The Power Playbook

Hollywood's story reveals the mechanics of cultural power:

• The industry was built by immigrants fleeing persecution who created America's dominant cultural export
• Vertical integration let studios control not just products but public imagination
• Star manufacturing showed that identity itself can be industrially produced
• The Paramount Decree proved that monopoly power eventually attracts government intervention
• New Hollywood showed personal vision can transform an industry — until the industry absorbs the revolutionaries

Hollywood's paradox is that it was built by outsiders who created the ultimate insider institution.