Film history facts

In “The Big Sleep That Awaits the Big Screen” [May 15], David Freeman repeats a common historical error, that the vertically integrated film companies had to sell off their theaters. What they were really ordered to do was get out of one of the areas -- either production, distribution or exhibition.

It would have been economically foolish to get out of distribution, and because they were going through a major box office slump, which reminded them of a similar slump during the Depression that put all but one of the theater-owning companies into receivership, they chose to sell off the exhibition wing.

I’ve often wondered how different the last 55 years might have been if they had kept the theaters and gotten out of production instead.

Rick Mitchell

Los Angeles