Analysis Of The Movie ' 1920 ' American Film '

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.

The film industry operates in a continuous cycle, searching for the newest and best pieces to make their movies creative, interesting, and marketable. Historically, the film industry attempts to follow a set structure in an attempt towards success in such a volatile market, however, this approach creates a system much like that of Ford’s Model-T production line, invented in the 1910s, which involved each worker on the line doing a single job. Only a few years later, during the 1920s and 1940s, the film industry showed that they adopted a similar approach to their industry, with each person—actor, director, producer, writer, etc.—performing a distinct role. In the late 1920s, as Hollywood transitioned from silent films to “talkies”, actors and actresses were met with the challenge of adapting to a new role and many of them no longer fit the role required by the growing Hollywood machine. The film Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950) explores and critiques the landscape of the hierarchy and harsh realities of Hollywood. In the same vein as many films of the film noir style, the mood of pessimism and fatalism reflected in the form parallels the reality of many people in Hollywood during the 1900s.

named after their cost and the Greek word for theater, soon spread across the country. These storefront theaters remained the prime outlet for movies among the lower and middle class. The upper class began to flock to more modern theaters called Picture Palaces. Picture Palaces reached their peaks in the 1920’s and died out when the Great Depression hit in the 1930’s. These theaters were much larger than most theaters today and offered a wide range of features such as, extravagant lobbies, neatly dressed ushers, and live music. During

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.

The 1920s became known as an era memorable for being a time when new products, new ways of marketing and advertising, and standardization gave the country new ways to interact, enjoy themselves, and introduce them to new products. Although very common today, standardization of mass culture like magazines, radio, movies, music, and sports were exciting new innovations to the people of this time. Not only did they distract from the monotony and stresses of work but they created celebrities that people aspired to be like.

This further demonstrates how the affluence of that period enabled people to support this industry and help its enormous growth. It was during the roaring 20s that the first real celebrities began to appear, with the ever-increasing role of cinema having a huge role to play. Similarly their fame contributed to the growing status of Hollywood and the American film industry. (Source J). Charlie Chaplin is one example of an actor that gained worldwide recognition in the twenties; he was particularly famous for his ‘highly visual style of acting’ (Soucre J). The 1920s was often referred to as “The Golden Age of Hollywood” (Source G) emphasizing how this period represents the era of greatest output in the United States movie market [an average of 800 films were produced annually]. ‘The cinema came of age in the 1920s and Hollywood confirmed its position as the “dream factory” of the English- speaking world. It was there that fame and fortune could be found.’ (Source J) This also highlights the growing image of Hollywood ‘throughout the roaring 20s, which started to represent wealth and achievement. ‘The establishment of the Academy Awards showed the maturing cinema as an industry confident of its own technical and artistic standards.’ (Source J) This further shows how there were many other expansions and transformations from this industry that occurred during this period. Artists, directors and other personalities of the film making industry received acknowledgement and recognition of their work in this industry. ‘The awards soon acquired international status’ (Source J) showing how Hollywood’s film industry developed into a global sensation that was supported by people all over

The Roaring Twenties was a time of change and innovation with the rise in new technology. Even though electricity was available to Americans before the 1920s only a small percentage of American household had electricity. By the height of the Roaring Twenties about two thirds of American households had electricity. With the rise of electricity came the popular household items such as the electric vacuum cleaner and the automatic washing machine. As the twenties proceeded the automobile because extremely popular. The young generation used the automobile to escape from the watchful eye of the older generations. Often, the automobile was used for scandalous meetings between lovers. Another innovation of the Roaring Twenties is film. Film became one of the main sources of entertainment for Americans during the 1920s. “By the mid-1920s movie theatres were selling 50 million tickets each week, a sum equal to roughly half the US population” (Zeitz). The movies theatre not only served as a source of entertainment, but the theaters also served as a classroom for the young generation. The young adults learned about love and sex is scandalous movies such as Flaming Youth. Movie theatres also served as a source of news and a place for propaganda and advertisements. Radio also experienced a vast expansion during the 1920s. Radio sparked a radical change the country’s awareness. News such as election results could be broadcasted live across the nation so that citizens could be more aware of what was going on in the country. Radio also provided a source of entertainment by broadcasting sporting events like the World Series. Radio contributed to liberalism by broadcasting “‘race music’, ‘hillbilly’ sounds, and ethnic recordings” into

The censorship conflicts in the 1900s were extremely intriguing and intense. Around the end of the 1920s, individuals possessed immense moral shifts powered by religious groups during the Great Depression, which resulted in decisions that created a new revolution that dealt particularly with the regulation of content of films. Consequently, in 1934, at the same time that the “Golden Age of Hollywood” began, the Hollywood Production code was formally implemented. The film

The 1920s was a time of great economic success. It was a time of many new things including the introduction of the car as well as the movie, or motion picture. The 1920s saw the use of a car for the average person, not just the rich and famous. They also saw the launch of the movie industry as well as Hollywood. In the 1920s there were many great inventors and businessmen, including Henry Ford, owner of Ford Motorsports, and D.W. Griffith, the first producer and director. These will be the two people that will be discussed in this paper.

Within the 1920’s there was a vast expansion of several businesses. At the time, several new industries had begun to expand including several with ties to technology. Food processing and household appliances were among several types of businesses that began to mass produce due to the precedent Henry Ford had set forth, this being the idea of a moving assembly line. Additionally, automobiles was a large “backbone” for the massive economic growth America was experiencing at the time. In fact, many factories began to produce automobiles rather that the original textiles. Overseas investment was also very popular within America, allowing the United States dollar to surpass it’s British “pound” counterpart. Along with this large uprising of businesses, in America, came the overall evolution of technology. Typical American houses were completely transformed, allowing the dissolution of domestic servants. Furthermore, the large boost in technology basically created what we know now as everyday Hollywood.

by 1929 were twenty five 000 cinemas and a median of one hundred million americans visited the films on a weekly basis. the climate and placement of hollywood

During the 1920s, numerous companies grew larger and created many new jobs. For most Americans, their wages increased which lead to more people having enough finances to buy new products and services. Many changes were occurring during this time frame, and the 1920s is also known as the “Roaring Twenties”. This period brought up feelings of patriotism to mostly young Americans. After the world war, young soldiers would return home with new ideas after gaining a new perspective of the world. An example of someone who caused changes during this time was famous motion picture star, Rudolph Valentino. With this in mind, Valentino was played an important role in the 1920s, because of setting trends, helping build the entertainment industry, and his death.

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,