Hollywood – the Silent Era Feature Films in Deluxe Theaters the Studio System First National – Vertical Integration

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Hollywood – the Silent Era Feature Films in Deluxe Theaters the Studio System First National – Vertical Integration Hollywood – The Silent Era Feature Films in Deluxe Theaters The Studio System First National – Vertical Integration • Created by 26 theater chains, 600 theaters • Thomas Tally • Exhibition • Distribution • Production • Vertical Integration • Burbank Lot United Artists – 1919 the distribution of independent productions • Charlie Chaplin • Mary Pickford • Douglas Fairbanks • D.W. Griffith • Also create Motion Picture Fund Loew’s Inc – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer • Marcus Loew – founder of Loew’s, Inc. • Louis B. Mayer – studio boss • Irving Thalberg – head of production • Nicholas Schenck – President of Loew’s, Inc. Silent Hollywood – The Dream Factory • Paramount • Loew’s (MGM) • Fox • First National • Universal • United Artists Big Pictures, Big Stars • Douglas Fairbanks • Rudolph Valentino • Clara Bow • Greta Garbo • Westerns & Tom Mix • Lon Chaney Silent Comedy – the 1920’s • Charlie Chaplin • Buster Keaton • Harold Lloyd • Mabel Normand • Hal Roach Cecil B. DeMille 1881-1959 • 1914 THE SQUAW MAN • 1915 THE CHEAT • 1920 WHY CHANGE YOUR WIFE • 1923 THE 10 COMMANDMENTS • 1927 KING OF KINGS Erich von Stroheim 1885-1957 • 1922 FOOLISH WIVES • 1924 GREED • 1928 THE WEDDING MARCH • 1929 QUEEN KELLY King Vidor 1894-1982 • 1925 THE BIG PARADE • 1928 THE CROWD • 1929 HALLELUJAH Lois Weber 1879-1939 • 1908 begins at Gaumont with husband, co-star & co- director Phillips Smalley • 100s of shorts & features • 1916 WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN? • 1921 THE BLOT Women writers in 1920s Hollywood • Frances Marion (1888-1973) Highest paid writer in 1920s Hollywood; 2 Academy Awards • June Mathis (1889-1927) Discoverer of Valentino; early Metro Pictures executive • Bess Meredyth (1890-1961) Co-founder of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences; 2 Academy Award nominations • Anita Loos (1889-1981) Early collaborator with DW Griffith & Douglas Fairbanks; GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES .
Recommended publications
  • State Visit of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip (Great Britain) (4)” of the Betty Ford White House Papers, 1973-1977 at the Gerald R
    The original documents are located in Box 51, folder “7/7-10/76 - State Visit of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip (Great Britain) (4)” of the Betty Ford White House Papers, 1973-1977 at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. Copyright Notice The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Betty Ford donated to the United States of America her copyrights in all of her unpublished writings in National Archives collections. Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON Proposed guest list for the dinner to be given by the President and Mrs. Ford in honor of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on Wednesday, July 7, 1976 at eight 0 1 clock, The White House. White tie. The President and Mrs. Ford Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and The Prince Philip Balance of official party - 16 Miss Susan Ford Mr. Jack Ford The Vice President and Mrs. Rockefeller The Secretary of State and Mrs. Kissinger The Secretary of the Treasury and Mrs. Simon The Secretary of Defense and Mrs. Rumsfeld The Chief Justice and Mrs. Burger General and Mrs.
