He ordered a Mob hit on Davis, who was black, unless he left Novak and immediately married a black woman.
Not only did he force them to change their names and their appearances, but he regularly forced them to trade sex for employment, then scrutinized and even spied on them.
The studio became part of Poverty Row, a group of B movie studios that clustered in a less desirable part of Hollywood.
Cohn forced the Spanish-American star—born Margarita Cansino—to change her name to something more Anglicized before she signed a contract with Columbia.
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As the head of Columbia Pictures from 1919 to 1958, Cohn expected sex in exchange for a chance at stardom.