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52-534: Toward the end of its independent existence, it also controlled various entertainment and other business ventures. Its purchase of MCA Inc. , whose assets included Universal Studios and its theme parks , was financed through the sale of Seagram's 25% holding of chemical company DuPont , a position it acquired in 1981. Unable to maintain financial stability, Seagram later imploded, with its beverage assets sold to industry titans Diageo and Pernod Ricard . Universal's television holdings were sold to Barry Diller , and

104-634: A merger that April. Decca at the time owned Coral Records and Brunswick Records , and an 89% stake in Universal Pictures Company, Inc. On July 13, 1962, the United States Department of Justice filed suit against MCA, charging that its acquisition of Decca's controlling interest in Universal violated antitrust laws. To retain Universal, MCA would have to close its talent agency, which represented most of

156-521: A $ 1.2 billion takeover of French cognac maker Martell & Cie . In 1995, Edgar Bronfman Jr. was eager to enter the film and electronic media business. On April 6, 1995, after being approached by Bronfman, DuPont announced a deal whereby the company would buy back its shares from Seagram for $ US9 billion. Seagram was heavily criticized by the investment community; the 24.3% stake in DuPont accounted for 70% of Seagram's earnings. Standard & Poor's took

208-541: A 2013 interview with The Globe and Mail , Charles Bronfman (uncle of Edgar Jr.) stated about the decisions leading to the demise of Seagram: "It was a disaster, it is a disaster, it will be a disaster. It was a family tragedy." Seagram distilleries by country prior to the dissolution: Seagram distillery Seagram's had more than 180 alcohol brands at the time the wine and spirits division sale to Diageo and Pernod-Ricard : The Seagram name survives today in various well-known drinks. Seagram's Seven Crown , used to make

260-603: A 32.2% stake in Conoco, DuPont was brought in as a white knight by the oil company and entered the bidding war. Seagram lost the bidding war, though in exchange for its stake in Conoco it became a 24.3% owner of DuPont. By 1995, Seagram was DuPont's largest single shareholder with four seats on its board. In 1986, the company started a TV commercial campaign advertising its Golden wine cooler products. With Bruce Willis as pitchman, Seagram rose from fifth place among distillers to first in just two years. In 1987, Seagram engineered

312-541: A TV station in New York City, WWOR-TV (renamed from WOR-TV), in 1987, from RKO General subsidiary of GenCorp , which was in the midst of a licensing scandal. In 1982, MCA decided to start out its video game unit, MCA Video Games, led by technicians of the MCA DiscoVision unit. In 1983, MCA Videogames, the video game division of MCA itself and video game developer/publisher Atari Inc. entered into

364-739: A behind-the-scenes glimpse of film and television production at Universal Studios. This established a footprint of what is now known as Universal Studios Hollywood theme park . Over the next few decades, similar parks were built and expanded under MCA for Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida and Universal Studios Japan in Osaka . In 1966, MCA formed Uni Records in Hollywood , California, and in 1967, MCA bought New York–based Kapp Records . That same year MCA also acquired guitar maker Danelectro and mall retailer Spencer Gifts . In 1967,

416-417: A lead mine at Bonne Terre, Missouri . The mine had had numerous problems including Price's Raid by Confederate States Army General Sterling Price . However under first president J. Wyman Jones and new mine manager Charles B. Parsons began using new diamond drilling techniques the business prospered. It nearly went bankrupt February 26, 1883 when a fire destroyed the milling operations. The success of

468-521: A long-term agreement to use the Seagram name from Pernod Ricard for these products. A licence from Pernod Ricard to produce Seagram's Cooler Escapes and Seagram's malt-beverage brands has been held by North American Breweries (formerly KPS) since 2009. On April 19, 2006, Pernod Ricard announced that they would be closing the former Seagram distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana , US. The distillery

520-589: A movie division. The company began to acquire talent agencies, representing established actors such as James Stewart , Henry Fonda , Bette Davis , Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan , whom Wasserman became very close with personally. In later decades, Wasserman became a guiding force in Reagan's political ambition by helping Reagan to win the presidency of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), then election as Governor of California in 1966, and finally President of

572-538: A number of businesses including Univision from 1992 to 2007. Perenchio was well known for his version of the Rules (up to twenty rules), which varied from year to year and had some internal contradictions (In 2006, Perenchio pointed out that while there was a "no nepotism" rule, he was aware his son was on the company's board of directors at the time). In 1939, based on Wasserman's recommendation, MCA's headquarters moved from Chicago to Beverly Hills, California , creating

