UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Disruptive Convergence: The Struggle Over the Licensing and Sale of Hollywood's Feature Films to Television Before 1955 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/14h0461n Author Porst, Jennifer Anne Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Disruptive Convergence: The Struggle Over the Licensing and Sale of Hollywood’s Feature Films to Television Before 1955 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Film and Television by Jennifer Anne Porst 2014 © Copyright by Jennifer Anne Porst 2014 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Disruptive Convergence: The Struggle Over the Licensing and Sale of Hollywood’s Feature Films to Television Before 1955 by Jennifer Anne Porst Doctor of Philosophy in Film and Television University of California, Los Angeles, 2014 Professor John T. Caldwell, Chair This project is located at the intersection of television and film studies and examines the causes and effects of disruption and convergence in the media industries through a case study of the struggle over Hollywood’s feature films on television before 1955. Since television began broadcasting in earnest in 1948, two years after Hollywood saw its box-office revenues decline precipitously from their all-time high in 1946, the important question to ask becomes: why did it take seven years for Hollywood’s features to make their way to television? Through an investigation of the efforts made by the film and television industries in the 1940s and 1950s to work towards feature films appearing on television, this project concludes that Hollywood’s feature films did not appear on television until 1956, not because of the long held assumptions that the film industry was either apathetic or hostile to the nascent television industry, but rather ii as a result of a complex combination of industrial, social, legal, and governmental forces. One of those forces was the “other” prominent antitrust case filed against the studios during this period: the case of the United States v. Twentieth Century-Fox, et al. This project argues that those issues that prevented Hollywood’s feature films from appearing on television before 1955 may well be common to all periods of media industry disruption and convergence, particularly, the contemporary film and television industries and their relationship to digital media. By illuminating the relationship between the film and television industries during the 1940s and 1950s, this research contributes to important debates in the growing field of Media Industry Studies. It highlights the value of investigating the roles of the various stakeholders, interests, and agendas in the media industries, and of studying the histories of film and television together as they relate to form a more symbiotic story. It demonstrates that media industry disruption and convergence are historical, as well as contemporary phenomena, and shows the importance of investigating the media industries at all moments of change and convergence. The use of archival resources like legal files taps new sources for primary research, and the focus on moments of disruption both historically and contemporarily identifies patterns of behaviors that illuminate the past and anticipate the future. iii The dissertation of Jennifer Anne Porst is approved. Denise R. Mann Kathleen A. McHugh Jennifer Holt John T. Caldwell, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2014 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………………...viii Vita………………………………………………………………………………………………..x Introduction: Media Disruption, Convergence, and Feature Films on Early Television………………………………………………………………………..1 The Struggle Over Feature Films to Television……………………………………………….5 Research Sources and Methods……………………………………………………………….9 Definition of Terms…………………………………………………………………………..16 Chapter Breakdown………………………………………………………………………….21 Chapter One: The War Ends and the Struggle Over Feature Films on Television Begins, 1946-1948………………………………………………………...29 The Film Industry’s Attitude Towards Television…………………………………………...36 Feature Films on Television………………………………………………………………….43 Rights to Films on Television………………………………………………………………..54 Television and 16MM………………………………………………………………………..57 Theatres……………………………………………………………………………………....61 Unions and Guilds……………………………………………………………………………66 The FCC Freeze and the Paramount Antitrust Decision……………………………………..89 Chapter Two: The Freeze Sets In, 1949-1950………………………………………………...93 The Film Industry’s Attitude Towards Television…………………………………………..99 The Film Industry and COMPO……………………………………………………………113 Theatres…………………………………………………………………………………….118 Subscription Television…………………………………………………………………….126 v Films