Though often viewed as irrelevant fluff, the film industry actually rested close to the heart of the U.S. economy. As the lockout of 1946 got under way, Communist screenwriter John Howard Lawson filed away information that the Chase Bank was the largest shareholder in 20th-Century Fox. The Rockefeller interests had holdings in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) was owned by Irving Bank and Atlas Corporation at various periods. The other studios, including Columbia and Warner Bros., all had strong ties with major banks. The iconoclastic pundit George Seldes concluded that “all movie companies are dependent upon the House of Morgan.”

The industry was dominated by eight companies: the aforementioned plus Paramount, Universal, and United Artists. The industry was integrated vertically with the studios also controlling theaters that garnered 75 percent of box office revenues.