lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
1. History of the Moving Image (first era of moving images 1895-1914)
a. 1st key year (1895)
i. The birth of the movies and the birth of broadcasting
b. 2 Central Premises
i. That the history of film and television can be examined as the history of the
<moving image=
ii. That this history is marked by key years
1. Before each year, the world of moving images was one way…. After, it
was changed forever
c. 7 Key years
i. 1895: the birth of movies and broadcasting
ii. 1915: the birth of feature; and the supreme court decision that shaped the
industry
iii. The birth of the <talkies= and the origin of the FCC
iv. The golden year of the studio system, the public debut of tv, and the start of
WWII
v. 1948: end of the studio system and rise of national tv
vi. 1966: the beginnings of ratings and the rise of the conglomerates
vii. 1977: the origin of the blockbuster fantasy era and the start of media
convergence
d. What does <moving Images= mean?
i. Encompasses both movies and tv historically
ERA #1
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
1. Movies (Film, Cinema, Motion Picture)
a. Chemical image
b. Public group viewing
c. Story and stand-alone unit
d. Developed image first
2. TV (video, part of broadcasting)
a. Electronic image
b. Private individual viewing
c. Story as part of a series
d. Developed sound first
2. Moving Images are a BUSINESS FIRST
a. Being a business, MI both shape and respond to the surrounding culture
b. As business and culture, MI are dependent upon technology
c. Technology has had to become more sophisticated and therefore more expensive
d. Expense brings us back to business (average expense $100 million/movie, $2
million/ tv episode)
3. Who Invented Movies?
a. First portable camera and working 35mm projector, the cinematographer,
developed by the Lumiere brothers in 1895 (THE FIRST KEY YEAR)
4. THE FIRST KEY YEAR: 1895
5. KEY EVENT 1: THE BIRTH OF MOVIES AND THE BIRTH OF
BROADCASTING
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
a. The Lumiere brothers, in Paris, show L9arroseur arrose (among other films), thus
creating the first MOVIE:
i. Paid ticket
ii. Public admission
iii. Projection to a …
iv. Group audience of a…
v. Narrative motion picture
6. Film Advances
a. France
i. Charles Pathe foreshadowed conglomerates
1. Company built cameras and projectors
2. Manufactured raw film stock
3. Produced movies, distributed them to his own chain of theaters
ii. Pathe also invented the newsreel
iii. Leon Gaumont foreshadowed studio system
1. Projects supervised by studio executives
2. Created by team working directly for studio using studio equipment and
facilities
3. Gaumont is still in business, making it the oldest continuously operating
film company in the world.
iv. Gaumont, as Pathe competitor, hired Alice Guy Blache as 1st female director
and 1st female head of production arm.
1. She made her 1st movie in 1896.
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
2. Left for America (1907) & founded own company (1910).
v. Melies, magician by trade, discouraged by Lumieres, carriage-into hearse 1896.
1. <Father= of special effects
2. <Father= of lighting direction
3. <Father= of art direction
b. England
i. British filmmakers known collectively as the "Brighton school", especially
George Albert Smith (above) & James Williamson, from 1900-06 were probably
the first to use the CU, the traveling (dolly) shot, the POV, and the pan.
c. America
i. Edwin S. Porter, father of editing, worked for Edison and created LIFE OF AN
AMERICAN FIREMAN and THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (both 1903).
ii. The former demonstrated continuity (cutting on action during fire pole slide,
use of cutaway with alarm box); the latter demonstrated ellipsis (cutting backward
and forward in time).
d. Technology
i. The first ear of motion pictures would establish a pattern of developments that
continues to the present…. Technology will become either …
1. Established commercially
a. Electric lighting (William Dickson)
b. Animation (Stuart Blackton)
2. Extraordinary curiosities
a. Extraordinary Curiosities at the end of Era 1
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
i. Color (Charles Urban)
ii. Sound (Eugene Lauste)
iii. Widescreen (Dickson)
b. Established Commercially by the end of Era 1
i. Electric lighting
ii. Animation
iii. Cinematography
iv. Editing
v. Special effects
vi. Lighting direction
vii. Art direction
viii. Distributor middleman
ix. Movie palaces
x. Moving picture series
xi. Laemmle and his allies Fox and Zukor
7. Moving Images = Business First
a. First permanent movie theater in US, (Thomas Tally9s Electric Theater in LA) 1902
b. 1st nickel theater (nickelodeon), 1905
c. 80 million admissions a week (out of US population 90 million), 1908
d. Huge demand led to development of distributor middleman, shift from selling to renting
e. What Happened to Mary?, produced by Edison in 1912, was the first serial picture ;
much like television through 1980, each episode stood alone as story
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
f. The Perils of Pauline, 1914, established the conventions of the cliffhanger serial; some
episodes would end with the heroine in danger that would be resolved in the next episode.
g. Beginning of movie palace era in 1913
h. The Motion Picture Patents Company
i.
