Laemmle had promised prospective coconspirators “the best Films” even while his break with the Trust cost him his access to the only films available. However improbable, the only conceivable options were to violate the Trust’s ban on imports, or to create their own competing supply. The former—Zukor’s course—held its own limitations, and so, not without misgivings, Laemmle and Fox became film producers. Thus was the Hollywood studio born, not out of choice, let alone glamour, but of brutal necessity.
