Tinseltown Turnabout

In 1948 a perfect storm of legal troubles and technological change combined with an economic slump to take down Old Hollywood—the storied principality of fiefdoms ruled by men who had started out in the flicker era and which by World War II’s end controlled every aspect of the motion picture business. After they had dominated popular entertainment by offering a steady diet of escapism through a depression and a global war, the eight studios that made up the American movie industry suddenly found conditions souring. Summing up the industry’s state at year’s end, New York Times reporter Thomas F. Brady wrote, “Profits are down, employment is down, morale is down.”

“Hollywood” meant the Big Five and the Little Three. Paramount, which recently had edged past Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to take over the lead position in the Big Five, was trailed by 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and RKO—the smallest of what were considered the majors. The Little Three—Columbia, Universal, and United Artists—completed the roster. Lesser studios, like Disney, releasing one or two animated films a year, and Republic, with its stream of westerns starring Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and their ilk, had virtually no impact on the overall industry profile.

At the time movies pervaded American life as a cultural phenomenon and a pillar of the economy. Members of a typical family religiously read newspaper columns and entire magazines devoted to gossip about movie stars and at least once a week took in a film, most often on Sunday, which for most theaters represented 25 percent of weekly revenue. In 1948, Hollywood’s peak year, that habit worked out to a weekly average of 90 million paying customers spending more than $1.7 billion to buy tickets. Films accounted for more than 90 percent of Americans’ outlay on entertainment, a category that included everything from live theater and concerts to bowling and shooting pool.

Studio moguls