For the first dozen years of American film, the companies fought <patent wars= – over
500 legal actions
i. 10 leading film companies form MPPC under the leadership of Thomas Edison,
1908
ii. Was a trust to control business by
1.
For the first dozen years of American film, the companies fought <patent
wars= – over 500 legal actions
2. 10 leading film companies form MPPC under the leadership of Thomas
Edison, 1908
i. Distributors led by Carl Laemmle (founder of IMP, precursor to Universal) start
rebellion against MPPC, beginning trust wars
j. Competition killed MPCC; 1917, courts ended it
k. All MPPC companies were dying or dead.
8. THE FIRST KEY YEAR: 1895 (The Birth of the movies and the birth of broadcasting)
a. Marconi is credited with the first radio telegraph (applied for patent next year); first
wireless communication
9. Wireless Telegraphy to Broadcasting
a. Nikolai Tesla rivals Marconi as inventor, outclassed in business
b. Marconi, 1st transatlantic wireless, 1901
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
c. Lee deForest, audion (amplifying) tube, 1906; possible first sound broadcast, 1907
d. Reginald Fessenden, other possible first voice transmission, 1906
e. Charles <Doc= Herrold, first broadcast station, 1909
i. Herrold coined the term <broadcasting,= as well
10.
World War I. <the Great War=
a. End of an era
b. Europe devastated by conflict-- major combatant nation casualty rate:
i. United Kingdom 35%
ii. France 75%
iii. Austria-Hungary 90%
iv. Germany 65%
v. US modern equivalent; between 1.1 and 2.7 million troops killed, wounded, or MIA
c. French film industry went from 90% of world business pre-war to 15% afterward ERA
#2
1. The second key year 1915 (The Birth of the Feature) and the Supreme Court
Decision that Shaped the Industry
a. Griffith releases The Birth of a Nation, first film
i. To use all of filmmaking (cinematography, editing, lighting, acting, etc.)
to tell the story
ii. In a feature length (90+ minutes) package
iii. Also, the fist blockbuster hit
b. Griffith9s development before The Birth of a Nation
i. Began career as playwright and actor for stage
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
ii. Started movie career working with Porter (the director of Great Train
Robbery, now head of production at Edison)
1. Association w/Porter <father of editing= provided Griffith with
introduction to editing as film technique
iii. Griffith moved on to Biograph, where he got first job as director
iv. Griffith directed 450+ one-reel (@ 10 minute) movies for Biograph
between 1908-1913
v. At Biograph, Griffith began working with cameraman Billy Bitzer, who
communicated his passion for innovating cinematography to Griffith
vi. Directorial work led to cinematographic advances:
1. Working together, Griffith and Bitzer moved their movies away
from the theatrical conception of the scene to the idea of the shot
as the key unit of moving images
2. The two were probably the first to grasp those different types of
shots (CU, MS WS) have different emotional meanings and
impacts
3. Further, DWG & BB incorporated pan and traveling/tracking shot
into storytelling;
a. Again, probably the first to understand that a moving shot
says that the beginning of the shot is important, the end is
important, and everything in between is important as well
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
4. They also concentrated on making their shots as three dimensional as
possible (for example, using angles instead of straight-on shots) and using
creative lighting on location as well as in studio
vii. Directorial work led to editing developments:
1. using editing to create a leap in space
2. using editing to create a leap in time
3. using editing to create a mental leap (character thinks of
something)
4. using editing to create a symbolic leap (banquet and
beggars)
viii. Directorial work led to acting improvements:
1. usefulness of underplaying
2. casting for type
3. vocabulary of gesture
4. Rehearsals
5. stock company that went on to become stars.
ix. Griffith moved to 2-reel movies until 1913, becoming
Biograph9s head director in the process
x. In 1913, Griffith made Judith of Bethulia, an hour-long picture
that was probably the most expensive film ever made (at that time)
1. The Biograph company was enraged at the picture9s length
& cost; in response, Griffith left the company to become an
independent – taking his stock company of actors with him
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
-- and make his most famous and infamous film… The
Birth of a Nation
xi. From Porter, learned editing as storytelling technique
xii. With Bitzer, developed shot as a key unit of movies
xiii. From theatrical background, emphasized importance of acting
and actors
xiv. From ambition, introduced idea of moves as worth investment
of company money and audience time
xv. From own creativity, synthesized all of the above into a whole
2. THE BIRTH OF A NATION
a. Why call it the birth of the feature?
b. Cost
i. Previous record-holder, Judith of Bethulia, cost $23,000-$40,000
ii. Birth of a Nation cost at least $110,000
c. Length
i. Previous record-holder, The Story of the Kelly Gang, was 70 minutes long
ii. Birth of a Nation is its original cut, 193 minutes (3 hours and 13 minutes)
d. Box Office
i. Previous record-holder, Traffic in Souls, grossed at $450,000
ii. Birth of a Nation grossed at least $10 million and possibly as much as $60
million
e. Impact
i. Artistic
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
1. Immediately recognized as masterpiece and trend-setter
a. Variety: <the daily newspaper reviewers pronounced it as the last word in
picture making… in terms of production, acting, photography, and
direction… D W Griffith, the world9s best film director, is… doing more
to make filming an art that anyone else=
b. Motion Picture News: <In dramatic and photographic technique it is
beyond our present-day criticism.=
ii. Political
1. The first film ever shown in the White House
a. Woodrow Wilson (it is like writing history with lightening
and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true…
(debated)
b. Racist?