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624-655: A partnership to start out Studio Games, a joint venture that would develop video games based on MCA's film and television properties, most notably from then-sister Universal Pictures, and decided that they would give them access to all motion picture and television properties coming from the unit. In 1990, MCA hired Hanna-Barbera executive Jeff Segal to start out its MCA Family Entertainment arm (aka Universal Family Entertainment) and had Universal Cartoon Studios as its subsidiary. On November 26, 1990, Japanese multinational conglomerate Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. agreed to acquire MCA for US$ 6.59 billion. MCA

676-643: Is still in operation. MCA's classical music catalog is managed by Deutsche Grammophon . St. Joe Minerals St. Joe Minerals Corporation was an American mining company. It was the United States largest producer of lead and zinc at the time of its merger with Fluor Corporation in 1981. The St. Joseph Lead Company was founded on March 25, 1864, by Lyman W. Gilbert, John E. Wylie, Edmund I. Wade, Wilmot Williams, James L. Dunham and James L. Hathaway in New York City . The company acquired

728-594: The MCA Records label was established outside the United States and Canada to issue releases by the MCA group of labels. Decca, Kapp, and Uni were merged into MCA Records at Universal City, California in 1971; the three labels maintained their identities for a short time but were soon retired in favor of the MCA label. The first MCA Records release in the US was former Uni artist Elton John 's " Crocodile Rock " in 1972. In 1973,

780-508: The New York Stock Exchange and was incorporated as MCA Inc. on November 10, 1958. A couple of years later, Alfred Hitchcock gave MCA his rights to Psycho and his television anthology in exchange for 150,000 shares, making him the third largest investor in MCA, and his own boss at Universal. On June 18, 1962, Decca Records shareholders agreed to MCA's buyout offer after the record label had entered into talks about

832-744: The 1920s, in part due to Prohibition instituted in the United States in 1919. The Distillers Corporation Limited name was derived from a United Kingdom company called Distillers Company Limited , which controlled the leading brands of whisky in the UK, and which was doing business with the Bronfmans. In 1923, the Bronfmans purchased the Greenbrier Distillery in the United States, dismantled it, shipped it to Canada, and reassembled it in LaSalle, Quebec . The Bronfmans shipped liquor from Canada to

884-466: The 1930s, when Seagram established business in the United States, it paid a fine of $ 1.5 million to the US government to settle delinquent excise taxes on liquor illegally exported to the US during Prohibition. The US government had originally asked for $ 60 million. From the 1950s, most of Distillers-Seagram was owned by the four children of Samuel Bronfman, through their holding company Cemp Investments . The three most popular Seagram distilled products in

936-493: The 1960s through 1990s were Seven Crown , VO, and Crown Royal . In 1963, Seagram purchased the Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company for $ 61 million in cash and a $ 216 million production payment sale to Glanville Minerals Corporation of New York. Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company was merged Frankfort Oil Company, another oil-producing company owned by Seagram. The new firm was named Texas Pacific Oil Company. In 1980,

988-918: The Aguilar mine in Argentina near the Bolivia border. Its expansion into the zinc operations particularly in the northeastern United States lead it to Northern Ore Company in New York and the New Jersey Zinc Company in New Jersey in 1943. In the 1940s it expanded its Missouri Lead Belt operations to Indian Creek , Viburnum , Meramec Township , and Fletcher . Its domination of the Southeast Missouri Lead District gave it control of nearly 70 percent of

1040-595: The American cocktail, 7 and 7 , is produced by Diageo , while Seagram's V.O. is produced by Sazerac . Several brands of coolers are produced under the Seagram name as of 2022: Seagram's Escapes are produced by Genesee Brewing for the American market, while Seagram Island Time is produced by Waterloo Brewing for the Canadian market. The Coca-Cola Company currently produces Seagram's Ginger Ale soda line since 2002 & made it widely available in 2011. Seagram's House,

1092-598: The Bronfman heirs sold the Texas Pacific Oil holdings to Sun Oil Co. for $ 2.3 billion. After the death of Samuel Bronfman in 1971, Edgar Bronfman Sr. was named chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) until June 1994 when his son, Edgar Bronfman Jr. , was appointed CEO. In 1978, Seagram's took over the Stonyfell winery in the eastern foothills of Adelaide from Dalgety Australia , around which time

