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SHOW BUSINESS: Consent Decree -- Printout -- TIME

  • ️Mon Nov 11 1940

Monday, Nov. 11, 1940

SHOW BUSINESS: Consent Decree

Every spring scores of salesmen roar out of 31 U. S. cities to sell some 17,000 theatre owners a full year's supply of films (100 to 300 per theatre), sight unseen. They do not sell the films by name, since none has been completed and only a few planned. Instead they sell their studio's reputation. From the poke sticks a real pig's ear or two, a few guaranteed bristles: "three Gables, four Rooneys, two Mervyn LeRoy specials," etc. To get these, an exhibitor must buy a full schedule of unknowns, many of which...