iii. Controversy
1. Second half of the film, in which the KKK was
portrayed as good guys, caused immediate and
continuing controversy… which prompted Griffith9s
next venture
2. Protested by the NAACP
3. INTOLERANCE
a. Produced as follow up to THE BIRTH OF
A NATION
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
i. Griffith did not see himself as a racist and made
INTOLERANCE to prove it
b. Cost at $1.9 million to make, or 19x the
cost of the previous most-expensive movie
(BOFAN)
c. Began as a modest film called THE
MOTHER AND THE LAW
d. Budget, and number of stories, began to
grow as BIRTH OF A NATION succeeded
e. 1st mega flop- earning back its budget was
not enough
f. Unusual story technique, 3+ hour length,
pacifist message on eve of WWI combined
to sink film
4. D.W. Griffith After
a. The relative failure of Intolerance and the never-ending controversy over BOAN
b. Led to alcoholism and downward spiral
i. Through Griffith cofounded United Artists and had some directional success, he was
forced out of the company after another costly failure
ii. He did not adapt to the sound age (directly only 2 <talkies=) and died in 1948
c.
The Director9s Guild of America names Griffith its first Honorary Lifetime Member, and
then names it a highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award, for Griffith from its
inception through 1999.
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
d.
In 1999, the DGA dropped Griffith9s names based of the <intolerable racial stereotypes=
of BOAN
5. DW Griffith Legacy
a. Mack Sennett, <the Father of Film Comedy=
i. Like Griffith, Sennett began career w/ Edison, moved to Biograph
1. Worked under Griffith at Biograph as director/writer/actor
ii. Also like Griffith, he left Biograph to become independent
iii. W/independent company, Sennett created Keystone Kops and silent comedy (much
like animated cartoon); produced over 600 films, directed almost 400
iv. 1st US feature comedy, TILLIE'S PUNCTURED ROMANCE; starred Sennett9s
discovery, Charlie Chaplin
b. Charlie Chaplain, first international superstar (producer, writer, director, star, owner of films)
<The Little Tramp=
i. Chaplin on Griffith: <the teacher of us all=
ii. Wanted character & individuality in his comedy
iii. Created The Tramp from selection of found props in Keystone dressing room
iv. In 5 years, Chaplin went from $150 per week (1914) to million dollars per year
v. Could write, direct, produce, and even own rights to films
vi. First international superstar and first movie maker acknowledged then AND NOW as
genius and influence
c. Mary Pickford (first millionaire actress/overseer)
i. Mary Pickford – discovered by Griffith in 1912
ii. <America9s Sweetheart," the first actress to earn $1 million per year
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
iii. She quickly became as famous and as powerful as Chaplin, overseeing preproduction,
production, post, and distribution
iv. Pickford marries Douglas Fairbanks (the first celebrity marriage/news event)
1. Douglas Fairbanks – the screen9s first action hero, aka <The Original King of
Hollywood=
d. With Fairbanks, Pickford and Chaplain, Griffith founded United Artists
i.
United Artists founded by the four biggest <names= in pictures 1919
ii. Unlike the other majors, it was a distributing organization for movies made by
independent producers, formed in reaction to what was already becoming known simply
as <Hollywood=
6. 1915 KEY EVENT 2: THE SUPREME COURT DECISION THAT SHAPED THE
INDUSTRY
a. The Mutual vs. Ohio Supreme Court Decision strips movies of the protection of the First
Amendment… beginning a chain of unattended consequences
b. Mutual vs Ohio
i. Mutual, an out-of-state distributor, tried to distribute films without submitting to Ohio
state board of censors in 1913
ii. Ohio stopped the distribution; Mutual sued
iii. Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution allows the Federal government to regulate
interstate commerce
iv. Article III, Section 2 gives the Supreme Court power to rule in cases <between a State
and Citizens of another State=
v. The Supreme Court got the case in 1915
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
vi. <It cannot be put out of view that the exhibition of moving pictures is a business, pure
and simple, originated and conducted for profit, like other spectacles, not to be regarded,
nor intended to be regarded by the Ohio Constitution, we think, as part of the press of the
country, or as organs of public opinion.=
vii. Since the Ohio Constitution mirrored the US one, this ended 1st Amendment for
movies for decades
viii. The decision eventually led to…
1. Motion Picture Procedures and Distributors of America (MPPDA), an
organization of the 3 largest studios of the day (more would join later) and…
2.