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1144-558: The French-controlled overseas collectivity Saint Pierre and Miquelon off the then- Dominion of Newfoundland , which was then shipped by bootleggers to rum rows in New York, New Jersey and other states. In 1928, a few years after the death of Joseph E. Seagram in 1919, the Distillers Corporation acquired Joseph E. Seagram & Sons from heir and President Edward F. Seagram ; the merged company retained

1196-481: The Seagram name. The company was prepared for the end of Prohibition in 1933 with an ample stock of aged whiskeys, ready to sell to the newly-opened American market. Although he was never convicted of criminal activity, Samuel Bronfman's dealings with bootleggers during the Prohibition-era in the United States have been researched by various historians and are documented in various peer-reviewed articles. In

1248-443: The United States in 1980. By the end of the 1930s, MCA had become the largest talent agency in the world, with over 700 clients, including movie stars, recording artists, Broadway actors, radio stars, and directors. The company's aggressive acquisition of clientele in all entertainment sectors earned MCA the nickname of "The Octopus". The company's activities led U.S. Department of Justice agents to investigate not only whether MCA

1300-494: The United States lead production As the company also branched into the coal industry acquiring A.T. Massey in 1974 it was renamed St. Joe Minerals. In 1981 with metal prices running high Fluor Corporation outbid Seagrams to acquire the company. Shortly after the acquisition metal prices collapsed. The Fluor Corporation would spin the components off with zinc going to the Horsehead Corporation in 1987, lead to

1352-432: The age of 23 and rose through the ranks of MCA for more than four decades, with Sonny Werblin as his right-hand man. Wasserman helped create MCA's radio show, Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge , which debuted on NBC Radio that same year. Following that success, Stein installed Wasserman in New York City in 1937, but Wasserman convinced him that Hollywood was the best place for the company's growth. The company

1404-654: The balance of the Universal entertainment empire and what was Seagram was sold to French conglomerate Vivendi in 2000. In 1857, Waterloo Distillery was founded in Waterloo , Ontario , Canada . Joseph E. Seagram became a partner with George Randall , William Roos and William Hespeler in 1869 and sole owner in 1883, and the company became known as Joseph E. Seagram & Sons. Many decades later, in 1924, Samuel Bronfman and his brothers founded Distillers Corporation Limited, in Montreal, which enjoyed substantial growth in

1456-466: The company entered the book publishing business with the acquisition of G. P. Putnam's Sons . In 1979, it acquired ABC Records along with its subsidiaries Paramount Records , Impulse! Records , and Dot Records . ABC had acquired the Paramount and Dot labels when it purchased Gulf+Western 's record labels in 1974, then the parent company of Paramount Pictures . From 1983 to 1989, Irving Azoff

1508-583: The company he founded and Wasserman took over as chairman and chief executive officer, while Sidney Sheinberg was appointed president and chief operating officer of MCA. Other executives within MCA were Lawrence R. Barnett, who ran the agency's live acts division during its glory agency years in the 1950s and 1960s, and Ned Tanen , head of Universal Pictures . Tanen was behind Universal hits such as Animal House , and John Hughes 's Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club . MCA issued soundtrack albums for most films released by Universal Pictures. In 1975,

1560-819: The company prompted many competitors in southeast Missouri including the Doe Run Company and Desloge Consolidated Lead Company which were absorbed by St. Joe. Firmin V. Desloge , patriarch of the Desloge Family in America , remained on the board of directors as well as many of his descendants well into the late 20th Century. By 1923 the company had 250 miles of underground railroad running under Flat River , Leadwood , Desloge , Rivermines and Elvins, Missouri . In 1925 it expanded operations to lead, zinc and silver mining in South America including

1612-436: The deal, MCA leased the studios back to Universal for $ 2 million a year, plus unlimited access to MCA's clients such as Jimmy Stewart, Rock Hudson , Doris Day and Alfred Hitchcock to make films for Universal. Stein, who by this time was the sole owner of MCA, decided to take the company public by giving 51% of his ownership of MCA to his employees, which included a 20% stake for Wasserman . The company went public on

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1664-498: The end of 1962, MCA assumed full ownership of Universal. In 1964, MCA entered the music publishing business when it acquired Lou Levy 's Leeds Music, and formed Universal City Studios the same year in effort to merge under one umbrella both Universal Pictures and its Revue Studios division, which was later reincorporated as Universal Television in 1966. On July 15, 1964, MCA established the Studio Tour , which provided guests

