Jack Valenti, aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson and longtime president of the Motion Picture Association of America, was born in Houston on September 5, 1921. He attended the University of Houston, graduating in 1946 after serving as an Army combat pilot in World War II. Thanks to the GI Bill, Valenti then enrolled at Harvard Business School, earning a MBA in 1948. Upon his return to Houston, Valenti began working for the Humble Oil Company advertising department. He co-founded his own advertising agency in 1952. Conoco, a Humble rival, was its first client.
Valenti first met Lyndon B. Johnson in 1956 at a Houston gathering of young Democrats. When Johnson became John F. Kennedy's running mate, the vice presidential candidate chose Valenti to run the ticket's campaign in Texas. Three years later, Valenti organized the Houston leg of Kennedy's 1963 trip through Texas, joining the presidential motorcade through Dallas on November 22. Following the JFK assassination, Valenti was summoned to Air Force One, where he witnessed Johnson take the oath of office and was hired on the spot as a special assistant. Valenti and his family lived in the White House for the first two months of Johnson's presidency. In 1964, Johnson deputized Valenti to oversee relations between the Oval Office and Congressional Republican leadership.
Valenti resigned from the White House in 1966 to become the president of the Motion Picture Association of America. Holding the post for 38 years, Valenti revolutionized the American film and television industry. In 1968, he created the MPAA film rating system to replace the obsolete Hays Production Code, addressing worries of audience suitability while maintaining a filmmaker's right to free expression. As technology changed and piracy concerns grew, Valenti became a fierce advocate for intellectual property rights, lobbying for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Following his retirement in 2004, Valenti became president of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. He died on April 26, 2007, due to complications from a recent stroke.