The <Hays Office= that administered the MPPDA <production guidelines=
a. Founded in response to Arbuckle scandal in 1922, the nickname came
from its first head, former Postmaster General Will Hays
ix. The <Hays Office= and MPPDA
1. Through the rest of the silent era, the Hays office was mostly a
façade…
2. … but the 3 largest studios coming together would set the pattern
for <Hollywood= for decades
a. Famous Players – Lasky became Paramount
b. Metro-Goldwyn became MGM
c. First National became Warner Bros.
7. <Hollywood=
a. The Moguls
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
i. Moguls = producers who ruled their studios in the silent era (LaemmleUniversal, Fox-
20th Century Fox, And Zukor- Paramount)
1. Most were immigrants or 1st generation Americans most were Jewish, and all
came into business because it was most open to them
b. The Studio System
i. Projects supervised by studio executives
ii. Created by team working directly for studio
iii. Using studio equipment and facilities
c. The Star System
i. The process by which the studios created and promoted <stars= (individually famous
actors and actresses)
ii. The star system developed a star9s total image; studio executives chose young
unknowns and created personas for them, often giving them new names and even new
life stories.
d. The Studios and the Stars
i.
Morality Clauses were a common part of actors9 studio contracts
1. The covered actor behavior outside the studio; violating them could get the actors
fired.
2. However, studio executives, publicists, and agents worked with the actor to create
a star persona, so they would work together to cover up incidents or lifestyles that
would damage the star9s public image.
e. The Genre System
i. Genres = types of film
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
1. Commercially useful, simultaneously satisfying the audience9s desire for
familiarity and uniqueness
2. Stars were matched with genre
f. The Star System and the Genre System
i. The first star
1. Florence Lawrence <the Biograph Girl=
a. Hired away from Biograph by Laemmle in 1910, hyped the star with fake
death story
ii. Early Marketing
1. Tom Mix, the first cowboy hero
a. With over 300 films to his credit, he defined the genre for decades
iii. <Man of 1000 Faces=
1. Lon Chaney, the first master of makeup – cinema9s first great horror star
iv. The First Cult of Tragedy
1. Rudolph Valentino, the first male sex symbol of the screen
a. His death at 31 at the height of his fame set off nationwide hysteria
2. His films continued to be reissued well into the 1930s
v.
Chaplin9s Rivals
1. Harold Lloyd
a. Lloyd became famous for doing his own stunts
i. Some later historians have called this into question
2. Buster Keaton, <The Great Stone Face=
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
a. Many historians claim Keaton was a more complete filmmaker than
Chaplin
vi. Comedy Stars
1. Buster Keaton, <The Great Stone Face= – his greatest film, THE GENERAL, he
also co-wrote & directed
vii. Fan magazines were launched to feed public interest (predecessors to People, Us,
etc.)
1. The first, Photoplay, began as fiction magazine in 1912 but switched to celebrity
g. The Industry
i. Move to California began in 1910
ii. BIRTH and INTOLERANCE both shot in California
iii. Weather, landscape, and real estate values where key
iv. The first permanent studio was the Nestor Studios, founded in 1911 and later absorbed
by…
v. Universal, the oldest continuously operating Hollywood studio, opened in 1915
h. The Outsiders
i. Women (in addition to Mary Pickford) in early Hollywood often wielded great power
1. Dorthey Arzner, first women in Directors Guild, would later become the first
woman to direct a sound feature
2. Louis Weber, wrote and directed more than 100 films; though not as famous
today, some consider her equal to Griffith
3. Lillian Gish (another Griffith discovery), though most famous as actress, also
tried writing, producing, and directing
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
a. Her first credit was in 1912; her last was in 1987
i. African American filmmakers were completely excluded in early Hollywood;
however, some did not let societal barriers stop them
1. The Lincoln Motion Picture Company was the first African American film
production company, founded in 1916
2. Oscar Micheaux became the first African American to direct a feature and
probably the first to produce a sound feature; his career spanned more than 40
films over 3 decades
8. International Developments
a.
Germany <Golden Age=
i. Emphasis on the power of atmosphere are décor within a shot, aka miseen-scene (the art
of designing and staging a scene for the camera) leading to 3 of the masterpieces of
horror/sci-fi
b.
USSR: Soviet <Golden Age=
i. Emphasized montage, the art of editing (to serve Soviet politics)
1. Lenin: <The cinema is for us the most important instrument of all the arts=
2. Trotsky: <The most important weapon in this respect, a weapon excelling
any other, is at present the cinema… this weapon, which cries out to be
used, is the best instrument for propaganda, technical, educational, and
industrial propaganda…=
3. Stalin: <Film is the strongest art=
4. Kuleshov experiments showed that editing by itself could literally create a
performance (his apprentice Pudovkin carried on his work)
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
5. Eisenstein9s BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925) revealed how montage
could bring shots together in collision to produce meeting or in linkage;
later published books and essays, becoming first major filmmaker to also
become theorist
9. Broadcast Explosion
a. 1917: Us enters WWI (government took control of ALL radio)
b. 1918: Navy proposes continued control of US broadcasting, introduced
legislation to congress, this failed but proposal to create US corporation to hold
radio patents went forward, thus Radio Corporation of America (RCA)
c. 1920: 1st federally licensed radio station with regularly scheduled programming,
KDKA, Pittsburg (1st Presidential election results broadcast)
d. 1921: KDKA -first national sports championship broadcast (World Series)
e. 1922: a red-letter year
i. FIRST COMMERCIAL
ii. First narrative broadcast series
iii. First use of telephone wires to carry radio programming (ie the first physical
network)
f. 1923: National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), oldest trade association,
formed; wireless still picture transmission
g. 1926: RCA, GE, and Westinghouse form National Broadcasting Corporation
(NBC) (first programming network)
i. By the end of the year, it was two networks (red and blue)
ii. David Sarnoff: first president of RCA (master of self-promotion but
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
equivalent of moguls)
1.
