Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class, A production of I Heart Radio, Hello, and Happy Casual Friday. I'm Holly Frying. I'm Tracy P. Wilson. So this week we talked about the Paramount decrees, starting with how Paramount came to be in the first place, and then all of the legal mess that ensued thereafter. I have so many feelings about this because, as you know, like I'm a movie buff, and I am into the entertainment industry in general. Um, and I one thing that I wanted to at least mention that kept occurring to me as I was working on this. Right, we're talking about all of these things going on in the nineteen twenties and and all of this legal stuff involving Paramount and all of their business moves. But the backdrop against which all of this is going on is like the perceived debauchery of Hollywood, which I thought was really interesting because this is also removed from it, and it's guys making deals and like you know, we talked about William Desmond Taylor's murder on the show before that was so right when all of this was going on, um, you know, the Fatty Arbicle scandal, played out in this time, like Hollywood was in a whole weird place where people were judging its morality a lot, which I have to wonder didn't make it easier for people to get involved in business dealings that may have been more predatory or aggressive because people were not worried about that part of the industry the general public. They were busy like reading headlines about scandals. Well, meanwhile, these guys were like, how can we absolutely take over everything? When really, right, those are the people with power, Like the people that show up in scandals kind of come and go in the industry, But the people who are making these big deals are the one that carry on for decades and really run things, which is just something I find fascinating. Yeah. The other thing I think is interesting in the midst of all of this, particularly the overturn essentially of the decrease, is that I can't imagine what today's entertainment distribution would look like. Adolf Zooker right, like, no, you're going to get a movie on your phone that's in your pocket. What you don't post phone in your pocket? Yes you do. It's got more power than anything you've ever encountered. And studios have their own distribution plans with them, right, Like, yeah, this is a whole different thing that nobody has ever really considered before or was never part of the considerations of of these decrees because they couldn't predict the future in that regard. Um, this whole thing made me think about when I was a kid growing up, Like the nearest city to us was Winston Salem. Um, And for a long time it had maybe I feel like it was to first run movie theaters. Others were built as I got older, but when I was a kid, I really feel like they were. There were two and they never were playing the same movies. Yeah, And so it would be like you would sort of have your fingers crossed that the movie that you wanted to see was going to be playing at the better theater, right, And in my head, I was like, were they colluding with each other? Like how how did that all go down? Um? And you know, now I live outside of Boston, and if there's a movie we want to see, there's probably four theaters we can choose from. Um, and there are more. There are way more than two theaters in Winston Salem. Now I'm sure I knew there are definitely ones that were not there when I was a kid. Yeah, the options have grown everywhere, which is great, but it is it's it's very very um It's one of those things that when you think about it in terms of both how that used to work, just what we've seen develop in our lifetimes and now this idea of you know, we distribute, Yes, we're also the distributors and essentially the exhibitors because of apps, right, I mean the launch of Disney Plus was like huge news. Yeah, all of these companies are now offering their own things, which are also competing with television uh networks that are offering their own apps. I don't know how one would sort that all out legally, unless it's just perceived as a relatively level playing field because everyone has an app and most people in the developed world have access to them. Yeah. Yeah, well, and it's also one of those things where the the industry has had to deal with the fact that, like licensing and distribution agreements for some movies were written before there was a Netflix and a phone that was capable of showing stuff. I mean, we've dealt with that to some extent in our own work, not so much on the podcast, but like when we were part of a website. Yeah, Like the idea that a photograph, instead of being published on a print newspaper would instead beyond a website and perpetuity like that was a whole different thing. Yeah, for sure. It also does make you think about how much of what you sort of how I sort of hope anyway, right, like in my dreamy worldview, particularly as a younger person. Now I'm I'm old and jaded. Um, but of this idea that you know, entertainment is art and it is still art. I don't want to in any way demean entertainment or film or television, but you realize how much of that art is tied to the really sucky parts of the business that you probably don't want to think of. I mean, everybody has to make money because that's how they make more art. But at the same time, you realize, like art is not what's driving the bus a lot of the time. It is a business arrangement that had to be made so that any art could get made in the first place. Slightly heartbringing, but also interesting. I've been really really fascinated watching um, you know, older holdings start to show up in streaming services, right, especially like, now everything right, HBO Max suddenly has all loved the things. We're not getting paid to mention any of this, by the way, but like the fact that now I can watch the Muppets there, I'm like, this is a very weird. The business dealings that have to connect to make all of this work are are mind boggling. It's the very fancy Lehman's term. But when you think about the fact that each of those properties has to have an agreement managed to make those those distribution deals happen. When you think about like the websites that just cover what is coming and going on a streaming service like Netflix or Hulu on a month to month basis, I feel like distribution is one of those aspects of the industry that is so key and important to keeping the whole industry going, but which consumers do not really have a firm grasp on. I don't. I've just demonstrated that I don't understand all of this well. And it's like sometimes you'll see somebody's incredibly angry comments that something they want to watch is not on Netflix, and they're like tweeting at