Howard Hughes Hits CTRL+Z
from CTRL+Z: Rewritten Hosted by Kevin Perez-Allen
In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled that Hollywood's five biggest studios had been running an illegal monopoly. People remember the case as the government ordering the studios to sell their theaters. That's not what happened. The Court banned the worst practices, sent the theater question back to a lower court for a fresh look, and left the door open. Howard Hughes walked through it in the wrong direction. He volunteered to split RKO's studio from its theaters before the lower court even ruled. Every other studio watched him do it and followed. The system that had controlled American moviemaking since the 1920s collapsed in under a decade. What grew in its place changed everything. This week we hit Control Z on Hughes's signature, and follow what happens when the first domino refuses to fall.
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