THE THIRD KEY YEAR 1927 (The birth of the <Talkies= and the birth of the FCC)
2. Warner Brothers releases The Jazz Singer , the first…
a. Full-length
b. Feature film
c. To use synchronized sound
d. As a means of telling the story
3. The movie learn to talk
a. Originally, 3 competing methods of talking pictures
i. Western Electric/Warner Bros. initiated sound with the Vitaphone soundon-disc
process
ii. Fox Movietone sound-on-film system used a variable density optical track
(gets darker or lighter to record sound), developed by deForest and others
iii. RCA/GE Photophone system used a variable area optical track, where line got
wider or narrower; any optical sound projector can play either variable area or
variable density.
iv. 2 sound on film and 1 sound on disc (record)
1. Disc provided better sound, but required 2 machines
2. Film only needed 1 machine, but had worse sound
ERA #3
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
b. 3 sound problem areas: technical, artistic, and commercial
i. Technical problems
1. Cameras were too big and noisy to move
2. Had to be sheltered in soundproof booths
3. Recording on one stationary microphone
ii. Technical Solutions:
1. Multiple cameras
2. Realizing that only scenes with dialogue on camera had to be shot with
sync sound
3. Camera blimp, which soundproofed cameras while allowing movement,
@1929.
4. Rouben Mamoulian, director, is credited with boom microphone and
mixing innovations, such as two-channel sound
iii. Artistic Problems
1. Caused by technical limitations and inexperience in <talkies=
2. Inexperience in writing and acting for talkies
iv. Commercial problems
1. Sound was first huge-cost innovation
2. Studios had to build sound stages and buy equipment
3. Theaters had to buy equipment and rewire
c. In Color!
i. On With the Show, 1929, was the first all-color all-talking picture using the <2
strip= Technicolor process
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
ii. Mamoulian directed Becky Sharp, 1935, the first 3 strip Technicolor feature
iii. This expense and cost of Technicolor led to color talkies being only big budget
(like IMAX today)
d. The most innovative early sound films were the cartoons, particularly Walt Disney9s …
i. Steamboat Willie (1928): first synchronized sound cartoon in national release
ii. Flowers and Trees (1932): first full (3-strip) Technicolor sound cartoon
iii. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937): first color/sound animated feature
e. By 1929, silent had almost completely vanished; last was released in 1930
i. Chaplain held out for years, only making his first true <talkie= in 1940 (his films
from 1929-1939, City Lights and Modern Times, has soundtrack but no dialogue)
ii. Ironically, Warners/Vitaphone sound-on-disc only lasted until 1930
f. Ernst Lubitsch, Oscar-nominated director of 72 features, who survived the transition:
i. <When the decision was made to change from silent films to talking films, the
producers called together the greatest stars they had…. And the producers said,
<You ladies and gentlemen who are the stars of the great silent screen, you must
now learn to talk. You can no longer make faces… what the director tells you to
do, and then hope he can put it together into a performance. You9ve got to learn…
to sustain scenes, to characterize, to remember dialogue and play it. Those of you
who can – you9ll be greater than ever. Those of you who can9t – overnight, no
matter how great you are, you9ll be finished…. Then they called together all the
great directors. And they said, <All you directors of the silent screen, no more
running out in the morning with that box…you shoot something here and you
shoot something there, and then bring it back. No, no. You gentlemen have got to
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
learn to read scripts… and how to tell a story that is written – and those of you
who do will be bigger than ever. Those of you who don9t – overnight, you9ll be
forgotten…. And then they called together all the great title writers…and they
said, <You writers, no longer is it going to be something that you can bring in on
the back of an envelope, it9s no longer a question of waiting until the director
gives you a film and has you write subtitles for it – you have to become dramatists
– you have to learn how to write dialogue, conflict, and so forth. And again, those
of you who learn will go on to fabulous wealth and fame. Those of you who can9t
–
you9re finished…. And that really happened… you could name the great stars of
the silent screen who were finished – the great directors, gone – the great title
writers who were washed up – but, remember this as long as you live: The
PRODUCERS didn9t lose a man. They all made the switch. That9s where great
talent is. Remember this.=
g. Adolph Zukor, shown here in his late 90s, was Chairman Emeritus of Paramount he
passed away in 1976, at the age of 103
1. The Big 5, the Little 3, and the MPPDA
a. 8 major studios dominated the industry
i. Big 5: MGM, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO
ii. Little 3: Universal, Columbia, United Artists
b. The Big 5 exercised vertical control; they owned all 3 branches of the
industry (production, distribution, and exhibition)
i. The studios did not own all theaters, only the major downtown palaces
c. Little 3 only owned two of three.