    [Show full text]
  • Citizen Kane
    A N I L L U M I N E D I L L U S I O N S E S S A Y B Y I A N C . B L O O M CC II TT II ZZ EE NN KK AA NN EE Directed by Orson Welles Produced by Orson Welles Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures Released in 1941 n any year, the film that wins the Academy Award for Best Picture reflects the Academy ' s I preferences for that year. Even if its members look back and suffer anxious regret at their choice of How Green Was My Valley , that doesn ' t mean they were wrong. They can ' t be wrong . It ' s not everyone else ' s opinion that matters, but the Academy ' s. Mulling over the movies of 1941, the Acade my rejected Citizen Kane . Perhaps they resented Orson Welles ' s arrogant ways and unprecedented creative power. Maybe they thought the film too experimental. Maybe the vote was split between Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon , both pioneering in their F ilm Noir flavor. Or they may not have seen the film at all since it was granted such limited release as a result of newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst ' s threats to RKO. Nobody knows, and it doesn ' t matter. Academy members can ' t be forced to vote for the film they like best. Their biases and political calculations can ' t be dissected. To subject the Academy to such scrutiny would be impossible and unfair. It ' s the Academy ' s awards, not ours.
    [Show full text]
  • Summer Classic Film Series, Now in Its 43Rd Year
    Austin has changed a lot over the past decade, but one tradition you can always count on is the Paramount Summer Classic Film Series, now in its 43rd year. We are presenting more than 110 films this summer, so look forward to more well-preserved film prints and dazzling digital restorations, romance and laughs and thrills and more. Escape the unbearable heat (another Austin tradition that isn’t going anywhere) and join us for a three-month-long celebration of the movies! Films screening at SUMMER CLASSIC FILM SERIES the Paramount will be marked with a , while films screening at Stateside will be marked with an . Presented by: A Weekend to Remember – Thurs, May 24 – Sun, May 27 We’re DEFINITELY Not in Kansas Anymore – Sun, June 3 We get the summer started with a weekend of characters and performers you’ll never forget These characters are stepping very far outside their comfort zones OPENING NIGHT FILM! Peter Sellers turns in not one but three incomparably Back to the Future 50TH ANNIVERSARY! hilarious performances, and director Stanley Kubrick Casablanca delivers pitch-dark comedy in this riotous satire of (1985, 116min/color, 35mm) Michael J. Fox, Planet of the Apes (1942, 102min/b&w, 35mm) Humphrey Bogart, Cold War paranoia that suggests we shouldn’t be as Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, and Crispin (1968, 112min/color, 35mm) Charlton Heston, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad worried about the bomb as we are about the inept Glover . Directed by Robert Zemeckis . Time travel- Roddy McDowell, and Kim Hunter. Directed by Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre.
    [Show full text]
  • Master Syllabi
    PELLISSIPPI STATE TECHNICAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE MASTER SYLLABUS INTRODUCTION TO FILM STUDIES HUM 2810 Class Hours: 3.0 Credit Hours: 3.0 Laboratory Hours: 0.0 Date Revised: Spring 03 Catalog Course Description: An overview of film history using selected world cinema feature films. Basic elements of film expression for understanding and analyzing narrative cinema. Some research is required. Entry Level Standards: Students must be able to read and write at the college level. Prerequisites: None Corequisites: None Textbook(s) and Other Reference Materials Basic to the Course: Text: Understanding Movies Films: in Media Center I. Week/Unit/Topic Basis: Week Topic 1 Note: Different film genres may be studied each semester. The following schedule outlines the classic mystery film genre. Introduction to course and syllabus - Best 100 films- Why study film? Various approaches to film study - Detective/mystery/crime genre in films; Technological factors behind film - Lumiere films (1895) - Melies film (1905); Homework: Read Understanding Movies, pages xi-17 Discuss Film Classification and Shots; Discuss factors in "Formalist Analysis of Classic Film Style "(handout); Screening: Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912, D.W. Griffith) 18 min.; Homework: Read pages 133-154, "Editing" 2 Discuss Continuity and Cutting; "Hollywood Behind the Badge" (police, crime, mystery genre films); Schedule a research paper; Homework: Read 112-123, "The Moving Camera" Oral research report (D.W. Griffith, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chapman); Discuss 7 Moving Camera Shots, etc.; Screening:
    [Show full text]
  • HOLLYWOOD – the Big Five Production Distribution Exhibition
