The Feds Faded

Last week the U.S. Justice Department withdrew its objections to MCA's plans to take over both Decca Records and Universal Pictures, a Decca subsidiary. MCA, with its Revue Productions, is already the most successful TV producer in the U.S. Now the company is going to produce feature films, becoming a sort of instant major studio--and perhaps soon the biggest of all.

The Justice Department forced MCA to give up its huge talent agency earlier this year, but that loss is now described by an MCA executive as "a minor distraction." To keep Justice happy, MCA has agreed not to grab any other TV, record or movie companies for seven years. This was intended to suggest the spirit of compromise.

The Justice Department clearly withdrew because Hollywood is becoming Unemploymentsville, with so many pictures now being made abroad. TV and movie unions appealed last month to the President and the Attorney General to let MCA have its way. "Now," said MCA President Lew Wasserman, when the feds faded last week and bulldozers grunted mightily to clear a site for a new 14-story studio office building, "we will see if Hollywood will become a desert. I don't think so. But I could be wrong."

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