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
i. Universal Studios, owning production and distribution, has had tours
since its founding
ii. Columbia Pictures, also owning production and distribution, was the
smallest of the majors
iii. United Artists owned a distribution system and exhibition theaters, but
not production
d. All 8 majors EACH produced a feature a week (released a new full-length
film every week)
e. All were members of the MPPDA (Motion Picture Producers and
Distributors Association)
f. By the end of the era, 8 majors would release 76% of American features
on a yearly basis
g. Business Restrictions of the studios:
i. block booking, renting good & bad movies in packages
ii. blind buying, exhibitor had to book sight unseen
iii. overbuying, buying more films than could be shown
h. Business Advantages of the studios:
i. clearance & zoning (no competition)
i. Organization engaged in business practices, some of which even benefited
theaters, that were clearly (and illegally) trust-like
2. The MPPDA Production Code Administration
a.
Necessitated by lack of First Amendment protection, movies9 status as family
entertainment
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
b. Began 1922 as suggestions of <Don9ts and Be Carefuls=
c. Updated to full Code for <talkies= in 1930
d. Most seriously enforced beginning in 1934
i. Legion of Decency was first, though not only, prominent pressure group
e. Began as response to scandals as suggestions; then updated to full (unenforced) Code for
<talkies=; seriously enforced when Legion of Decency (first, though not only, prominent
pressure group) threated boycott
f. Studios had to submit scripts to Production Code Administration, also called the Breens
office, from approval before beginning filming
g. Completed films had to be screened for the office, and altered, if necessary, in order to
receive a Production Code Seal, without which no film could be distributed in the United
States
h. Breaking the code9s restrictions brought a fine of $25,000; the fine was never levied in
the lifetime of the code
i. Moguls voluntarily agreed amongst themselves to abide by the Code because:
i. the threat of a national boycott by the mass audience was real and was amplified by
the timing, just after the enormous expense of the conversion to talkies and the impact of
the Great Depression
j. Producers found that the code could increase the efficiency of production.
k. Since the code limited shown or described behavior, the code was used as a scriptwriter's
blueprint, based on its three General Principles and @50 specific rules.
i. A love story, for example, could only move in one direction (toward
marriage), crime could have only two conclusions (prison or death), etc.
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
l. The Code9s General Principles:
i. 1) No picture shall be produces that will lower the moral standards of
those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be
thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil, or sin
ii. 2) Correct standards of life, subject only to requirements of dram and
entertainment, shall be presented.
iii. 3) Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be
created for its violation
m. What did the Code produce?
i. Critic Michael Medved: <While many of the specific rules in the old
Production Code look thoroughly ludicrous by today9s standards, it is
instructive to recall that Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks, John Ford
and Billy Wilder, George Cukor and Frank Capra and Orson Welles all
somehow managed to create their masterpieces under its auspices.=
3. The First Attendance Crisis
a. From the beginning of the feature through 1930, attendance increased yearly
i. 1930: First peak, 90 million tickets per week, equaling 73% of the US population
b. BUT, by the depth of the Great Depression, attendance had first drop of any kind (an it
was major)
i. 1933: 60 million tickets per week, 48% of population
c. Survival tactic, Exhibition: the introduction of air conditioning
i. First theater with AC was Rivoli (Paramount chain) in NYC in 1925
ii. AC especially boosted attendance in summer and in the South
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
d. Survival tactics, distribution:
i. Cycles (especially musicals, gangster, and horror)
1. Cycles are periodic successions of genre pictures, where similar pictures follow
each other in a short period of time. This period saw the beginning of cycles in
movies. Cycles of the period include:
a. MUSICALS:
i. Busby Berkeley (directed musical numbers)
ii. Astaire/Rogers
iii. Shirley Temple
iv. Rooney/Garland
b. GANGSTER
i. Paul Muni in Scarface
ii. Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar
iii. James Cagney in The Public Enemy
iv. All from Warners/First National
c. HORROR (All from Universal)
i. Bela Lugosi in Dracula
ii. Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, The Bride Of Frankenstein, The Mummy
iii. Claude Raines in The Invisible Man
iv. Lon Chaney Jr. in The Wolf Man
ii. Double Features and B Pictures
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
1.
