In 1987, Aaron Russo had set up his own entertainment company, Aaron Russo Entertainment with self-financing up to $86 million in coin to aid for the prospecting for film, TV and music properties and it was a Delaware corporation that was based in New York, and gave them a capital of $62 million for production of 6-to-10 films each budgeted at $5 million, which is maximum of $15 million, and gains agreements with Vestron Inc. for US home video rights, the Rank Organization (previous position held by Producers Sales Organization, prior to bankruptcy) gave them foreign rights to all media and US syndication and pay cable rights going to HBO, so they would not have to disclose the participants' contributions to the production kitty, and all of the ARE productions were gone to Orion Pictures for the U.S. and Canada theatrical rights. He then named Irwin Russo as senior vice president of the Los Angeles-based Aaron Russo Films and the company had set up feature projects by 1988, with record division Aaron Russo Films and Aaron Russo Television set to follow.[7]
In 1998, Russo took his political interests to a higher level, running for governor of the state of Nevada as a Republican. Placing second in the Republican primary with 26% of the vote to candidate Kenny Guinn, Russo later endorsed the Democratic nominee, then-Las Vegas mayor Jan Laverty Jones, who would eventually lose to Guinn.[citation needed] Russo was planning to run again for Nevada governor in 2002 as either an independent or Libertarian, but was sidelined by cancer.
In January 2004, Russo declared his candidacy for the President of the United States initially as an independent, but then as a Libertarian. At the Libertarian National Convention in May 2004, Russo received 258 votes to Michael Badnarik's 256 votes and Gary Nolan's 246 votes, short of the majority required to receive the presidential nomination. Russo would eventually lose the nomination on the convention's third and final ballot to Badnarik by a vote of 423–344.
The Aaron Russo Gold Commemorative Memorial Piece.
^Parker, Jerry. "Star Maker Turns Movie Maker", Newsday, June 5, 1983. Accessed June 20, 2024, via Newspapers.com. "Russo, a Brooklyn native reared in Lawrence, was a novice at management, who managed discotheques in Chicago and Detroit."
^"Russo moves from Midler to movies", Newsday, June 5, 1983. Accessed June 20, 2024, via Newspapers.com. "Russo has long had faith in his own instincts, even when others had their doubts At Lawrence High School, he played football, had lots of girlfriends and was no scholar."
