Another article I found in my archive... a draft but still I find it interesting...
"The
managing director of United Artists Studios, Joe Schenck spoke to
reporters outside New York’s Polyclinic hospital. With his movie
star wife, Norma Talmadge by his side, the Hollywood mogul was on the verge of tears as he related the details of his visit with Rudolph
Valentino. As Valentino’s employer, Schenck was permitted a brief
visit with the gravely ill silent film star.
Schenck and his brother Nick
Schenck , President of Loew’s Theaters were pioneers in the motion
picture industry. Joe Schenck produced Valentino’s last two movies,
The Son of the Sheik
and The Eagle and
had just signed a new contract to produce two more films with the
heart throb. Schenck later founded Twentieth Century Fox Films and
managed, without a doubt, to control his movie studios with an iron fist.
Joe Schenck had a
gift for making profitable alliances which included ties to shady
connections with the mob. It would have taken guts to face off with
Joe Schenck, but this is precisely what Valentino’s business
manager did in the weeks following Valentino’s death. Valentino
died following Schenck’s visit and the job of settling his
financially involved estate fell to his close friend, business
manager and executor, George Ullman. It was in this capacity he took
on the formidable Joe Schenck.
In
an effort to collect outstanding funds and income due to Valentino’s
estate, Ullman held several heated meetings with Joe Schenck.
Valentino was contractually promised a percentage of the profits of
his movies made with United Artists. Ullman was determined to promote
those two films, The
Eagle and The
Son of the Sheik and
generate cash to pay Valentino’s creditors. Schenck offered to buy
out Valentino’s interest in the films and told Ullman that no dead
man had ever made a cent as a screen actor after their death. Ullman
refused the offer, proceeded to aggressively market the films and
Schenck eventually paid the Valentino estate over 300,000.00 in
royalties. Ullman scored victory after victory over Joe Schenck but
was naïve as to just who he was crossing in the process.
His
situation complicated when Valentino’s only brother arrived in Los
Angeles and eventually sued him for fraud and mismanagement of his
famous brother’s estate. To Ullman’s dismay, Valentino’s
brother retained a fleet of highly-paid attorneys to represent him.
The fact that all of these attorneys were affiliated with United
Artists was not lost on Ullman. He did not realize at the time that
some of the money paying Valentino’s brother’s lawyers was being
generated by Schenck’s affiliation with the mob.
While
Ullman engaged in what became decades of legal morass which would
financially ruin him for life, Schenck’s profits soared during the
height of the depression. The flagging national economy was no threat
to Schenck’s bottom line or his ability to fund the attorneys…and
the reason was due in great measure to one man, Willie Bioff.
Willie
Bioff was a mid-level gangster from Chicago who once worked for Jake
“Greasy Thumb” Gusik who introduced him to Al Capone and Frank
“The Enforcer” Nitti. In the 1930's, Nitti dispatached Willie
Bioff to Calfiornia as an enforcer for the mafia controlled union of
the powerful International Alliance of Stage Employees. Eventually,
Bioff, aided by John “Handsome Johnny” Roselli became the
collector for all syndicate controlled unions in Hollywood.
As
Nitti's Hollywood front man, Willie Bioff took full advantage of the
economic hardships being felt in the motion picture industry. Bioff
established a lucrative arrangement with Joe and Nick Schenck. As
George Ullman buckled under the weight of Alberto's legal muscle in
1930, Schenck was making millions depriving his employees of overtime
pay and their right to strike by handing payoffs to the mafia union
front man, Willie Bioff.
There
were two sides to the story as to how and why brown paper bundles of
cash came to be passed between the Schenck brothers and Willie Bioff.
Bioff claimed he was a willing “go-between” and that he had been
asked by Nick and Joe Schenck simply to carry cash payments cross
country to avoid government regulations. Joe Schenck claimed Bioff
was extorting the money. But neither side of the story disputed the
fact that while Joe Schenck reaped his million dollar profits, Bioff
enjoyed a very high-profile ten carat lifestyle in California.
Whether
the cash was handed over to guarantee control over the worker’s
union or whether it was being extorted, Nick Schenck managed to keep
his nose clean. However Joe Schenck was particularly vincible to
Bioff’s presence and his book keeping was as faulty as the entire
set-up. When Schenck made one of his payments to Bioff in the form
of a personal check for $100,000.00, somehow a photo
of the cashed check was forwarded to the Screen Actors Guild’s
President, actor Montgomery Clift. Clift contacted the Internal
Revenue Service and Schenck’s books went through a thorough
scouring by Federal investigators.
The
government handed down an indictment and charged Joe Schenck with
income tax evasion and demanded a payment of $413,000 in taxes. He
cooperated with the government and in exchange faced only a charge of
perjury. To avoid a lengthy prison sentence, Schenck cut a deal with
the Federal government and divulged every detail of his operations
with Bioff, who he referred to as the racketeer ruler of the
stagehands union. Schenck claimed Bioff had extorted millions from him
and his brother by wielding the threat of union strikes at the height
of the great depression.
After
Schenck's testimony to the grand jury, every studio head in Hollywood
was subpoenaed to testify as well as the most notorious Chicago and
Hollywood mob bosses. Bioff was indicted for tax evasion, extortion
and racketeering, along with a number of his associates. He testified
against his companions, including Paul “The Waiter” Ricca, Philip
D'Andrea, Charlie “Cherry Nose” Gioe, Johnny Roselli,, Lou
Kaufman and Frank “The Enforcer” Nitti. Shortly after Bioff's
testimony, Nitti put a gun to his head and committed suicide.
During
the trial, Bioff maintained he “did it all for Joe Schenck.” He
claimed he was a willing messenger and nothing more and painted a
detailed and cozy picture of Joe Schenck cutting him in on a poker
game and staking him for $8000.00. The jury didn’t buy word of his
trumped up story and he was convicted on income tax fraud in
California and found guilty of violating the anti-racketeering
statute.
By
1941, the once powerful mogul who produced Valentino’s best movies,
The Son of the Sheik
and
The Eagle
and visited him on his deathbed was doing time in a federal
penitentiary in Danbury, Connecticut serving a five year sentence on
a conviction of three counts of tax evasion and one count of
committing perjury to a grand jury.
Joe
Schenck would not serve a long term as he was pardoned by Truman and
then returned to Hollywood. Upon
his release, Bioff moved to Arizona
and assumed a new identity, "William Nelson" and developed a friendship with Senator
Barry
Goldwater
helping contribute to his reelection campaign fund and even going
into business with the senator's nephew, Bobby. Bioff
was assassinated on November
4,
1955,
through a bombing which was described as:
“Bioff
walked out of his home and slid behind the wheel of his truck. A
moment later, an explosion rocked the neighborhood. Parts of Bioff
and his truck were strewn all over the driveway. Police found the
remains of a dynamite bomb wired to the starter. The killers were
never found.”