The term 8B-movie9 was coined in the early 1930s to distinguish the
low-budget productions (usually lasting between 50 and 80 minutes) made
by the 8 major studios from their more expensive 8A-movies9
2. In 1935, the double feature was adopted first by RKO and Loew9s/MGM;
within a year, shown in 75% of theaters
3. Each major had own B-movie production unit
4. Future Oscar directors George Stevens, Fred Zinneman & William Wyler,
future stars Glenn Ford & Susan Hayward got start in Bs
5. Former stars such as Oscar winner Warner Baxter & nominee Richard
Dix finished their careers in Bs
6. Term extended to the total product of the so-called Poverty Row
companies, such as Monogram, Mascot, Consolidated, and Republic
which only made cheap pictures
7. First 3 companies eventually absorbed by Republic
8. Western stars John Wayne & Roy Rogers; Republic produced the only
film in which they appeared together
a. Rogers began his career in this era, and was the most popular
Western star from 1943-1952
9. B pictures served as <minor leagues= for rising stars, <old-timers games= for
fading ones
10. Eventually extended to <Poverty Row= studios
4. 1927 KEY EVENT 2 The Birth of the FCC
a. Congress passes the Federal Radio Act creating the federal Radio Commission
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
i. The agency later changes its name to the Federal Communication Commission, which
regulates all Radio Frequency use in the US
b. 1927 Radio Act, first step toward solution of problems that 4 National Radio
Conferences failed to solve, created the Federal Radio Commission
c. US government controls broadcasting through licensing, which specifies:
i. Market (possibly including hour of operation)
ii. Frequency number and Modulation type
iii. Signal Power
iv. <Public interest, convenience, or necessity= requirement
1. FRC became FCC in 1934
d. Broadcast radio Matures
i.
RCA9s NBC grew so large it subdivided into NBC Red (Primarily entertainment) And
NBC Blue (primarily news)
ii. CBS formed in this era; William Paley buys CBS (mogul like David Sarnoff at NBC;
Sarnoff would run NBC for 40+ years, Paley for 50+ years)
e.
First <Real TV= Experiments
i. Philo T. Farnsworth, called =The Last Lone Inventor,= essentially designed the first
electronic TV system in 1921 as a 15-year-old Utah farm boy
1. Farnsworth created first working experimental model 6 years later
a. Patent fights with RCA kept him from the fame & fortune he deserved
b. Later, he would contribute to the development of radar and nuclear fusion
ii. Several experimental stations with regular schedules began broadcasting in 1928
1. All used the older mechanical scanning system
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
iii. RCA/NBC launched their first experimental station in 1929
iv. CBS started their experimental station in 1931
v. Farnsworth demonstrated his entirely electronic system in 1934
f. Broadcast Radio Matures
i. TV was called radio; examples from the era:
ii. Mysteries: Sherlock Holmes, The Shadow
iii. Adventure: Tarzan
iv. Soaps: The Guiding Light
v. Superhero: Superman
vi. Horror: Frankenstein
vii. Science Fiction: Buck Rogers
viii. Cartoons: Mickey Mouse, Popeye
ix. Westerns: The Lone Ranger
x. Comedy: Bob Hope
g. Broadcast Radio Matures: War of the Worlds
i.
Orson Welles9 radio show, Mercury Theater, produces HG Wells9 novel The War of the
Worlds as if it were a radio news show; since viewers tuned in late from other shows, the
panic that resulted was possibly first effects of channel surfing
1. Further, worries about European situation led to come thinking it was not
Martians that were attacking, but Axis
ii. The show led to the first major publication of communication research
ERA #4
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
1.
THE FOURTH KEY YEAR (KEY EVENT ONE) 1939 (the <Golden Year= of the
Studio System, the Public Debut of TV, and World War II)
a. Golden Year marks what most consider the peak achievement of the American
studio system
b. Hollywood releases Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith goes to
Washington, Stagecoach, and many lesser classics in their genres
i. Films endure critically, popularly, and commercially
c. Moguls of the Golden Age vs. Managers of the Conglomerate Age
i. Richard Brooks, Oscar-winning director/writer with 40+ credits over 35 years,
on the moguls:
1. <I9ll tell you about those men. They were monsters and pirates and ***
right down to the bottom of their feet, but they loved movies. They loved
making movies, they loved seeing movies and they protected the people
who worked for them… When we previewed Key Largo back in 1948,
Jack Warner stood in the lobby talking to everybody who came out and
said, <Great picture!= and <How did you like to little lady, it9s a powerful
picture, don9t you think?= before they even got the preview cards filled
out.=
2. 1939 KEY EVENT 2 (the Public Debut of TV)
a. At the 1939 New York World9s Fair, television had its first public
demonstration
b. World War II
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
i. In Europe, World War II began, with numerous immediate and
long-term consequences for the industry
ii.