1716-627: The final Decca pop label release, " Drift Away ", a No. 5 pop hit by Dobie Gray , was issued. MCA had two failed mergers in 1969. Initially, it planned a merger with Westinghouse Electric Corporation but that collapsed in April, and in July, they announced a proposed merger with the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company , but this too was called off in September. In 1973, Stein stepped down from

1768-414: The former company headquarters in Montreal, was donated to McGill University by Vivendi Universal in 2002, then renamed Martlet House . The landmarked Seagram Building , once the company's American headquarters in New York City , was commissioned by Phyllis Lambert , daughter of Seagram CEO Samuel Bronfman , and designed by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with Philip Johnson . Regarded as one of

1820-614: The industry's biggest names (a select few handled by Wasserman personally). In reality, MCA's talent agency arm became defunct the day the DOJ filed the suit; dissolving it that October was a mere formality. MCA's now-former agents quickly formed new agencies, many of which are woven into the corporate fabric of today's talent management; Jerry Perenchio 's Chartwell Artists represented Elizabeth Taylor and Muhammad Ali . Former MCA agents Freddie Fields and David Begelman formed Creative Management Associates , another important new agency. By

1872-428: The most notable examples of the functionalist aesthetic and a prominent instance of corporate modern architecture , it set the trend for the city's skyline for decades to follow, and has been featured in several Hollywood films. On completion in 1958, its costs made it the world's most expensive skyscraper. The Bronfman family sold the Seagram building to TIAA for $ 70.5 million in 1979. The Seagram Museum , formerly

1924-477: The music industry. It became a shareholder in USA Network in 1981, eventually owning 50% of the network (the other half was owned by Paramount). In 1982, its publishing division, G. P. Putnam's Sons, bought Grosset & Dunlap from Filmways . In 1984, MCA bought Walter Lantz Productions and its characters, including Woody Woodpecker . In 1985, MCA bought toy and video game company LJN . It also bought

1976-610: The new owners dropped the MCA name; the company became Universal Studios, Inc. MCA's music division, MCA Music Entertainment Group, was renamed Universal Music Group . MCA Records continued to live on as a label within the Universal Music Group. The following year, G. P. Putnam's Sons was sold to the Penguin Group subsidiary of Pearson PLC . In the spring of 2003, MCA Records was folded into Geffen Records . Its country music label, MCA Nashville Records ,

2028-502: The old Republic Pictures studio lot in Studio City, California . In February 1958, MCA acquired Paramount Pictures ' pre-1950 sound feature film library for $ 10 million, through a newly created MCA subsidiary, EMKA, Ltd. In December 1958, MCA bought the 423-acre (1.71 km ) Universal Studios lot from Universal Pictures for $ 11,250,000 and renamed it, as well as the actual television unit, Revue Studios . As part of

2080-633: The original Seagram distillery in Waterloo, Ontario , was forced to close due to lack of funds in 1997. The building is now the home of the Centre for International Governance Innovation as well as Shopify . The two original barrel houses are now the Seagram Lofts condominiums. There were almost 5 acres (2.0 ha) of open land, upon which the Balsillie School of International Affairs was subsequently built; construction began in 2009, and

2132-801: The three major television networks, especially NBC . MCA was the legal predecessor of Vivendi Universal and thereby NBCUniversal . Its other legal successor is Universal Music Group Holding Corp, a holding company owned by Universal Music Group (which has absorbed PolyGram ). MCA was formed in 1924 by Jules Stein and William R. Goodheart, Jr., as Music Corporation of America , a music booking agency based in Chicago, Illinois. MCA helped pioneer modern practices of touring bands and name acts. Early on, MCA booked such prominent artists as King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton for clubs and speakeasies run by legendary notorious Chicago mobsters such as Al Capone and others. Lew Wasserman joined MCA in 1936 at

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2184-771: The unusual step of stating that the sale of the DuPont interest could result in a downgrade of Seagram's more than $ 4.2 billion of long-term debt. Bronfman used the proceeds of the sale to acquire a controlling interest in MCA from Matsushita , whose assets included Universal Pictures and its theme parks a year after. Later in 1998, Seagram purchased PolyGram and scattered the assets within Universal Studios, notably both Universal Music Group and Universal Pictures. The same year, Seagram sold to PepsiCo its juice business Tropicana Products that it acquired in 1988 for $ 3.1 billion. In 2000, Seagram's entertainment division

