Written by Jared Moya
Mary Pickford, co-founder of United Artists, said that she thinks she has seen the “death of motion pictures” thanks to the advent of TV, which she believes will be the “real death knell of motion pictures” since people could watch programs from the comfort of their own living room instead.
Michael Masnick over at Techdirt has been doing a spectacular job of late digging up old interviews with entertainment industry executives lamenting the impending death of their respective industries. Trouble is, however, the interviews were done decades ago, providing a bit of context for their more recent predictions of doom and gloom.
A few days ago it was the music industry. Back in 1980 the TV show 20/20 did a report on the state of the music industry in which Joe Smith, then President of Elektra-Asylum records, said that “you don’t have to buy” music anymore thanks to things like “sensational” home-taping equipment and FM radio (ha ha).