the Netflix account, and it's like that person has no control over this, and it may also be entirely outside of Netflix's control, Like it's they didn't just make a decision to make you mad. Nobody just called Netflix and said take my show down. Um. It's also the related because you and I have worked in online content for so long, this seems so obvious to us. But I've had so many discussions with friends and very smart people who get really frustrated with ads being placed in online content that is not user generated content but like studio generated content, and like they're like, well, it's free to watch on television, and I'm like, well, it's also free to watch on your phone, but you're going to get an ad And they're like, but I don't want the ads. That's why I'm watching on my phone. And I'm like, how does that company get paid them? And there's a weird disconnect that happens where because so much information on the Internet is free and is without any sort of advertising connected to it, that people get very frustrated with the parts that do have advertising connected to it sometimes and they'll get out of stop Watch and tell you how many ad there are, right, But it's like, I mean that's really again, that's what is keeping everything going. That is what's paying the overhead. A little bit weirder now because we're all at home, but you know, to maintain an office building, to maintain servers where things can be hosted, to pay the people making the content, which you hope is always going on. Um yeah, all of that, I mean the business model. I understand as a consumer people don't always love to watch commercials, I mean their entire you know, ideologies about how to how exactly the time you're muting of the television if you're still watching broadcast television, um to like how to try to get around ads on the internet. But that is literally how you're supporting the things you love is by giving your eyeballs to that thing, your ears to that thing for a little while. I understand the frustration, and at the same time, I'm like, we live in a capitalist society. So as awesome as it would be if everything we're free, somebody's still gotta make money. Yeah. I'm very, very curious what will come of this, this whole shift in law. Yeah, I had not heard anything about it. So when you mentioned to me that you were thinking of doing this episode, these episodes for reasons, I like googled the thing, and I was like, that sounds interesting. What are the reasons because even like, like the news story hadn't even floated up at that point. It was like, because everything is changing right now, I'm such a dork that I knew that. Um. Yeah, anyway, Well, we hope you've enjoyed this partial digression into why entertainment has to be paid before by somebody and um, and that you have a marvelous Friday and hopefully a good weekend. If you work on a normal operating schedule of a work week of the weekend, hopefully your weekend ahead is grand. If you don't work on that, hopefully whatever awaits you in the next coming days is also grand. And that you are all staying safe and healthy. You can always check in with us by writing us at History podcast at iHeart radio dot com, and you can subscribe to the show on the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever it is you listen. Stuff you missed in History Class is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class, A production of I Heart Radio, Hello, and Happy Casual Friday. I'm Holly Frying. I'm Tracy P. Wilson. So this week we talked about the Paramount decrees, starting with how Paramount came to be in the first place, and then all of the legal mess that ensued thereafter. I have so many feelings about this because, as you know, like I'm a movie buff, and I am into the entertainment industry in general. Um, and I one thing that I wanted to at least mention that kept occurring to me as I was working on this. Right, we're talking about all of these things going on in the nineteen twenties and and all of this legal stuff involving Paramount and all of their business moves. But the backdrop against which all of this is going on is like the perceived debauchery of Hollywood, which I thought was really interesting because this is also removed from it, and it's guys making deals and like you know, we talked about William Desmond Taylor's murder on the show before that was so right when all of this was going on, um, you know, the Fatty Arbicle scandal, played out in this time, like Hollywood was in a whole weird place where people were judging its morality a lot, which I have to wonder didn't make it easier for people to get involved in business dealings that may have been more predatory or aggressive because people were not worried about that part of the industry the general public. They were busy like reading headlines about scandals. Well, meanwhile, these guys were like, how can we absolutely take over everything? When really, right, those are the people with power, Like the people that show up in scandals kind of come and go in the industry, But the people who are making these big deals are the one that carry on for decades and really run things, which is just something I find fascinating. Yeah. The other thing I think is interesting in the midst of all of this, particularly the overturn essentially of the decrease, is that I can't imagine what today's entertainment distribution would look like. Adolf Zooker right, like, no, you're going to get a movie on your phone that's in your pocket. What you don't post phone in your pocket? Yes you do. It's got more power than anything you've ever encountered. And studios have their own distribution plans with them, right, Like, yeah, this is a whole different thing that nobody has ever really considered before or was never part of the considerations of of these decrees because they couldn't predict the future in that regard. Um, this whole thing made me think about when I was a kid growing up, Like the nearest city to us was Winston Salem. Um, And for a long time it had maybe I feel like it was to first run movie theaters. Others were built as I got older, but when I was a kid, I really feel like they were. There were two and they never were playing the same movies. Yeah, And so it would be like you would sort of have your fingers crossed that the movie that you wanted to see was going to be playing at the better theater, right, And in my head, I was like, were they colluding with each other? Like how how did that all go down? Um? And you know, now I live outside of Boston, and if there's a movie we want to see, there's probably four theaters we can choose from. Um, and there are more. There are way more than two theaters in Winston Salem. Now I'm sure I knew there are