    HOLLYWOOD – The Big Five Production Distribution Exhibition Paramount MGM 20th Century – Fox Warner Bros RKO Hollywood Oligopoly • Big 5 control first run theaters • Theater chains regional • Theaters required 100+ films/year • Big 5 share films to fill screens • Little 3 supply “B” films Hollywood Major • Producer Distributor Exhibitor • Distribution & Exhibition New York based • New York HQ determines budget, type & quantity of films Hollywood Studio • Hollywood production lots, backlots & ranches • Studio Boss • Head of Production • Story Dept Hollywood Star • Star System • Long Term Option Contract • Publicity Dept Paramount • Adolph Zukor • 1912- Famous Players • 1914- Hodkinson & Paramount • 1916– FP & Paramount merge • Producer Jesse Lasky • Director Cecil B. DeMille • Pickford, Fairbanks, Valentino • 1933- Receivership • 1936-1964 Pres.Barney Balaban • Studio Boss Y. Frank Freeman • 1966- Gulf & Western Paramount Theaters • Chicago, mid West • South • New England • Canada • Paramount Studios: Hollywood Paramount Directors Ernst Lubitsch 1892-1947 • 1926 So This Is Paris (WB) • 1929 The Love Parade • 1932 One Hour With You • 1932 Trouble in Paradise • 1933 Design for Living • 1939 Ninotchka (MGM) • 1940 The Shop Around the Corner (MGM Cecil B. DeMille 1881-1959 • 1914 THE SQUAW MAN • 1915 THE CHEAT • 1920 WHY CHANGE YOUR WIFE • 1923 THE 10 COMMANDMENTS • 1927 KING OF KINGS • 1934 CLEOPATRA • 1949 SAMSON & DELILAH • 1952 THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH • 1955 THE 10 COMMANDMENTS Paramount Directors Josef von Sternberg 1894-1969 • 1927
    [Show full text]
  • Call Dam Bids on December 10, Is Plan
    LEADING A lAVE ADVERTISING NEWSPAPER IN A MEDIUM Coulee City Dispatch PROGREBSIVE OWHR VOLUME XXVI—NUMBER 16 COULEE CITY, GRANT COUNTY, WASHINGTON, THURSDAY, PCT. 21, 1937 SUBSCRIPTION $1.50 PER YEAR Call Dam Bids on December 10, Is Plan Huge Oil Fraud Charged as At the Russian Polar Base Tentative Date Grand Jury Indicts Eleven Set by Page former and sal- Eleven officers CARD [PARTY SATURDAY ' December 10 was tentatively esmen for the Peoples Gas and set today for opening of bids for Ofl comipany and associated ‘com- for the card The date Rebekah completion of Grand Coulee dam. paniesz were indicted by a federal party changed from Fri- has been - The bids will be opened ip the district court grand jury at Taco- day until Saturday night, it was assembly hall of the Chamber of ma Yyesterday for mail fraud, vio- announced today. The change was Commerce. lation of the federal securities act that made when it was learned Announcment lof the bid opening and congpiracy. was Sat- no dance scheduled for was made in Washington, D, C, to- The complaint involved business urday night to the conflict with day by John C. Page, federal of the Peoples Gas and Oil com- com- affair. missioner (of reclamation. pany, by which it clgijmed the Prizes will be awarded winners was * “A lot depends on when we, com- de’endants have .collected more and a supper served following the plete the specifications,” Page than $1,881,000 from Washington pinochle session. ’Mir. recidents. said, ‘“The contractors should have at least six weeks to look them Denfendants Named ROAD JOBS AWARDED f over and make their estimates Joseph F.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of Religion & Society
    Journal of Religion & Society Volume 6 (2004) ISSN 1522-5658 David, Mickey Mouse, and the Evolution of an Icon1 Lowell K. Handy, American Theological Library Association Abstract The transformation of an entertaining roguish figure to an institutional icon is investigated with respect to the figures of Mickey Mouse and the biblical King David. Using the three-stage evolution proposed by R. Brockway, the figures of Mickey and David are shown to pass through an initial entertaining phase, a period of model behavior, and a stage as icon. The biblical context for these shifts is basically irretrievable so the extensive materials available for changes in the Mouse provide sufficient information on personnel and social forces to both illuminate our lack of understanding for changes in David while providing some comparative material for similar development. Introduction [1] One can perceive a progression in the development of the figure of David from the rather unsavory character one encounters in the Samuel narratives, through the religious, righteous king of Chronicles, to the messianic abstraction of the Jewish and Christian traditions.2 The movement is a shift from “trickster,” to “Bourgeoisie do-gooder,” to “corporate image” proposed for the evolution of Mickey Mouse by Robert Brockway.3 There are, in fact, several interesting parallels between the portrayals of Mickey Mouse and David, but simply a look at the context that produced the changes in each character may help to understand the visions of David in three surviving biblical textual traditions in light of the adaptability of the Mouse for which there is a great deal more contextual data to investigate.
