The House That Shadows Built (1928)

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270 THE HOUSE THAT SHADOWS BUILT new venture he overstated the case — “and you must look elsewhere for your supremacy. Meantime, life has forced you to become a man of finance, not an artist. Life’s always playing these tricks on us. It’s time you began to own theatres. Production is a bit of a gamble. But theatres are bricks and mortar and land. Savage, Ringling, and all the others who have accumulated fortunes from the show business made their big money out of real estate. Loew’s doing just that thing right now.” So spoke Griffith, he of the uncanny instincts. The far-sighted Zukor needed no such advice. Three years before, he had begun to see that theatre owners might in the end dictate to producers and distributors. After all, they held the box office; the dam-gate to the flood of gold. But in less than seven years he had revolutionized production in a business which was increasing from millions to billions, had put system into distribution, and had done it on less original capital than it takes to produce one first-class modern feature film. He had neither time, energy, nor capital to spare for this final struggle. Already, the multiplying costs of the business, its rapid expansion, had forced him to go to the public with a modest issue of stock. Moreover, United Artists was a serious threat; to meet it took for a time all his energies. Then came the brief hard times of 1920, when moving pictures suffered along with all other luxuries. However, one Monday morning Zukor entered the