definitely ones that were not there when I was a kid. Yeah, the options have grown everywhere, which is great, but it is it's it's very very um It's one of those things that when you think about it in terms of both how that used to work, just what we've seen develop in our lifetimes and now this idea of you know, we distribute, Yes, we're also the distributors and essentially the exhibitors because of apps, right, I mean the launch of Disney Plus was like huge news. Yeah, all of these companies are now offering their own things, which are also competing with television uh networks that are offering their own apps. I don't know how one would sort that all out legally, unless it's just perceived as a relatively level playing field because everyone has an app and most people in the developed world have access to them. Yeah. Yeah, well, and it's also one of those things where the the industry has had to deal with the fact that, like licensing and distribution agreements for some movies were written before there was a Netflix and a phone that was capable of showing stuff. I mean, we've dealt with that to some extent in our own work, not so much on the podcast, but like when we were part of a website. Yeah, Like the idea that a photograph, instead of being published on a print newspaper would instead beyond a website and perpetuity like that was a whole different thing. Yeah, for sure. It also does make you think about how much of what you sort of how I sort of hope anyway, right, like in my dreamy worldview, particularly as a younger person. Now I'm I'm old and jaded. Um, but of this idea that you know, entertainment is art and it is still art. I don't want to in any way demean entertainment or film or television, but you realize how much of that art is tied to the really sucky parts of the business that you probably don't want to think of. I mean, everybody has to make money because that's how they make more art. But at the same time, you realize, like art is not what's driving the bus a lot of the time. It is a business arrangement that had to be made so that any art could get made in the first place. Slightly heartbringing, but also interesting. I've been really really fascinated watching um, you know, older holdings start to show up in streaming services, right, especially like, now everything right, HBO Max suddenly has all loved the things. We're not getting paid to mention any of this, by the way, but like the fact that now I can watch the Muppets there, I'm like, this is a very weird. The business dealings that have to connect to make all of this work are are mind boggling. It's the very fancy Lehman's term. But when you think about the fact that each of those properties has to have an agreement managed to make those those distribution deals happen. When you think about like the websites that just cover what is coming and going on a streaming service like Netflix or Hulu on a month to month basis, I feel like distribution is one of those aspects of the industry that is so key and important to keeping the whole industry going, but which consumers do not really have a firm grasp on. I don't. I've just demonstrated that I don't understand all of this well. And it's like sometimes you'll see somebody's incredibly angry comments that something they want to watch is not on Netflix, and they're like tweeting at the Netflix account, and it's like that person has no control over this, and it may also be entirely outside of Netflix's control, Like it's they didn't just make a decision to make you mad. Nobody just called Netflix and said take my show down. Um. It's also the related because you and I have worked in online content for so long, this seems so obvious to us. But I've had so many discussions with friends and very smart people who get really frustrated with ads being placed in online content that is not user generated content but like studio generated content, and like they're like, well, it's free to watch on television, and I'm like, well, it's also free to watch on your phone, but you're going to get an ad And they're like, but I don't want the ads. That's why I'm watching on my phone. And I'm like, how does that company get paid them? And there's a weird disconnect that happens where because so much information on the Internet is free and is without any sort of advertising connected to it, that people get very frustrated with the parts that do have advertising connected to it sometimes and they'll get out of stop Watch and tell you how many ad there are, right, But it's like, I mean that's really again, that's what is keeping everything going. That is what's paying the overhead. A little bit weirder now because we're all at home, but you know, to maintain an office building, to maintain servers where things can be hosted, to pay the people making the content, which you hope is always going on. Um yeah, all of that, I mean the business model. I understand as a consumer people don't always love to watch commercials, I mean their entire you know, ideologies about how to how exactly the time you're muting of the television if you're still watching broadcast television, um to like how to try to get around ads on the internet. But that is literally how you're supporting the things you love is by giving your eyeballs to that thing, your ears to that thing for a little while. I understand the frustration, and at the same time, I'm like, we live in a capitalist society. So as awesome as it would be if everything we're free, somebody's still gotta make money. Yeah. I'm very, very curious what will come of this, this whole shift in law. Yeah, I had not heard anything about it. So when you mentioned to me that you were thinking of doing this episode, these episodes for reasons, I like googled the thing, and I was like, that sounds interesting. What are the reasons because even like, like the news story hadn't even floated up at that point. It was like, because everything is changing right now, I'm such a dork that I knew that. Um. Yeah, anyway, Well, we hope you've enjoyed this partial digression into why entertainment has to be paid before by somebody and um, and that you have a marvelous Friday and hopefully a good weekend. If you work on a normal operating schedule of a work week of the weekend, hopefully your weekend ahead is grand. If you don't work on that, hopefully whatever awaits you in the next coming days is also grand. And that you are all staying safe and healthy. You can always check in with us by writing us at History podcast at iHeart radio dot com, and you can subscribe to the show on the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever it is you listen. Stuff you missed in History Class is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.