    [Show full text]
  • HERMIT International Art Symposium GROWTHRINGS
    HERMIT international art symposium GROWTHRINGS time-place-rhythm-light-matter-energy from baroque till present LETOKRUHY cas-misto-rytmus-zvuk-svetlo-hmota-energie v promenach casu od baroka k dnesku under auspicies of Czech Ministery of Culture poradano s podporou Ministerstva Kultury Ceske Republiky PLASY 1th JUNE - 30th 1993 Bohe is The Monastery in Plasy The theme of the second international symposium-meeting-exposition and work- shop in the ancient cistercian monastery in Plasy (West Bohemia) will be the stintu- iation of interrelations between the seeing and heating, between the past and the present, between cctttrunt and province, high and low, matter and energy, relation between people and their cultural and natural environtent. 44 artists, musicians and intermedia artists from Czecho-Slowakia, Netherland, Belgium, USA, Australia, Germany and Great Britain took part in the first symposium HERMIT 92. The installations, sound sculptures, performances were mostly realised directly in the complex of this former monastery founded in 114?. Especially ill the huge building of the baroque convent rebuilt by the famous architect Jail Blazcj Santini-Aichl in the 18th century. The second location was the space of the early baroque granary. The building of the convent contains many different spaces - from dark my- sterious subleractian cellars with underground watcrsystcttts to light chapels and huge corridors . The ideal sonic conditions of the interiors were used for many sound insta llatious and music performances. The interiors of the granary with it's early gothic King's chapel are considered by artists as outstanding exhibition space for con- temporary art. In the four floors of this unique monumental building with old tower- clock are four big cellars and four large rooms with original wooden construction from 17th century.
    [Show full text]
  • Recommended Films: a Preparation for a Level Film Studies
    Preparation for A-Level Film Studies: First and foremost a knowledge of film is needed for this course, often in lessons, teachers will reference films other than the ones being studied. Ideally you should be watching films regularly, not just the big mainstream films, but also a range of films both old and new. We have put together a list of highly useful films to have watched. We recommend you begin watching some these, as and where you can. There are also a great many online lists of ‘greatest films of all time’, which are worth looking through. Citizen Kane: Orson Welles 1941 Arguably the greatest film ever made and often features at the top of film critic and film historian lists. Welles is also regarded as one the greatest filmmakers and in this film: he directed, wrote and starred. It pioneered numerous film making techniques and is oft parodied, it is one of the best. It’s a Wonderful Life: Frank Capra, 1946 One of my personal favourite films and one I watch every Christmas. It’s a Wonderful Life is another film which often appears high on lists of greatest films, it is a genuinely happy and uplifting film without being too sweet. James Stewart is one of the best actors of his generation and this is one of his strongest performances. Casablanca: Michael Curtiz, 1942 This is a masterclass in storytelling, staring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. It probably has some of the most memorable lines of dialogue for its time including, ‘here’s looking at you’ and ‘of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine’.
