The Mafia Lawyer Who OWNED Hollywood

If I say “Hollywood in the 60s”, you might think of Marilyn Monroe or Kirk Douglas. But in reality, true power in LA’s movie industry was off-screen.

It laid in the hands of none other than the Mafia – More specifically one man known as “the fixer”.

Very few people know the name Sidney Korshak, which is exactly how he wanted it.

The Chicago-born lawyer was the Outfit’s legal counsel, not only consorting with mobsters like Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli but also with labor leaders like Ronald Reagan.

It was a phone call from Korshak that enabled Al Pacino to play Michael Corleone when he was contractually obligated to another film. And it was he who revived Frank Sinatra’s acting career when it was on the brink of dying, earning him an Oscar afterward.

It was safe to say he was the most powerful man in Holywood. And his influence extended far beyond that too.

He was one of Al Capone’s top consiglieres., acquiring a reputation for conducting all his business orally and always keeping a large supply of coins on hand to make calls from pay telephones that were less likely to be tapped.

In fact, he was labeled “the most important contact that the Mob had to legitimate business, labor, Hollywood, and Las Vegas”

And until the day he died in 1996, no one was ever able to indict him.

For the full story of the man who dominated all of Hollywood, click the link in the comments.

In the land of dreams, Korshak was a shadow among shadows, a wisp of smoke curling around the brighter lights. The tall, immaculately dressed Mafia attorney was a Chicago-born Jew of Lithuanian descent who climbed from the westside ghetto of Chicago to the glitter of Hollywood as a shadowy advisor to big business, show business, and organized crime figures. And his influence extended beyond what most people know.

In fact, the Justice Department described him as “the most important contact that the Mob had to legitimate business, labor, Hollywood, and Las Vegas”

"Well, let’s just say a nod from Korshak, and Santa Anita closes. A nod from Korshak, and Madison Square Garden stays open. A nod from Korshak, and Vegas shuts down. A nod from Korshak, and the Dodgers suddenly can play night baseball.” Wrote former Paramount Pictures chief Robert Evans.

Unsurprisingly, it was a call from Korshak in 1966 that elevated Evans to the position as chief executive at Paramount Pictures in the first place.

The signature film during Evans’ time at Paramount was The Godfather.
Director Francis Ford Coppola was determined that Al Pacino play the role of Michael Corleone. But Pacino was contractually obligated to another film whose producer would not release him from the contract. Korshak made a phone call on Evans’s behalf, and within twenty minutes Pacino was free to play Michael Corleone.

The son of a wealthy Chicago contractor graduated from the University of Wisconsin and received a law degree from DePaul University in 1930. His grades had slipped to a C+ average, and, curiously, the only A’s he received in two years were in Partnership, Trust, and Property Law—subjects well suited to his future successes.

Within months of opening his law practice, he was defending members of the Al Capone crime syndicate. And When necessary, he would arrange for a judge to be paid off so as to guarantee the desired verdict.

Korshak moved to California in the late 1940s and found Hollywood executives as eager as Chicago businessmen to hire him even though he had no law offices in Los Angeles, and wasn’t even licensed to practice law in California.

His reputation was made in 1943 when a mobster on trial for extorting millions of dollars from Hollywood movie companies testified that when he had been introduced to Korshak by a high-ranking Capone mobster, he had been told, "Sidney is our man."

In a city like Hollywood, where fame is the calling card most residents crave, Sidney Korshak shuns the spotlight. He never allows his picture to be taken. As the Chicago Outfit’s legal counsel, Korshak not only consorts with mobsters like Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli, but also with labor leaders like Ronald Reagan, who -at the time- was the president of the Screen Actors Guild. And by controlling unions such as SAG, the Mafia effectively controls Hollywood.

#shorts #mafia #hollywood

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