SIDNEY SHELDON: Remember. A lot of factors contributed to the decline of the motion picture business. But there were serious legal issues that went against the studios and affected their profit margins: the de Havilland decision and the antitrust decrees that forced the studios to sell their movie chains and stop their practice of block booking. During the 1930s and through World War II, almost every studio had its own chain of theaters. Before a camera turned, those pictures were automatically booked into the whole chain. There was no television then, so that wasn’t a competitive factor. Then
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