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American Film Industry: Timeline of Historical Events

Below are twenty-five (25) events relevant to the history of American film and culture.

Print the assignment form (PDF) and enter the four-digit, numerical year each event occurred. You are welcome to use to any sources to complete this assignment, including standalone Internet sources.

This assignment is due in class on September 24.

  1. US Supreme Court issues Mutual v. Ohio decision, claiming that movies were not entitled to First Amendment protection as they were commercial speech with “a capacity for evil.”
  2. US Supreme Court issues “Miracle” Decision, known as Burstyn v. Wilson, granting motion pictures First Amendment protection.
  3. The “Hollywood Ten” jailed in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC).
  4. Radio Corporation of America formed as a patent pool.
  5. Radio Corporation of America introduces television at its World’s Fair exhibit, “The World of Tomorrow,” in New York City.
  6. Lumiere Brothers stage the Grand Café Screenings in Paris.
  7. Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated president of the United States.
  8. Serviceman’s Readjustment Act passed to provide for veterans college tuition assistance, low-interest mortgage loans, small business loans, job training, and unemployment benefits.
  9. Fatty Arbuckle first tried for the murder of aspiring actress Virginia Rappe.
  10. Treaty of Versailles ends The Great War.
  11. Carl Laemmle moves his IMP studio to Hollywood, escaping the hegemony of the Motion Picture Patents Company.
  12. Sony introduces BetaMax home video recorder.
  13. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in Memphis and Los Angeles, respectively.
  14. Revue-MCA buys Universal Pictures.
  15. Japanese bombers attack Pearl Harbor, prompting the US to enter World War II.
  16. Germany, under Adolf Hilter, invades Poland.
  17. Levitt and Sons, Inc. begins work on Levittown in Nassau County, Long Island, New York.
  18. Viacom acquires Paramount.
  19. Holland Brothers open first parlor devoted to Edison’s kinetoscope.
  20. Eastman Kodak agrees to be the exclusive motion-picture film supplier for the Motion Picture Patents Company, a patent pool.
  21. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences holds its first awards ceremony.
  22. The inaugural Sundance Film Festival begins as the Utah-US Film Festival in Salt Lake City.
  23. Stock Market Crash in October marks the beginning of the end of a stock market bubble that leads to the Great Depression.
  24. Nineteenth (Women’s Suffrage) Amendment ratified.
  25. Twentieth-Century Fox releases The Robe, the first picture to use the Cinemascope widescreen process.