America’s Domination of the Film Industry

When Thomas Edison started making movies in the early 20th century using the camera he invented in 1889 the was no theaters. Their number though was over 20,000 by the end of 1920s, which created a lot of jobs in movie industry, construction, painting and distribution. The further growth was impacted by growing importance of radio and advertising. Manufacturing was fostered by the discovery of radio and the creation of broadcasting stations.

The invention of television greatly affected filmmaking in America. Although attendance dropped greatly in movie theatres for a significant time certain elements were employed by the film industry to bring the audience back. Additionally, the Production Code changed during this time as well as the reflection of American culture and social tensions in films.

The birth of film began in 1872, when Leland Stanford bet a friend that a horse lifts all four of its legs off the ground when running. To settle the disagreement, Stanford employed photographer Eadweard Muybridge to take pictures. After settling the debate, Muybridge developed the first primitive cinema that he called “zoöpraxiscope”. The first films lasted only about a minute long, were black and white, and had no entertainment

The Production Code Administration emerged in 1934. It was the organic outgrowth of a backlash to immorality in film perceived since the 1920’s (Gomery & Pafort-Overduin, 2011). As an entertainment medium, film was revolutionary: all of the sudden, vivid snippets of life could reach a mass audience. Not long after motion pictures enthralled the country, producers began to recognize the opportunity to attract larger audiences – and increase profits – by filming stories involving provocative subjects and thus stimulating the people’s sense of wonder (Gomery & Pafort-Overduin, 2011). A natural outgrowth of this trend was the increasingly transgressive nature of motion pictures. In an age characterized by both economic and social progress, a backlash against new ideas

Film History: An Introduction. Third ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2009.

Without the new innovations and ideas of Hollywood in the 1950s, our films would not be the way that they are today. We cannot forget the wonderful magic of Hollywood’s golden age; we must celebrate the influence that they have had on filmmaking. Without the changes in character, morals and the new inventions in film from the 50s, movies would have never been the

Ever since Thomas Edison invented the Kinetiscope in 1894, films have been reaching its way to the heart of American culture. Since the roaring twenties, where the United States began to see the first movie theaters to the 1960’s, where films are officially a source of leisure and escape from reality. Films influenced American culture between the 1920’s through 1960’s by becoming an increasingly popular form of leisure for years to come while causing scandals, riots, and movements about films or about the idea of films in general by displaying issues in society such as racism, forming a need for censorship laws. Films have also provided a fantasy world for their audiences by showing a film about someone in their perfect life using ethical

During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that,

The creation of film first began in 1659 by a Dutch scientist named Christiaan Huygens. Huygens invented the magic lantern, which later became the slide projector. The magic lantern used a hand painted glass that was illuminated by a light source to project images through a lens. Later in 1827 the first photograph was taken, it was a view from a window at the Le Gras and was taken using a technique involving a glass plate invented by Claude Niepce. This technique however was not efficient as it took 8 hours to develop. In 1834 the Zoetrope which was an illusion toy invented by William George Horner in which pictures were put into slots and spun around and when these were viewed through a mirror the images would appear to move. The Zoetrope was later adapted by Eadwaerd Muybridge into the Zoopraxinoscope in 1878 while settling a bet on if a horse’s hooves left the ground

In American history, the 1920’s was a decade thriving in terms of style, social trends and an improving economy. Popular culture during this time period was mainly characterized by the innovation of new technological devices, the arts, and film. Right after World War I came to an end, when the “roaring 20’s” began, cinemas became a huge social and economical success in America during the 1920’s. The cinema turned into a lifestyle for many Americans. American citizens made trips to citizens on a weekly basis. Different theaters were rapidly growing and being built in many towns around the country due to the increasing interest in visiting nice places to watch a film. Cinemas in the early 1920’s showed silent motion films and then gradually later on in the decade ‘talkies’ were released. In the 1920’s the cinema led to an improved economy in America, happier citizens, and the mass media for the cinema created a national culture.

In chapter two of The Cultures of American Film, the main focus is the establishment of studios. As demand for films rose in the early 1900’s, production companies needed to expand; this lead to the creation of large scale studios.

This paper was prepared for Introduction to Film History, Module 1 Homework Assignment, taught by Professor Stephanie Sandifer.

After the golden Age of Hollywood the movie business slowly began to decline. In my last paper I looked at the Paramount decision and the Hollywood blacklist incident which were some of the reasons for the dwindling business. Another great development that changed cinematic history was the invention of the television. In the following essay I will look at the invention of the television, how it affected Hollywood, some of the ways that Hollywood tried to cope, and the changes of the production code during this time.

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,

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.