had a long history of challenging the status quo — via litigation that often revealed questionable practices in the entertainment business and also laid bare more than a few of his personal squabbles.
“When your life depends on it, you must wage war,” Redstone wrote in his 2001 memoir, “A Passion to Win,” in which he devoted many pages to explaining his legal battles. The mogul credited his work as a Justice Department tax attorney in the 1950s for giving him a foundation for going to battle in court.In 1958, Redstone sued the major studios for “broad conspiracy,” challenging as ineffectual the consent decree that forced them to divest their exhibition businesses. In 1965, when he was chairman of the National Assn. of Theater Owners, he challenged the studio practice of “blind bidding,” in which exhibitors have to bid on a price for a movie before they even see it.