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History of Cinema I
History of Cinema I: Class 13, Hollywood in the 1920s
History of Cinema I: Class 13, Hollywood in the 1920s
1 Roaring Twenties
1.1 stock market
invested in Hollywood
$78 million in 1922
$850 million in 1930
1.2 Jazz Age
Modernization
Urbanization
Prohibition
Flappers
Jazz
2 Hollywood Studios
2.1 increase in exports after World War I
2.2 building and purchasing movie theaters
2.3 producers had guaranteed outlets
2.4 allowing them to raise budgets
2.5 more lavish productions
3 Vertical Integration
3.1 Paramount demanded theaters screen 102 features a year
3.2 exhibitors formed First National (1917) to make films
3.3 Zukor began buying theaters
bought Balaban-Katz (1919)
paved way for vertical integration
became Publix theater chain, with 1200 theaters by 1930
3.4 Loews
Marcus Loew
nickelodeon owner
large chain by 1910
moved into production
bought Metro in 1919
run by Louis B. Mayer
bought Goldwyn in 1924
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
3.5 block booking
compelled exhibitors to book an entire year’s program in advance
3.6 mature oligopoly
4 Film Studios
4.1 Big Three
Paramount
MGM-Loews
First National
4.2 Little Five
Producers-Distributors Company
Film Booking Office
Universal
Fox
Warner Brothers
5 Censorship
5.1 Progressives sought to reform lower class social system
tension between classes
protect lower classes from harm
inspect films
like inspecting meat
some anti-Semitism over industry controlled by Jewish immigrants
5.2 Local Censorship Laws
Chicago: municipal censorship law in 1907
Pennsylvania: state law, 1911
Ohio and Kansas: 1913
5.3 Mutual v. Ohio
Mutual films challenged Ohio’s censorship law
Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 1915
prior restraint
movies not protected by 1st Amendment
“business pure and simple”
organized and conducted for profit
with a special capacity for evil
6 Star Scandals
6.1 Pickford and Fairbanks
biggest stars of Hollywood
were both married
divorced their spouses in 1920
married the same year
drew criticism from public
they divorced each other 1936
6.2 Olive Thomas
1920
drug overdose
6.3 William Desmond Taylor
1922
found murdered
suspicious circumstances
believed to be a homosexual
6.4 Fatty Arbuckle
Labor Day Weekend
September 5, 1921 (Labor Day weekend)
St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco
party at the hotel, during Prohibition
Virgina Rappe
aspiring actress
found sick in one of the rooms
Died September 9
ruptured bladder
alleged to have been raped by Arbuckle
Arbuckle’s heavy weight would have crushed her bladder
Trials
“Trail of the Century”
Three manslaughter trails
acquitted each time
7 MPPDA
7.1 Will Hays
postmaster general under Harding
president of the Republic National Committee
7.2 Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America
appointed Hays the head
established the Studio Relations Committee
instituted “morals” clause into actor’s contracts
7.3 Counter censorship
pressured producers to tone down salacious content
banned Arbuckle’s films
sent operatives to Massachusetts to fight censorship
spoke before religious groups
7.4 Don’ts and Be Carefuls
instituted production guidelines in 1924
drafted new ones in 1927
revised in 1930, Production Code
7.5 Payne Fund Studies
correlated sexual nature of movies for young and condemned them
four year study at seven universities
published 13 different reports, between 1929–33
believed films unduly influenced children
responded more emotionally to movies than adults
retained more from movies
had less healthy sleep
supported cultural elite belief that movies were harmful to children
8 Silent Film of the 1920s
8.1 Life and Death of 9413 (1928)
8.2 The Crowd (1928)