Patrick -- remember that in those years the studios were also mining all the old stock theatre plays, and the time between remakes of "classics" was about ten years! Witness Barrymore's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (silent), Frederic March's (Paramount, '32?), and Spencer Tracy's (Metro disaster, 1941.) Or the remakes of Little Women, etc. Think if we were remaking all the movies from 1981 now! I don't think the creativity is less today. Adapting stuff from TV is not much different than taking it from the stock circuit. I do think that because the volume of product was so high, more chances could be taken. What's one definite flop among 300? Still I would hesitate to canonize Harry Cohn or L. B. Mayer or anyone else as a promoter of art. Even the sainted Thalberg had his eye on the bottom line. It is tempting to be nostalgic, but as a researcher of the period I think it looks golden largely in retrospect. Wasn't it Gable who said, "We didn't know we'd be legends?" Selden West