Sodom and Gomorrah : the story of Hollywood (1935)

SODOM AND GOMORRAH 213 to own Hollywood. Yes. indeed, while the stock of one movie company was selling tor $.75 a share, stock that but eighteen months previously sold for $80 a share, its executives voted themselves bigger salaries and bonuses than ever, probably on the premise that their excellent management of the concern merited greater compensation. But the poor fools who bought motion picture stock have lost nearly everything, including hope. In those companies where the executives own the majority of voting shares, such as Warners. the public ought to refuse to purchase a single share of the stock. Naturally, as the Warner Brothers own the majority of their stock, they can run their plant to suit themselves, and this is exactly what they do. It is possible to buy Warner Brothers Picture securities at around $2.50 a share, and, considering the earnings of the company, 4 cents would be a much fairer price. Yet the three Warner brothers enjoy salaries netting a million and a half annually. In those cases where the executives own large blocks but not the controlling stock, it is vastly to the interest of the minority stockholders to organize and throw out every one of the incompetent executives, [f the insurgents happened to be too busy to run the company themselves, they could intrust the management to their children with the assurance that it could not possibly be run worse. Seriously, the minority stockholders should make everv effort