Jack Valenti, the former Johnson White House political adviser who for years has been a household name for his leadership role in film and television, will speak at the California Institute of Technology at 8 p.m., Thursday, October 2, in Beckman Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
"A Conversation with Jack Valenti" is the fourth DuBridge Lecture to be presented at Caltech. Prior lecturers in the series have been veteran journalist Walter Cronkite, financier Warren Buffett, and Nobel Peace Prize–winner John Hume. As in the past, the lecture format will be an open-ended conversation between the guest speaker and an area journalist --this time Los Angeles Times entertainment reporter James Bates.
Valenti served as a special adviser to President Lyndon B. Johnson, but is best known for his long tenure as head of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). In his pivotal role of leadership over both the motion picture and television industries, Valenti has provided guidance in an era of fundamental change in both the industry and American society.
A Houston native, Valenti graduated from high school at age 15 and earned degrees from the University of Houston and Harvard University. As a bomber pilot and commander in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, he flew 51 combat missions and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with four clusters, the Distinguished Unit Citation with one cluster, and the European Theater Ribbon with four battle stars.
After the war he cofounded the Weekley & Valenti advertising and political consulting agency, and in 1955 met then–Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, with whom he would form a close political association. Valenti's agency was in charge of the news media during the fateful November 1963 visit of Kennedy to Texas, and Valenti was riding in the motorcade when Kennedy was assassinated.
Within an hour of the assassination, Valenti was accompanying Johnson on Air Force One on the way back to Washington, D.C., as the new president's special assistant.
Valenti left the Johnson Administration early in order to assume the MPAA leadership in 1966, becoming only the third person to hold the position since the organization's founding in 1922. His many accomplishments at the MPAA include establishing the rating system in the late 1960s, which is still used in essentially its original form today.
Valenti has written four books: The Bitter Taste of Glory, A Very Human President, Speak Up With Confidence, and the political novel Protect and Defend. He has also written extensively for newspapers and magazines, and is known for writing the speeches he frequently gives in public.
Among his honors are a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, life membership in the Directors Guild of America, and France's Legion d'Honneur.
A private reception and dinner will be held in Valenti's honor prior to the event.
Written by Robert Tindol