Cohn gave the public what they wanted – yet helped elevate their tastes too. Films like Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington entertained and enlightened. All the King’s Men remains a brilliant look at American political crudeness and demagoguery.

Alas, “King Cohn” treated women as his subjects too. His office was all white, with white chairs, a white piano, and a white sofa that one biographer deemed “the original ‘casting couch.’” Throughout the Great Depression and World War II, Cohn filled his shelves with silk stockings and expensive perfumes. Women knew what they had to do to earn these gifts.

Most who succumbed – or seduced — didn’t kiss and tell. Marilyn Monroe – who admitted to sleeping with many producers – apparently drew the line with Cohn. Cohn invited her to a cruise on his yacht and demanded she strip for him. When she rebuffed his advances, she later reported: “I had never seen a man so angry.”