concluded second year of the programs saw double the number of participants at middle schools and high schools in the Lausd, which is the nation’s second-largest public school district (behind New York City) with more than 600,000 students and more than 1,000 schools.
Administered through WB Good, the studio’s social impact platform, the programs offer classes for students that are designed to cultivate storytelling skills and access to the entertainment industry.
“One of the pillars of our WB Good platform is to give young people the tools and space to be storytellers.
- 6/12/2019
- by Anna Tingley
- Variety Film + TV
It may be too flippant to say Adolf Hitler is having yet another moment. But there is ample evidence, at least in the cultural world. Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell are making the satire “Jojo Rabbit,” in which writer-director-star Taika Waititi takes on the Fuhrer’s persona. At the same time, devoted fans of “The Man in the High Castle,” Amazon’s original series that imagines what America would have been like had the Allied powers lost World War II and Hitler became a true world leader, are anxiously awaiting the official release date of the third season.
“Hitler’s Hollywood,” a new documentary, from filmmaker Rudiger Suchsland, is drawing a lot of attention
One scholar keenly in touch with perhaps this morbid curiosity among the younger set is Noah Isenberg, director of the Screen Studies Program at the New School in New York, who teaches a popular class entitled “Berlin-New York-Hollywood.
“Hitler’s Hollywood,” a new documentary, from filmmaker Rudiger Suchsland, is drawing a lot of attention
One scholar keenly in touch with perhaps this morbid curiosity among the younger set is Noah Isenberg, director of the Screen Studies Program at the New School in New York, who teaches a popular class entitled “Berlin-New York-Hollywood.
- 7/16/2018
- by Mary Murphy and Michele Willens
- The Wrap
Pulitzer Finalist 'Hitler in Los Angeles' Optioned by 'Silver Linings Playbook' Producer (Exclusive)
Oscar-winning producer Bruce Cohen (American Beauty, Silver Linings Playbook) has optioned the feature film rights to Steven J. Ross’ Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for History this year. The Hollywood Reporter ran an exclusive excerpt from the book in September.
Hitler in Los Angeles tells the incredible but true story of how Leon Lewis, a Jewish lawyer, led a spy ring that included ex-Klansmen and the son of a German general. While law enforcement was busy chasing ineffectual communists, Lewis’ ring stopped several outlandish plots to kidnap or kill prominent Hollywood figures ...
Hitler in Los Angeles tells the incredible but true story of how Leon Lewis, a Jewish lawyer, led a spy ring that included ex-Klansmen and the son of a German general. While law enforcement was busy chasing ineffectual communists, Lewis’ ring stopped several outlandish plots to kidnap or kill prominent Hollywood figures ...
- 5/15/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Pulitzer Finalist 'Hitler in Los Angeles' Optioned by 'Silver Linings Playbook' Producer (Exclusive)
Oscar-winning producer Bruce Cohen (American Beauty, Silver Linings Playbook) has optioned the feature film rights to Steven J. Ross’ Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America, which was a Pulitzer Award finalist in history this year. THR ran an exclusive excerpt from the book in September.
It tells the incredible but true story of how Leon Lewis, a Jewish lawyer, led a spy ring that included ex-Klansmen and the son of a German general. While law enforcement was busy chasing ineffectual communists, Lewis’ ring stopped several outlandish plots to kidnap or kill prominent Hollywood figures like Al ...
It tells the incredible but true story of how Leon Lewis, a Jewish lawyer, led a spy ring that included ex-Klansmen and the son of a German general. While law enforcement was busy chasing ineffectual communists, Lewis’ ring stopped several outlandish plots to kidnap or kill prominent Hollywood figures like Al ...
- 5/15/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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