American Cinema And Its Effect On The Middle Class

In the early 1900’s, as films stated centering their focus on profit, large scale studios came onto the film scene. The studios that were discussed in the chapter were: Universal, United Artists, Paramount, Warner Bros, MGM, Fox, Columbia, and RKO. These studios employed some of the biggest names in the film world at the time. Many of these studios are still in business today, and have given prominent actors and directors their shot at fame. Universal was the first studio to move to the west coast. They produced popular films such as The

Vaudeville was a theatrical paradigm in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance consisted of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts included popular and classical musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, female

In cinema’s early days, the film industry was based in New York, the nation’s theatrical center. Most movies were being filmed in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and Florida. However, by the 1920’s, southern California had become the leading film capital due to its cheap land and labor. Films gained their popularity after Vaudeville actors striked in 1901. This left theaters scrambling for acts and films became the main event. Silent films were widely popular in the early 1920’s and were usually accompanied by live piano or organ music. Talking-pictures were first introduced in 1923, but did not become popular until 1927.

The 1970s is known for being the decade for changing the American values and culture and Hollywood played a major part in this change. It all began with president Nixon being elected in 1969. He ordered bombing in the neutral Cambodia, which he though would help end Vietnam war, but it did not. The 1970s were a very turbulent time due to the tragedy of Vietnam and the trauma caused by the Watergate Scandal. Due to this, People were losing faith in the government and many riots occurred during this time. While the People went through many changes in the 1970s, the Hollywood industry also went through many changes during this time.

The 19th century was a mark of new things to come about in different countries, these new things were music, theater, and other forms of entertainment. Because of the many wars fought during this time there was much depression and people needed a relief. We all know theater has been around for many decades, but it really started to scatter during this time, people needed entertainment and something to look forward to. Of course, music halls and minstrel shows were present but there was nothing that contained both of the features that these theaters had, and then came about vaudeville. Vaudeville highlighted many famous people’s careers and even helped started many of these stars’ careers. It grew as years progressed and became a loved entertainment for many years to come. Vaudevilles’ creation was the start of our current forms of entertainment and is the heart of the American entertainment industry in the 19th century.

The Golden Age of Hollywood was a time when Hollywood hit its peak successfully and economically, starting with the late 1920s, and met its decline due to corruption in the late 1950s. One would ask the question: “Where did the name Hollywood come from?” The name came from Harvey Henderson Wilcox and his wife, Daeida, who were owners of a small ranch west of Los Angeles. According to u-s-history.com, “Daeida, who, while on a train trip east met a woman that described her country home in Ohio, that had been named for the Dutch settlement of Hollywood. Liking the name, Daeida christened their ranch 'Hollywood,' upon her return.” (History of Hollywood, California) Movies during this time period became a vital form of entertainment for all Americans during this time period. By the 1910s, Hollywood was combined into its neighboring city Los Angeles, and many motion-picture studios began to open. Moviemakers rushed to Hollywood, and competition started to become widespread between directors and producers. By 1910, the first motion picture was made in Hollywood, titled In Old California, and soon enough, Los Angeles became second to New York in producing films also because of it’s quintessential weather for movies to be made in all year long during this time. As Hollywood began to industrialize, filmmakers began to work on the image of a “star”; they would continuously use these highly-paid actors in order to achieve a form of comfort for the general audience of the movies. Seeing

Movies were becoming one of the biggest businesses during the 1920s and most people would spend their leisure time going to the theatre to watch the silent films. They were becoming huge in the popular culture and Hollywood was the place to be. Roughly by 1922, 40 million people a year in attendance over the entire country for the movie theatres and in 1930 over 100 million people would attend the movies every year. By 1927, the movie industry became the fourth largest industry in the country. “The Great Train Robbery” which was released in 1903 was the beginning of the film industry and would eventually change everything. “Jazz Singer” was the first movie that had synchronized sounds throughout the entire film. The popular genres during this decade were western,

The 1920's also saw the growth of the motion picture industry. It was highly influential and helped shape popular culture by promoting the diffusion of common values and attitudes nationwide. Soon movie studios began building elaborate movie palaces in cities, and by 1930, the movie attendance grew to about 115 million. Movies performed many purposes. It created national trends in clothing and hairstyles and even served as a form of sex education.