2236-405: The winemaking part of the business at Stonyfell was wound up. During the early 1980s, Seagram's attempted to acquire St. Joe Minerals . However, it was outbid by Fluor Corporation . In 1981, cash-rich and wanting to diversify, the U.S.-based subsidiary Seagram Company Ltd. attempted to engineer a takeover of Conoco Inc. , a major American oil and gas producing company. Although Seagram acquired

2288-513: Was a monopoly breaking antitrust laws, but also its suspected connections to underworld criminal activities. This investigation continued for the next few decades. In 1948, Jules Stein moved up as MCA's first chairman, giving Lew Wasserman charge of day-to-day operations of the company as president. That year, Stein and Wasserman decided to get into a new medium that would soon change the entertainment industry: television. Although many motion picture studios would not touch this new medium, thinking it

2340-509: Was chairman of MCA Records and is credited for turning around the fortunes of the label. The Chess Records catalog was acquired from the remnants of Sugarhill in 1985. Motown Records was bought in 1988 (and sold to PolyGram in 1993). GRP Records (which became for some years MCA's jazz music label and thus began managing the company's jazz catalogue) and Geffen Records (which served as another mainstream music subsidiary) were acquired in 1990. MCA also acquired other assets outside of

2392-524: Was completed in 2010. MCA Inc. MCA Inc. (originally an initialism for Music Corporation of America ) was an American media conglomerate founded in 1924. Originally a talent agency with artists in the music business as clients, the company became a major force in the film industry, and later expanded into television production. MCA published music, booked acts, ran the MCA Records music label, represented film, television and radio stars, and eventually produced and sold television programs to

2444-555: Was forced to sell WWOR-TV in 1991 to Pinelands, Inc. because of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules that foreign companies could not own over 25% of a U.S. TV station. In 1995, Seagram acquired 80% of MCA from Matsushita. On November 26, 1996, MCA announced that it would acquire television syndication company Multimedia Entertainment from Gannett , who acquired its parent company in 1995, for $ 40 million. On December 9, 1996,

2496-647: Was granted, the company formed MCA Television Limited for syndication . In 1950, Revue Productions , once a live concert promotion division that produced "Stage Door Canteen" live events for the USO during World War II, was re-launched as MCA's television production subsidiary. By 1956, Revue became the top supplier of television for all broadcast networks, spanning three decades of television programs such as Armour Theater , General Electric Theater , The Jane Wyman Show , Leave It to Beaver , Wagon Train , and many others. Prior to 1958, all Revue's shows were filmed at

2548-512: Was guided by a codification of Stein's pet policies known as "The Rules of The Road". The Rules were passed down from the Prohibition era, Chicago–area MCA (referenced in books like Citizen Cohn and The King and Queen of Hollywood ) to the 1940s Los Angeles–area firm, which focused on representing movie actors. The Rules were next passed to the 1950s generation of MCA talent agents, including Jerry Perenchio , who later owned and headed

2600-402: Was just a fad and would fade away, MCA decided to embrace it. First, however, the company needed to get a waiver from the Screen Actors Guild , which ruled at the time that talent agencies such as MCA were prohibited from producing TV shows or films. Thanks to the newly elected SAG president, Ronald Reagan (an MCA client), MCA was granted a waiver to start producing TV shows. After the waiver

2652-559: Was sold in 2007 to CL Financial , a holding company based in Trinidad and Tobago which then collapsed and required government intervention. They operated the distillery as Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana. In December 2011, the distillery was purchased by MGP Ingredients, headquartered in Atchison, Kansas. It is now known as MGP of Indiana , and continues to be the source of the components of Seagram's Seven Crown, now owned by Diageo. In

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2704-618: Was sold to Vivendi , and, after Vivendi had acquired French media giant Groupe Canal+ , it became part of the new company, Vivendi Universal, on 11 December 2000. The beverage division was sold to Diageo and Pernod Ricard . By the time Vivendi began auctioning off Seagram's beverages business, the once-renowned operation consisted of around 180 alcoholic drink brands and brand extensions in addition to its original high-profile brand names. In 2002, The Coca-Cola Company acquired Seagram's mixers (ginger ale, tonic water, club soda and seltzer water) from Pernod Ricard and Diageo, as well as signing

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