Hollywood vault: film libraries before home video

Account by Eric Hoyt of the evolution of film libraries, arranged by decade from the 1910s to the 1960s, which the author suggests was driven less by new technologies than by the growth of new markets, successively old films with current stars; remakes and other derivatives; the use of libraries by studios as profit earners through theatrical reissues; the rise of the television market leading to the use of libraries as the basis for cross-media expansion; and, finally, the acquisition of studios by conglomerates as the television marketplace and the exploitation of film libraries grew ever more lucrative.