THAT'S ME IN THE SECOND ROW
PART 8
In the 40's, two things happened that shook our world. The first was movie theatres, and the second happened later in the decade, into the 50's.
It seems that the Studios were rich because they owned the theaters the movies played in. Someone in the government thought this was a Monopoly, and demanded that the studios sell off the theaters. The Studio Owners had gotten together, pooled their resources, hired lawyers, and fought the law suit, tooth and nail. The suit was in the courts for years. Finally a decision came down, and the studios were instructed to sell off the movie theaters. The studios had a great influx of cash when they sold off the movie theaters, but then little money came in. It was the death of the Studio System.
The Studio System was replaced by the independent film. Money that used to go to the studios now went to stars and independent producers. The major Studios continued to make a few films, but were essentially Distribution Companies. I continued to work because of my friendship with Mr. Freed, but my amaretto discovered that the times had moved past him. He was no longer in demand as a director. Musical movies had gone out of fashion.
Then the shit hit the fan in the form of Senator McCarthy!
The problems began in the 30's and the Great Depression. Under Hover, nothing seemed to be done! The Great Depression went on and on! People were hurting! Many good people thought Communism was the way out of the Depression, and they joined the Communist Party. Very Quickly, they found out that this was not the answer, and they dropped out of the party. The damage had been done. Senator McCarthy discovered the records of the Communist Party and the enrollment ledgers. He prosecuted those who had been card carrying members of the Communist Party.
At that time, the major film studios were owned by people of the Hebrew Faith, Jews. They were afraid that what happened in Germany in the 20's and 30's, would happen in the United States. To foreclose that possibility, the film studios cooperated with Senator McCarthy and the Un-American Committee. Thus was born the infamous Hollywood Black List.
We had been so busy making films during the Great Depression that we did not have time for political activities. This was our salvation (although we did not know it at the time) and we were not on "the list". However, many of our friends were. People we had worked with,side by side, every day, (in the business) for 20 years, all of a sudden, could not get a job.
The main defect of the black list was that it included many people who had not been members of the Communist Party but were outspoken people who thought it was un-American to prosecute people for their political beliefs. (During this period, we fed money to some of those blacklisted.) One of the people caught in the black list was the writer, Dalton Trumbo. He had been making a living writing screenplays for movies. Now, no major studio would hire him. However, he continued to write screenplays under dreamed up pseudo names. He won three Academy Awards under those fake names. It was not until the actor Kirk Douglas made the movie of "Spartacus," that the black list was broken. Mr. Douglas had Trumbo write the screenplay and insisted that Trumble publicly receive the credit. His name appeared in print! Although Kirk Douglas was a great actor, he will be remembered for doing the right thing, he broke the black list!
The black list resulted in two works of art, the movie "On The Waterfront," and the play "The Crucible." I wonder if those two works of art were worth the number of lives ruined!
Then came the final Death Blow - Television. Because people could be entertained in their living room, they stopped coming to the movies regularly. Only the new "blockbuster" movies made a profit. The Film Studios suffered financially and experimented with new venues, to attract an audience. They tried 3-d, Cinnerama, Todd AO, 70mm film, and stereophonic sound. They even tried "Smell-o-vision." Nothing worked to re-attract the audience they had in the 20's and 30's. Fewer and Fewer movies were made in Hollywood. The studios absorbed the technical advances of World War II. They developed "Magn-Optical" sound. (On either side of film sprocket, 4 magnetic strips were laid, which carried a stereophonic sound track! Magnetic tape recording was developed by the Germans, during World War II, and came to the U.S. in the late 40's and early 50's.) but nothing worked. The Big movie Studios never regained their audience. They suffered financially!
As I said, due to my friendship with Mr. Freed, I continued working, as did Peter. Mr. Freed tried to get me to leave my studio and come to MGM. I thought about it, and decided not to move. My Studio had been very good to me with both salary and bonuses. Also. my amaretto and Peter still worked for my studio, and I did not want to be in competition with them.
The days of Movie Musical was over, and my amaretto didn't work. Although this did not cause a financial burden, (We had plenty of income from real estate I had purchased, and a wide ranging stock portfolio) He became a live in recluse! That is when we decided to retire.