Summary of Dan E. Moldea's Dark Victory

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The United States government built a naval base on the Mississippi River near the segregated Storyville neighborhood of New Orleans in 1917. The area was a jazz musicians’ paradise, but it was closed down in 1919, and thousands of people left the city.

#2 The Mafia had built their empires on illegal, bootlegged liquor, which brought them millions of dollars in unreported, untaxed income. When the Depression came, they were the only people with big money.

#3 The biggest talent agency at the time was the William Morris Agency, which was run by Austrian immigrant Wilhelm Moses. It was founded in 1898 by Moses, who had changed his name to William Morris when he came to the United States.

#4 Stein and Goodheart began finding jobs for bands and advising clients on their careers. They insisted that MCA be the exclusive agent of those bands and bandleaders, and they demanded that dance halls with which they worked hire MCA bands exclusively.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822522497

IRB Media

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Insights on Dan E. Moldea's Dark Victory

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The United States government built a naval base on the Mississippi River near the segregated Storyville neighborhood of New Orleans in 1917. The area was a jazz musicians’ paradise, but it was closed down in 1919, and thousands of people left the city.

#2

The Mafia had built their empires on illegal, bootlegged liquor, which brought them millions of dollars in unreported, untaxed income. When the Depression came, they were the only people with big money.

#3

The biggest talent agency at the time was the William Morris Agency, which was run by Austrian immigrant Wilhelm Moses. It was founded in 1898 by Moses, who had changed his name to William Morris when he came to the United States.

#4

Stein and Goodheart began finding jobs for bands and advising clients on their careers. They insisted that MCA be the exclusive agent of those bands and bandleaders, and they demanded that dance halls with which they worked hire MCA bands exclusively.

#5

The dance band business meant an itinerant life. Bands would travel from city to city, state to state, making enough money to survive. MCA was responsible for them and their affairs. By the mid-1930s, MCA had secured bookings at many of the big, luxurious hotels and nightclubs in Chicago, New York, and Miami.

#6

The union boss Petrillo ruled over the American Federation of Musicians, and he used his power to help Stein and MCA get a monopoly over the major bands in the music business. He gave MCA an exclusive blanket waiver permitting them to operate as both booking agent and radio production company, despite the fact that such an agreement was considered a conflict of interest and violated the AFM’s bylaws.

#7

MCA began to produce big-band music programs, replacing advertising agencies as the packagers of these programs. The company needed to be protected from union leaders and club owners who cooperated with the government.

#8

The Mafia in Chicago was formed during World War I when Big Jim Colosimo, an Old World Sicilian racketeer, put together a loose-knit, mostly disorganized network of other Italian/Sicilian criminals to protect his brothels and other illegitimate businesses. By 1931, the Mafia had become Americanized.

#9

Some politicians who battled the Mafia ended up getting into trouble. Chicago mayor Anton Cermak was shot and died from his wounds while campaigning with President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.

#10

Around 1931, Bioff met George Browne, the head of the Chicago local union of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Together, they tried to develop some scams. Their first enterprise