The movie moguls

by Philip French

"In the early 1890s the cinema was a peepshow novelty in penny arcades. Thirty years later it was America's fourth largest industry, with its production center in Hollywood. This vast new business was dominated by eight major corporations, which not only made the movies but distributed and exhibited them in their own chains of movie theaters across the nation and around the globe. And these films helped shape the tastes and behavior of several generations the world over. For the most part, movie companies were created by European immigrants who arrived penniless in the United States during the last two decades of the nineteenth century--men such as Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, Adolph Zukor, William Fox, the Warner Brothers. The Movie Moguls looks at the backgrounds, characters, and careers of these extraordinary men."--From dust jacket.