<The Gathering Storm=
1. Axis powers (Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany)
engaged in aggression around the world
2. France and Britain, scarred by WWI hid behind Maginot Line and Royal Navy/English
Channel (respectively) and appeasement (together)
3. Last Restraints:
1. Fear if the United States – BUT:
i. US was isolationists
ii. Congress passes several Neutrality Acts
iii. Gallup polls indicate as much as 94% of US public against getting involved at
all
2. Hitler still kept from open war by:
i. Fear of the United States
1. IN FAIRNESS, some of the moving image industry was actively
anti-Nazi (at the time…)
ii. Fear of the USSR – until
1. German National Socialists and Russian Soviet Socialists, though they
hated each other, made a secret alliance just before mutually invading
Poland
iii. Immediate Consequences for Moving Image
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
1. The alliance between USSR and the Nazis caused the <Hollywood
Anti-Nazi League= to transform <Hollywood League of Democratic
Action= and then the <American Peace Mobilization= …
2. . …and began campaigning for the US to stay out of the war
3. War destroyed European competition and European market for films
1. Hitler and Goebbels (Nazi propaganda minister) were huge movie buffs
and flooded Europe with pro-Nazi Movies
2. The studios as companies have mixed reactions the Reich; for example,
Warner Bros withdrew form German market when Hitler came to power,
while MGM occasionally altered content to suit German censors
4. The Us government applied official scrutiny to films as propaganda (pre-Pearl Harbor)
1. The US Senate investigated Hollywood for propagandizing for the Allies and against
the Axis
2. This could have been a violation of the Neutrality Acts
3. The heads of the major studio cooperated voluntarily with the Senate investigation
5. Close cooperation between government and industry (post-Pearl Harbor)
1. The government established the Office of War Information: its Bureau of Motion
Pictures reviews movie scripts, <Suggested= 7 questions for studios to apply to their
productions. The two most important were:
i. Will this picture help win the war?
ii. Does the picture tell the truth or will the young people of today have reason to
sat they were misled by propaganda?
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
2. US Army Special Services, Frank Capra, made Why We Fight, released through Office
of War information
3. The Office of Censorship
i. Restraint via the screening of domestic broadcasts and news publications
ii. Also took over Hollywood (movies) monitoring in 1943
6. Pro-Soviet propaganda as a part of war effort (after Hitler invaded Russia)
7. Anti-Axis stereotypes as part of war effort
8. Delay of the Paramount case
9. Delay of national TV
iv. Long term consequences for moving image
1. Improved technology, especially for field production
2. Altered society and filmmaking perspective
3. Rise of Film Noir (Dark Film) (first term used in 1946)
4.
<THE BALCKLIST=
1. Era 2 (1915) – The Mutual Decision established the precedent
i. The Mutual vs Ohio Supreme Court decision strips movies of the
protection of the First Amendment
ii. In 1947 this had not been overturned
2. Since Era 2
i. The Studio / Star System contracts cover speech
1.
Morality clauses were a common part of actors9 studio
contracts
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
2. Thus, in 1947, studio employees had still ceded a great
deal of personal freedom in return for personal security (the
studios worked with them to cover up damaging behavior)
ii. The 8 Majors form the MPPDA and Police Themselves
1. All 8 majors were voluntary members of MPPD
(Motion Picture Producers and Distributors
Association)
2. Controlled industry by releasing 76% of American
features per year.
iii. The MPPDA Production Code Administration
1. Studios volunteered amongst themselves to submit scripts
to MPPDA Production Code Administration for approval
before beginning filming
2. Completed films were voluntarily screened for the office,
and altered if necessary, to get a Production Code Seal,
without which no film could be distributed in the US
3. Breaking the code9s restrictions brought a fine of $25,000;
the fine was never levied in the lifetime of the code.
4. The studios voluntarily abided by the Code through its
existence.
iv. Communist Interest in Film as propaganda
1. Lenin: <the cinema is for us the most important instrument
of all the arts.=
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
2. Trotsky: <the most important weapon in this respect, a
weapon excelling any other, is at present the cinema… this
weapon, which cries out to be used, is the best instrument
for propaganda, technical educational, and industrial
propaganda…=
3. Stalin: <Film is the strongest art=
3.
House Un-American Activities Committee 8blacklisting resulted from USSR initiation of the
Cold War
4. 8Hollywood Ten9: In Washington, DC, the HUAC subpoenaed 41 witnesses in an investigation
of alleged communist influence in the Hollywood movie industry.
5. Witnesses included the; unfriendly 8Hollywood 10=, who were charged with contempt of
Congress and jailed for refusing to cooperate with its inquires and answer the question, <are
you
now or ever been a member of the Communist party?=
6. HUAC subpoenaed more to testify, friendly witnesses did do, unfriendly did not and were
blacklisted (banned from work by the studios) number of people finally blacklisted estimates
range from @ 80 to @ 300. Most worked again in movies
7. Broadcasting would initiate blocklist 3 years later with Red Channels, a pamphlet written by a
former FBI agent and a television producer, which names 151 Communists then working in
radio/TV. Those listed either testified before HUAC or were blacklisted.
8. Through this is often called <McCarthyism,= the term is inaccurate:
i. McCarthy was a Senator, not a House member and thus ineligible for HUAC
ii. He investigated the government itself, not movies
lOMoARcPSD|266586 02
iii. He looked for security risks, not communist speech