Theaters were being converted to movie houses. This was a move to attract more middle class customers as well as charge more money given that customers received a mixture of motion picture and vaudeville. According to Allen, “the use of vaudeville on movie theatre programs was spurred by a shortage of new films,” (11). Going back to charging more money, the vaudeville acts had some problems such as additional salaries which had to be paid. Ticket sales would decline as vaudeville acts stretched out as each show was shown. Singer raised an interesting question on how unpredictable was the nickelodeon business. He used the trade journal Moving Picture World as a source to note the nickelodeon failures in Manhattan. “Too many people imagine that all they need is money…men who win out on the policy are few,” (27). Many entrepreneurs jumped in unprepared for the business by selecting poor locations where the target audience was not going to respond well to. While many people tried to get into the business, many nickelodeons were

Thomas Lincoln Tally, proprietor of arcades and phonograph parlors, opened his Electric Theatre in Los Angeles during the spring of 1902. The actual date of the theater’s opening varies among sources, the most often cited being April 2nd, 6th, and 16th. Before Tally’s Electric Theatre, motion pictures were often exhibited in existing storefronts or vaudeville theaters. Tally’s was the first building constructed for the sole purpose of showing movies. The theater was open from 7:30 pm to 10:30 pm in the beginning, but Tally added matinee showtimes to accommodate its many customers. Screenings were often sold out, no matter the time or day. Tally’s initial success spurred on the wave of construction of more movie theaters, about 3,000 in the U.S. by 1907 and 10,000 by 1910. It is also worth noting that Tally’s Electric Theatre was not a nickelodeon. Though the term is sometimes used loosely today, by definition it only applies to movie theaters that charged five cents (a nickel) for admission. Tally’s charged ten cents as mentioned in an early advertisement:

There were many physical changes that took place with the theatres and the productions. Depression hit New York pretty hard, 1.6 million out of 7 million people were in some sort of welfare programs, as well as one third of the city’s factories were forced to be shutdown. Theatres were either closed down or were tuned into movie houses. Production output slowed down, before the depression there were 264 productions between 1927-28 and then during the depression, (1930-31) there was only 187 productions, because it was difficult to fundraise money. It was also very difficult to get a job in a theatrical field during the recession, there were about five thousand people that were jobless.

In 1927 new technology emerged in sound, people started going back to the theatres to watch films,

The modern film industry was born around the beginning of the twentieth century. On April 23rd 1896 Thomas Edition showed the first publicly-projected motion picture at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City. From there the film industry had an explosive growth rate. In fact,

Back in the 1920s people had receive news and entertainment through the radio, which then in turn out-shined newspapers and magazines. Now day’s social media sites have become the most popular form to get the news and information. The biggest tool in the media that generates revenue by the millions every day, is advertising. The media has its way of showing us constructive information when it comes to news channels, travel and other educational shows. Kids benefit from watching these, since it can boost self-esteem, heighten interest levels in a particular subject, or encourage them to ask relevant questions.

During the mid to late years of the 19th century, a new form of entertainment emerged. Film entered the stage of innovation. New marketing and technological innovations developed for film to become the art it is today. In the 1830s, Joseph Plateau designed the Phenakistoscope. This device had a picture in the middle of a wheel made with mirrors and small openings. When spun, the Phenakistoscope made the picture appear to move. The name changed to Zoetrope in the 1860s and producers advertised the product as an accessory every home needed (Dixon & Foster, 2008). Later inventions that preceded the first motion picture camera include: Henry Du Mont’s Omiscope, Henry R. Heyl’s Phasmatrope, Eadweard Muybridge’s Zoöpraxiscope, Etienne-Jules Marey’s fusil photographique and Eastman Kodak’s chronophotographs (Parkinson, 1997). With a design by Thomas Edison, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson built the first modern movie camera, the Kinetograph, in 1890 (Dixon & Foster, 2008). In 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumiére patented the Cinématographe, a machine that combined the engineering of a camera and a projector (Bergan, 2006). Businessmen capitalized on the growing need for a place to witness these brand new films, thus they charged people to see them in their living rooms (Potter, 2014). These creations made movie-making a reality.