Busting Block Booking

Submitted by ub on

My grandfather was a lawyer and Caribbean Trailblazer when in 1939 he joined the Cuban Cabinet and then took on Hollywood.

https://www.nytimes.com/1939/10/10/archives/bonachea-joins-cuban-cabine…

As Secretary of Commerce, my mom's father Oscar Bonachea rejected a protest by motion picture distributors against a Cuban Film Law. The distributors had petitioned the commerce department asking that the law which prohibits block booking and blind selling be set aside. He agreed to further study it, but never changed his mind.

Cuba Rejects Film Act Protest https://nyti.ms/3jD3mM9

Block booking is a system of selling multiple films to a theater as a unit. Block booking was the prevailing practice among Hollywood's major studios from the turn of the 1930s until it was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Paramount Pictures 

More from NPR On The Media  https://www.npr.org/  https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm

HOW DO WE DEFINE BLOCK-BOOKING IN FILM HISTORY & WHY WAS IT OUTLAWED?

The film industry has seen a lot of change over the years. Many different steps have been taken to ensure the safety and efficacy of business owners. Particularly theater owners in this case. Historically, block booking is a practice that was outlawed nearly 100 years ago. But how do we define block-booking in film history and what caused the U.S. Supreme Court to outlaw this practice, anyway?

https://beverlyboy.com/filmmaking/how-do-we-define-block-booking-in-fil…

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