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V for Vaughndetta

These current 2022 Big Five were not the same Big Five studios as in the Studio Era. This seems odd to point out but it's important. MGM, 20th Century Fox, RKO, WB, and Paramount were the original Big Five (Universal, Columbia, and United Artists were the Little Three then)

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So what happened? Too much to roll into a tweet but RKO went bankrupt in 1959, Disney bought 20th Century Fox ($71.3bn in 2019), Amazon bought MGM ($8.5bn in 2022). Both of those sales should be illegal (especially MGM for $8.5bn) but I want to focus on RKO.

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So what happened to RKO then? Everything. - HUAC (RKO director Edward Dmytryk and producer Adrian Scott were in the Hollywood Ten) - General McCarthyism - The post-war dip in cinema sales - An eccentric multi-millionaire (Howard Hughes) - Robert Mitchum's weed arrest - SCOTUS

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There's so much to unpack there but I'm skipping all of it to focus on SCOTUS because when aren't they fucking us?

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SCOTUS had a very important (to film nerds and also actually literally everyone but it's overlooked constantly, so pay attention to this) decision to make in 1948: United States v. Paramount Productions, Inc. aka The Paramount Accords aka The Paramount Decrees aka...

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The Hollywood Antitrust Case of 1948 This sounds more official and like a good thing and that's why we don't use it. We want antitrust legislation. Antitrust legislation means we don't have, I don't know, Five Big corporations deciding everything we do and see and spend money on

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But, V, that's Paramount, what's that have to do with RKO and what does any of this have to do with Hollywood eating itself like an ouroboros now? Do you know what Vertical Integration means?

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Vertical Integration in Hollywood, in very simple terms, is when the Studios owned their own production, distribution, and exhibition rights. This is the Studio System. They make films, market them, and screen them. And the Hollywood Antitrust Case of 1948 is what broke it.

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The Paramount Accords did a bunch of things but made this illegal. They couldn't own all three and only show their own films in their own cinemas and charge extortionate exhibition fees for other studios' films anymore. This also helped independent filmmakers.

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And RKO was being run by a bananas aviation tycoon who settled in the Accords early and started divorcement early and it just destroyed the company. Hughes bailed in 1952 and sold his stocks to a Chicago syndicate that had no right owning a film studio and it dissipated further.

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So again, how is this relevant now? The Paramount Accords were reversed in August 2020, set for a sunsetting period of two years which puts us at OH LAST MONTH. WHEN WB STARTED EATING ITSELF AND SHIT STARTED HITTING THE FAN IN HOLLYWOOD AND WE'RE ALL LIKE WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS

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V for Vaughndetta

Replying to

Because SCOTUS doesn't let us have anything nice like antitrust legislation or bodily autonomy or a clean environment or safety from people with war weapons or policy decisions from this century for this century But interestingly enough, that's the exact reasoning they gave here

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SCOTUS legitimately pulled the Accords because it wasn't a decision that felt relevant anymore. You know, terminate the antitrust rules instead of revising them. Sure. Sounds like the BEST idea.

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And I'll give it to them, the major studios named in the Decision don't exist anymore or in the ways they did then. And distribution and exhibition are so different now. The Decision didn't account for streaming sites. Can't apply a 1948 decision to Netflix right?

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So now studios are allowed to own everything they want again. Which is why Disney is a growing amorphous site just acquiring properties and banging out shows for Disney+ And why Amazon can buy MGM, a MAJOR 20thc studio, for the price of Bezos' lunch hour.

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And it's why Paramount+, another MAJOR 20thc studio, bided it's time and let every streaming service set up and get through the pandemic, shifting film consumption completely and entirely, until it was ready to debut it's service and pull all of its titles for itself

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So now where are we? WB eating itself. Let's look at all the good things the Accords did. These are the "consequences" per Wikipedia's excellent summation:

Consequences of the decision include: An increase in the number of independent movie theaters throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
An increase in independent producers and studios to produce their film product, free of major studio interference. The beginning of the end of the old Hollywood studio system and its golden age, allowing creative freedom for both behind-the-camera personnel and actors. The weakening of the (Hays) Production Code, because of the rise of independent and "art house" theaters which showed foreign or independent films made outside of the Code's jurisdiction.

