Vertical integration was biting. Gaumont, initially film-makers, were expanding across the country and finally acquired 343 properties. Their cinemas had exclusive access to all Gaumont films and considerable bargaining power elsewhere. Later in 1930 Morton sold the Holderness Hall to Gaumont. The following year he declared optimistically, "The installation of talkies at the Grand Theatre has been a triumphant success." He thought greater success awaited the talkies once quality and musical accompaniment improved. Although the economic situation could not be worse, it was not necessarily bad for business. Surprisingly, during the Lancashire cotton famine (1860-1865), when the mill owners could not get the raw material, business had been better than usual. Men went to the public-houses and places of amusement while their wives and children were crying for bread. The same thing had happened in Hull during the general strike of 1926.