Jules Stein
Personal life

Jules Stein was a secretive man, so his name is unknown to most. He preferred to operate from behind the curtains, also because it suited his shy and introvertive personality.

Despite being all business, his first marriage was his only serious relationship and it lasted Stein's entire life, although, just like with his children, it wasn't always easy to maintain.

After spending decades developing and then keeping an eye on his company MCA, he then experienced an epiphany and began charity work, contributing huge sums of money to establish organizations that researched and treated various eye conditions.

Stein was born into a South Bend, Indiana family. His parents Louis Seimenski and Rosa Cohen both came from Lithuania, but at the moment of the future MCA owner's birth a dry goods store has already been established by his father, so the family sat comfortably above the poverty line.

Louis' and Rosa's family was big - they had three girls and three boys, and all of them were expected to help with running the business. At the beginning, it looked like the oldest child Billy will be the family success story, especially compared to his older brother Jules - a small, shy and introvertive boy.

Jules was smart though, and so education was the best bet for him. A problem emerged before college - there was no money to pay for it and if Jules wanted it, he had to work for it. He decided to put his violin skills to use (he had been learning it since he was eleven). Almost every public party at the time had a live band playing and so the teenager found himself one. Seeing that learning another instrument could make him earn more, he began learning saxophone.

Stein was no Niccolo Paganini or John Coltrane for sure, but he played well enough. With time, he realized that there is more money to be made in booking his band than playing in it. Running with that idea, he began booking other bands as well and this is how MCA started.

In 1921, Stein graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago. He wouldn't have done it if not for his booking business. Now, he had to make a serious decision to make: all the musical adventures were just to go through medical school but did he really want to become a doctor? After all, not only he felt strangely drawn to business, he was awfully good at it, too! By the time he finished school, he had lots of experience, connections and revenue streams.

The conclusion was to nevertheless continue his medical career and for two years he worked for Dr. Harry Gredel in Chicago as ophthalmologist, but soon decided his own business is his destiny after all.

As his band visited Kansas City to play a gig there, Stein met a 15 years old girl named Doris Jones. Few years later, he stumbled upon her again when visiting the same city and that's where things really started between the two. In 1928, which was one year later, they became husband and wife.

Another five years forward, Doris gave birth to their first daughter Jean and two years later their second and last child Susan was born. The family lived in a beautiful and classy house in Beverly Hills.

Its designer was Wallace Neff - California's most renowned architect largely responsible for its specific architecture prevalent to this day. Neff's most famous client was Stein's great friend Mary Pickford and her husband Douglas Fairbanks, but he had a lot of famous clients, including Cary Grant Darryl and Zanuck.

In that house, social life was thriving. Jules and Doris contradicted each other (or complimented, depending on context) in that just as much he pushed people away and guarded his personal space, his wife was the exact opposite and looked for ways to connect. In that relationship, things went the wife's way and so she often organized lavish parties and many famous and influential people were guests there.

When those guests came back home, an awkward silence was what rang the loudest. Jules didn't get along with Doris, Doris didn't get along with her children Jean and Susan, and the girls were usually on a warpath with the head of the family too. Jules was always all business, so he probably didn't even care that much, but the damage was being done, mostly to the girls who needed their parents.

Despite the uncomfortable home atmosphere though, Doris and Jules didn't get separated and the relationship between Jules and his kids greatly improved in later years.

After twenty years of marriage, relationship between Jules and Doris hit an all-time low. When the latter found herself a lover on the side, Jules (who found out about it but didn't let her know that he's in on the secret) worried greatly that this might be the end of ther relationship. Doris had, after all, leave her first husband and two other children. But Jules was a very important man and for Doris nothing was more important than social standing. They survived.

Jules Stein was a small man and the first impression that he gave was humble. Just like his business partner Lew Wasserman, he was painfully practical and on point, valuing every second of his time. Because of that, he was sometimes harsh and mean.

Socializing was his wife's strength, but not his. On the contrary! He found it hard to connect with people even when that could potentially result in big contract. Still, he was a great strategist who played to his strengths and he went through his professional life making sure he doesn't ever need to be a snake charmer to succeed.

Around him, Stein has built a wall that was hard to penetrate even for those closest to him. It seemed more like stemming from the fact that deep inside he was a sensitive man and he protected that sensitivity by distancing himself away from people.

That has led to weird places. His daughter Jean always loved him and he loved her too, but consumed by his work and closed inside his emotional cage, he could rarely right his wrongs, admit he could have taken greater care of her as a father. It was an even harder bridge to cross because of how completely different their life views were in every department.

The good side of Stein had ultimately won and he became more open, friendly and positive about life as he aged.

MCA's stock market debut was a great deal for Stein and Wasserman, but Jules was soon quickly stunned with medical diagnosis that made him forget all about it - he had prostate cancer. Pessimist that he was, he didn't see his future in bright light despite money and power to afford the best doctors and optimistic predictions.

Fortunately, in 1959 the businessman was put under the scalpel, the operation went well and quickly he came back to full health.

Everything looked good on the surface, but some time after the operation abdominal adhesions started accumulating and in the beginning of the 1970s, the situation got bad. Now, he had to undertake another operation. He did, but since then his health deteriorated significantly.

Stein died in 1981. Just as he wished, his funeral ceremony was organized at the Jules Stein Eye Institute. As for his other wishes, things didn't go as planned. Benny Goodman and Dinah Shore were asked to perform, but both said that they want nothing to do with it. A male/female pair of Henry Mancini and Helen O’Connell served as substitutes.

Many well-known people took part in the pallbearers’ procession. Ronald Reagan, an ex-actor whose political career might not be possible if not for secret deals with MCA and then a president beginning his first term at the office, was there. Cult actors Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart, both under MCA contracts at some points in their lives, also took part in the procession.

While Jules Stein had quickly abandoned his medical career to focus on the booking business, his other profession has stayed with him, as if it was just paused and waiting for proper circumstances to press the 'play' button again.

If I am to be remembered in the years to come, I truly believe my name will be associated more with ophthalmology and the preservation of sight than with the good fortune I have experienced in my business endeavors.

Jules Stein

As Wasserman grew in ranks, very impressed Stein began realizing that he even though he was a hugely talented individual, Wasserman is still a league above him! The logical solution to him was to let the better man run the company while he enjoys the end-result.

Because of that, he suddenly found himself with plenty of time and plenty of money with which he didn't even know what to do. As is often the case, after his cancer operation Stein revalued his life priorities and made a drastic turn. What will he leave behind? When he dies, will people say that he had lived a valuable life?

The solution to that dilemma was to come back to the one thing that he started and didn't finish. The corporate predator who had been an expert on aggressively gaining market ground at the cost his competition became someone in need of doing something for the greater good.

In 1960, he started Research to Prevent Blindness, an institution of an enormous scale that, backed by his giant contributions and successfully convincing many others to chip in (the total amount of contributions is north of $200million), has been able to achieve great things to fulfill the purpose defined in the name itself.

In 1966, he chose University of California at Los Angeles to host another similar organisation, Jules Stein Eye Institute. The organization provided (and, just like RtPB, still provides) care for patients with sight problems, funds research to advance eye science and participates in various other ways within the ophthalmology spectrum.

Below is a video of him accepting Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from Charlton Heston.