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280 THE HOUSE THAT SHADOWS BUILT
as regular. Sidney Kent, risen in this last stage to general management under Zukor, is dynamo to its armies of high-priced specialists and experts, its conventions and its pep-clubs. And all about, the motion-picture business has assumed j somewhat the same form. The day of the small independent producer has passed. The industry, after all its kaleidoscopic shiftings, has settled down into seven or eight corporations or groups, all of which manage their own distribution and possess or control their own theatres.
New and odd as is this industry of making life out of shadows, it has not escaped the general law of any great American business. Some pioneer starts it on the traditional shoestring. It grows, combines, takes in abutting interests; this brings the need of extensive capital; and it goes to Wall Street. When Zukor began buying theatres, the first modest issue of common stock was followed by a larger double issue of common and preferred; and from then on a bankers’ committee sat with the management. The rival firms, generally speaking, have come to the same harbour. And a detached observer seems to behold the first sign of a new struggle, between artists who by instinct waste with the prodigality of nature, and bankers who conserve. - H
Meantime Famous Players-Lasky, which began in 1912 with Adolph Zukor’s little fortune of three or four hundred thousand dollars, reported in 1926 resources of $149,000,000. American business, with its spectacu-'