![]() ![]() Our third player, Warner Brothers, branded itself as the studio of the working class. They also gave these filmmakers more leeway to put their own stamp on movies – hits like Shanghai Express, The Sign of the Cross, and Morocco. Next is Paramount Pictures, which was known as the most “European” studio, because they lured a lot of filmmakers away from Germany and the UK. Think of The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, and Mutiny on the Bounty. Together, they made slick, big-budget musicals, comedies, melodramas, and literary adaptations – sparing no expense on sets, costumes, extras, and the biggest movie stars. Thalberg, on the other hand, was a former producer, and the mind behind the stories and actual production. Mayer was the savvy businessman of the two he approved the budgets and oversaw the distribution and marketing. Mayer ran MGM with his business partner, Irving Thalberg. They each had their own distinct reputations and focused on different kinds of films.įirst up, we have Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer – or MGM – which was the biggest studio in the 1930s. All five were vertically-integrated, just like the major studios of the Silent Era. Anything to take people’s mind off their own struggles and celebrate good old American values of optimism, resilience, ambition, and courage.Īt the height of Hollywood’s Golden Age, five film studios ruled the town. Genre films became more popular – things like gangster films, musicals, Westerns, and screwball comedies. As we’ve talked about, films are an illusion of reality.Īnd that illusion was super attractive to people whose day-to-day reality was often pretty bleak. It was cheaper to go to the movies than a play or a concert, and cinema became a means of escape. In fact, more films were released by the major studios during the 1920s and ‘30s than any other decade – averaging about 800 a year, compared to less than 500 per year today. And yet, the Depression was one of the best things to happen to the American film business. So you’d think that the last thing people would do with their hard-earned money was go to the movies. And at the height of the Great Depression in 1933, roughly a quarter of the American workforce couldn’t find a job, and millions of others were barely making ends meet. Hollywooood ba-ba-da-ba-d– OK, I’ll stop.Īfter the Stock Market Crash in October of 1929, most parts of the American economy took a real hit. This cascade of films led to more technological innovations, too, like color film and the widescreen formats we still use today. New major film studios emerged, each with their own style and favorite celebrities: before George Clooney and Jennifer Lawrence, there was Clark Gable and Janet Leigh. Once audiences could hear actors speak, listen to pre-recorded musical scores, and enjoy sound effects, film cemented its place as the main medium for mass communication, art, and commerce.Īnd as important as Hollywood was during the Silent Era, nobody could compete after the arrival of sound. ![]() ![]() Most of those associations really began sometime between the 1920s and the 1950s. When I say Hollywood, you probably think of big-budget movies, star-studded premieres, and studios with giant backlots pumping out film after film. ![]()
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