on Television: Scratching the Surface……………………………………………….133 Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry………………………………………….149 Hollywood Television, Inc. and Columbia Screen Gems………………………………….157 Unions and Guilds………………………………………………………………………….164 Chapter Three: The Freeze Thaws and Everyone Heads to Court, 1951-1952……………………………………………………………………………174 COMPO…………………………………………………………………………………….181 Feature Films on Television………………………………………………………………...188 Fox, Sol Wurtzel, and the British Films……………………………………………………199 Columbia Screen Gems……………………………………………………………………..203 Subscription Television…………………………………………………………………….206 The U.S. v. Twentieth Century-Fox, et al………………………………………………….211 The AFM……………………………………………………………………………………221 Roy Rogers and Gene Autry v. Republic…………………………………………………..230 Chapter Four: Television Saturation and the Threat of a Buyers Market, 1953-1955……………………………………………………………………261 Theatre and Subscription Television……………………………………………………….275 Unions and Guilds…………………………………………………………………………..280 Rogers and Autry Rehearings………………………………………………………………294 Feature Films on Television………………………………………………………………..298 RKO………………………………………………………………………………………..316 Reissues, Rereleases, and Remakes………………………………………………………..322 The U.S. v. Twentieth Century-Fox, et al………………………………………………….326 vi Conclusion: The Sale of Hollywood’s Feature Films to Television and Media Industry Disruption and Convergence……………………………..338 Hollywood’s Feature Films Make Their Way to Television……………………………….339 Contemporary Disruption and Convergence……………………………………………….344 Appendix I: People…………………………………………………………………………….362 Endnotes……………………………………………………………………………………….374 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………...427 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have had the good fortune to work with a committee that has supported my work and professional development in many ways: Denise Mann, Kathleen McHugh, Jennifer Holt, and especially the chair of my committee, John Caldwell. I appreciate their generosity of time and their patience in reading drafts, and their insightful feedback improved this work and will be integral in its future iterations. I also need to thank the many faculty and staff members in the Cinema and Media Studies Program and elsewhere at UCLA, who have supported my work in a variety of ways, namely, Janet Bergstrom, Vincent Brook, Nick Browne, Brian Clark, Jan- Christopher Horak, L.S. Kim, Diana King, Steve Mamber, Bill McDonald, Christopher Mott, Chon Noriega, Mark Quigley, and Vivian Sobchack. This project would not have been possible without the fellowships I received from UCLA’s Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media, the Graduate Division, and the Office of Instructional Development. Those awards provided me with time to research and write, and helped support my travel for research at archives across the country. I am also grateful for the generosity and assistance of the many archivists and librarians I encountered along the way. They include: Sandra Joy Lee Aguilar and Jonathan Auxier at USC’s Warner Bros. Archives; Valerie Yaros at the Screen Actors Guild; Marva Felchin at the Autry Library; Monique Leahy Sugimoto and Paul Wormser at the National Archives, Pacific Region; Julie Graham at the UCLA Library Special Collections; and Jenny Romero and Barbara Hall at the Margaret Herrick Library and Academy Archives. I am lucky to have had a great Ph.D. cohort in Maya Smukler, David O’Grady, Drew Morton, Cliff Hilo, and Julia Wright. Our lengthy conversations in the early stages of the Ph.D. program, and ever since, provided much needed guidance and camaraderie. Maya, David, and viii Drew, in particular, have been especially important in my work and life over the last eight years. I am also grateful for the intellectual and emotional support of my colleagues in Cinema and Media Studies at UCLA and beyond: Miranda Banks, Jaimie Baron, Emily Carman, Jonathan Cohn, Erin Copple Smith, Karrmen Crey, Andrew de Waard, Allyson Field, Dawn Fratini, Jason Gendler, Lindsay Giggey, Harrison Gish, Lindsay Hogan, Eric Hoyt, Erin Hill, Ross Melnick, Jennifer Moorman, Darcey Morris, Mary Samuelson, Samantha Sheppard, Ben Sher, Daniel Steinhart, Phil Wagner, Laurel Westrup, and Andy Woods. I am fortunate to have such wonderful colleagues. My thanks and love to my friends and family who exist outside the crazy world of academia. You are too many to name, but hopefully, you know who you are. I am lucky to have you in my life. Special thanks for the support of my parents: Mom, Hilton, Dad, and Kathy; my brothers, their wives, and kids: Rich, Jim, Michael, Krista, Madison, Michelle, Asher, and Griffin; and my grandparents, particularly Rosemary and Dick Leach. Their