Juan Monroy — American Film Industry: Class 9, Hollywood vs. Television

1 Major Cultural Shifts
- 1.1 Suburbanization
- 1.2 Nuclear Families
- 1.3 G.I. Bill
- 1.4 Consumer Goods
2 World of Tomorrow
- 2.1 TV demonstrated at RCA Pavilion, 1939
- 2.2 Uses radio waves to carry picture and sound
- 2.3 Replacement for AM radio
- 2.4 CLIP: Magic of Television (1941)
3 Theater Television
- 3.1 What to do with television?
- 3.2 sporting events
- 3.3 political speeches
4 Domestic Medium
- 4.1 Television would enter domestic sphere
- 4.2 complement emerging suburbanization
- 4.3 would erode movie audience throughout the 1950s
5 Declining Theatrical attendance
- 5.1 Hollywood’s response
- 5.2 “An Experience not just Entertainment”
  - Risque Subjects
  - Color
  - Widescreen
  - Stereophonic sound
6 Color
- 6.1 Technicolor
  - Dye-Transfer
  - 3 Strip System
  - 1924–1954
- 6.2 Eastman Color
  - Integral “Tri-Pack” Process
  - 1 Strip System (lowest cost)
  - adopted in 1952
7 Widescreen Cinema
- 7.1 Aspect Ratio
  - Academy Ratio
    - Silent Films: 1.33:1
    - Sound Films: 1.375:1
  - Widescreen
    - today’s common aspect ratio
    - 1.85:1
  - Cinemascope
    - on the extreme
    - 2.35:1
- 7.2 Cinerama
  - Mike Todd, 1952
  - Three-Camera
  - Three-Projectors
  - Curved Screen
  - This Cinerama
  - Aspect Ratio 2.65:1
- 7.3 Cinemascope
  - 20th Century-Fox, 1953
  - Anamorphic Lens
  - The Robe
  - Aspect ratio 2.66:1
  - CLIP: Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
- 7.4 VistaVistion
  - Paramount, 1954
  - horizontal film
  - White Christmas
  - Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
- 7.5 Todd-AO
  - Mike Todd and American Optical, 1953
  - 65–70mm film and variable focal length
  - Oklahoma (1955)
  - Aspect Ratio 2.20: 1
8 Hollywood and Television
- 8.1 Hollywood at first fights television
- 8.2 Television needs content to fill schedule
  - British films on US television
  - “B” studios license movies for television broadcast
    - Monogram (1948)
    - Republic (1950)
  - Minors and Struggling Majors
    - RKO
      - struggling movie studio
      - licenses catalog
      - General Tire’s Million Dollar Movie
      - beginning in 1953
    - Disney
      - forms Buena Vista distribution
      - licenses movies for television broadcast
      - beginning in 1953
  - Remaining Major Studios
    - M-G-M Parade (ABC)
    - The 20th Century-Fox Hour (CBS)
    - Warner Brothers Presents (ABC)
- 8.3 Disney Cleverly Exploits Television
  - Disneyland USA (ABC) series in 1954
  - promotes Disneyland Park (1955)
- 8.4 Hollywood in the Age of Television
  - Hollywood initially fought television
  - Hollywood found new revenue from television
    - first, broadcasting old catalog
    - second, producing television programming
  - Hollywood would by decade’s end never recover from lost audience
    - film industry would suffer extreme losses of revenue
    - would remain a secondary entertainment medium to television