    [Show full text]
  • The Survival of American Silent Feature Films: 1912–1929 by David Pierce September 2013
    The Survival of American Silent Feature Films: 1912–1929 by David Pierce September 2013 COUNCIL ON LIBRARY AND INFORMATION RESOURCES AND THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS The Survival of American Silent Feature Films: 1912–1929 by David Pierce September 2013 Mr. Pierce has also created a da tabase of location information on the archival film holdings identified in the course of his research. See www.loc.gov/film. Commissioned for and sponsored by the National Film Preservation Board Council on Library and Information Resources and The Library of Congress Washington, D.C. The National Film Preservation Board The National Film Preservation Board was established at the Library of Congress by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, and most recently reauthorized by the U.S. Congress in 2008. Among the provisions of the law is a mandate to “undertake studies and investigations of film preservation activities as needed, including the efficacy of new technologies, and recommend solutions to- im prove these practices.” More information about the National Film Preservation Board can be found at http://www.loc.gov/film/. ISBN 978-1-932326-39-0 CLIR Publication No. 158 Copublished by: Council on Library and Information Resources The Library of Congress 1707 L Street NW, Suite 650 and 101 Independence Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20036 Washington, DC 20540 Web site at http://www.clir.org Web site at http://www.loc.gov Additional copies are available for $30 each. Orders may be placed through CLIR’s Web site. This publication is also available online at no charge at http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub158.
    [Show full text]
  • Mayjune 2005 Social Ed.Indd
    Social Education 69(4), pp. 189-192 © 2005 National Council for the Social Studies Reel to Real: Teaching the Twentieth Century with Classic Hollywood Films Karl A. Matz and Lori L. Pingatore Making students’ learning cal artifacts, virtually primary source docu- works to support all three. At work, Bow experiences as direct and real as possible ments, that are very easy to obtain and yet has caught the eye of a wealthy young man, has always been challenging for educators. are too rarely used. Here, we hope to give a friend of the store owner’s son. In this Ancient wars and forgotten statesmen teachers a sense of which films are most brief beginning to a feature length film, often hold little excitement for students. appropriate and to provide a workable viewers see three important locations as Innovative teachers often use artifacts and method for guiding students to critically they were in the late 1920s. We see the primary source documents to transform a examine these historical artifacts. downtown department store, so different vicarious learning experience to a much from the suburban malls we know today. more direct one. Lee Ann Potter observes Celluloid Anthropology We see the humble apartment, the decora- that primary source documents “allow us, Students can study films in a manner simi- tions, and the absence of technology. And, quite literally, to touch and connect with lar to the way an anthropologist studies a finally, we see the restaurant. the past.”1 culture. If we were to study the culture of While watching this film, as any Films, like artifacts and photographs, a community in the Brazilian rainforest, other movie of a different era, viewers can also bring students closer to the people we would observe social rules, modes of can observe manners and behaviors, note and events that they are studying.
    [Show full text]
  • Two-Color Technicolor, the Black Pirate, and Blackened Dyes in 1923
    Two-Color Technicolor, The Black Pirate, and Blackened Dyes In 1923 Cecil B. DeMille had complained that “color movies diverted interest from narrative and action, offended the color sensitivities of many, and cost too much.”1 For DeMille, color—even “natural” color processes like Technicolor—was a veil that concealed the all-important expressions on an actor’s face. Yet DeMille was attracted to color and repeatedly employed it in his films of the 1920s, combining tinting and toning with footage either in Technicolor or in the Handshiegl process. Douglas Fairbanks voiced a similar objection to color, likening its use to putting “rouge on the lips of Venus de Milo.”2 Fairbanks argued that color took “the mind of the spectator away from the picture itself, making him conscious of the mechanics—the artificiality—of the whole thing, so that he no longer lived in the story with the characters.”3 At the same time, color motion pictures were said, by their critics, to cause retinal fatigue.4 Fairbanks had once written that color “would tire and distract the eye,” serving more as a distraction than an attraction.5 Indeed, a few years later, before deciding to make The Black Pirate (1926) in two-color Technicolor, Fairbanks hired two USC professors, Drs. A. Ray Irvine and M. F. Weyman, to conduct a series of tests to ascertain the relative amount of eye fatigue (as well as nausea and headaches) generated by viewing black and white vs. color films. Fatigue was calculated in terms of the decline in the viewer’s visual acuity as a result of these screenings.
    [Show full text]