although louie b. mayer was more famous than schenck. cholas schenck operated the company, operated the theatres, operated world distribution. and in the 1940's, fired louie b. mayer. (narrator) ultimately, owning cinemas secured real economic strength. the large companies all owned theatres. and at the height of the studio era, 94 percent of their investment went into this real estate. the big studios were really extensive theatre chains simply making movies to fill their own cinemas. it was a monopoly actively encouraged in the 30's by president roosevelt's national recovery act, designed to help america out of the great depression. (thomas schatz) he basically allows the studios to develop what economists call "mature oligopoly." to create a cartel of companies that are complicit with one another in utterly controling a market. the 5 majors broke the u.s. up into 5 geographical parts. loews, the parent company of mgm and rko, had new york city and parts of the east. paramount had the midwest and the south. fox had the far west. and so