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We got more independent creatives, more independent picture houses, AND the weakening of the Hays Code, an extremely puritanical self-censorship policy within Hollywood. (Bonus: Protest to the Hays Code)

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V for Vaughndetta

· Sep 30, 2021

In 1934, photographer A. L. “Whitey” Schafer staged this photo to violate the Hays Code's censorship decrees in as many ways as possible in a single picture. A short thread:

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WB is going the route of RKO. Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy took over WB in July 2022 (two months ago) and while they do have much more career experience in Hollywood than Howard Hughes did, they are doing the same thing he eventually did:

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- Make absurd content decisions/stifle filmmakers - Pull films that don't fit the company's image/morals - Strip the studio into holdings and properties - Take tax cuts where exploitable (even nixing a full film) - Eventually cash out on what's still profitable, bankrupt the rest

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So Hollywood is eating itself because SCOTUS. Our entertainment industry is owned by like 8 people and they just got the full green light to just abolition everything that's left of separation of spheres for economic gains.

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It's more profitable and legal to just like destroy one of the oldest studios in Hollywood so they're doing it with absolutely no chagrin or hesitation or concern for what this does to art and media and culture.

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If you're tired of superhero movies and don't want to see The Rock in every movie ever made from now on, think about advocating for antitrust legislation and saving WB from RKO's fate.

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Films are obviously going to be for profit, it's a massive industry, but we can at least protect them a little bit with updated antitrust legislation and a refusal to take the executives' bullshit. We need better management of the arts and cultural sectors. They're so important.

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I think I'm done (for now (I'll probably get tipsy tomorrow too (I'm on holiday) and rant some more)

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Also, if you were interested in any of this, it would also interest you to know that the second largest cinema chain in the world (Cineworld which owns Regal Cinemas in the US) is filing for bankruptcy right now. They cite the pandemic and streaming but it's also the P Accords

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Also, shameless plug: I co-host 2 podcasts (soon 3!) 1)

@USAimpressions

where we talk media, culture, politics from post-war to today open.spotify.com/episode/67KScg 2)

where we talk Star Wars and Am history 3) soon!

@FocusHollywood

where we will talk Hollywood history

open.spotify.com

Taking the Family to Disneyland: Mental Escapism from Atomic Threats

Listen to this episode from Impressions of America: History Podcast on Spotify. Simon, Tobi, and Vaughn discuss Vaughn's research into Disneyland and its place in post-war America. We look at how...

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Also, also, here's a bonus thread on why puritanical censorship in films is bogus and how it fuels right-wing talking points when we ask for less sex on screen:

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V for Vaughndetta

I'm going to weigh in on the "sex in film/TV is mostly unnecessary" debate as a film historian and human. Get Fucked: A Thread Sex is a beautiful and wonderful part of humanity and if you think it's unnecessary, I need you to think about why you want access to sex restricted.

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What can we do about all this? Here's one small thing that means a lot to many people and those being screwed by the industry:

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V for Vaughndetta

Twitter, if you enjoyed my thread on the Paramount Accords/divorcement, please have a think about what we can do to help, like, here: Generate some noise and passion to SAVE THIS CINEMA twitter.com/CineramaSave/s…

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V for Vaughndetta

Clarification: twitter.com/gvaughnjoy/sta

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V for Vaughndetta

Here's a list of other historians, podcasts, and accounts who are far more amazing than I. Please follow them and reap their brilliance: @rebeccafachner @AmericanStudier @ColdWarChannel @TheDevilHistory @Kassie_Jo_Baron @paulomdiashist @dididrama @BEldridg39

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