A closer look

If you thought MTV invented the music video, you severely underestimate mid-century mobsters. The Scopitone was a massive 16mm film jukebox built from leftover WWII aviation parts, but it only thrived because organized crime heavily backed it. The mob realized they could sell exponentially more booze in dive bars by projecting short, colorful films of scantily clad women dancing to terrible pop songs to distract their drunken clientele.