Hollywood In The 1950's

The 1950’s opened up great opportunities for people everywhere. People found more influence in TV and radio than their teachers or parents. Blacks were finally given more respect and rights. A new way of technology was born, and a new life began.

Liberal arts have been present in human history for many decades dating back as early as the seventeenth century. Theater performances such as opera and plays were the beginning of a much larger influence in the later centuries to come. Starting with the performances written by Shakespeare to the first motion capture film in the 1800’s, these methods have evolved into modern movie outlets such as streaming services and sit-in theaters. Film and performance arts have evolved greatly since their era of creation and have been modernized to fit the society in that period. The rise of Hollywood in the early 1920’s is what began the massive influence of movies in pop culture. It has evolved into being able to instantly have hundreds of movies at the tips of your fingers. Movies have a major impact on how society perceives the world and can influence pop culture, but throughout many decades it had evolved into dominating the digital age.

about. The 1940’s and 1950’s marked the era in which television really began to take hold in the

The advent of television also caused a great impact in the American society that brought huge changes in the economy. American families during the 1950s started to replace radios, newspapers, and magazines as the leading media entertainment with televisions. They became common for families to unite and watch TV shows at noon. “Television as a product itself influenced the economy, creating what quickly became an essential household item. By 1957, over 40 million TVs were in American households”. Fundamentally, television altered how Americans utilize their free time, but economically there was even a major impact. Businesses around the country started to use the TV for advertising and marketing to sell their products easier. TV commercials

The 1950s is considered to be the model decade of America. Families were close, children respected their elders, workers worked hard to provide for their families who grew up in nice neighborhoods, and the economy was booming. The forced conformity, neglect of the poor, and segregation are often overlooked when talking about the decade as they were during the time period. The 1950s were a prodigious time period for family life but not for the individual or societal ethics.

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

World War I, The Great Depression, and World War II brought instability to the United States. As World War II came to an end in 1945 people were looking for stability, which is what the 1950’s resulted in. The 1950’s was a decade of conformity in all aspects of life; politics, economy, and culture.

McCarthyism occurred along side with the increase of the popular fear of communist espionage consequent.

One thing that movie entertainment fulfilled was attracting people to the big screen. For example, I can introduce this quote: “In just eight years, from 1922 to 1930, weekly U.S. movie attendance soared from about forty percent to over ninety percent of the population” (americainclass). This shows how in just eight years movie popularity spiked, where as about 40 million Americans went to motion picture theatres on a weekly basis. As the brink of silent films came to society and the evolution of the industry had risen, going to the movie theatre became a weekly event. This transition in entertainment, from stand-up comedy/plays to movies, was remarkable. The huge trend and liking for going to the movies impacted America in the way it had reshaped entertainment. Movie companies like Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros made a lot of money and success. The industry became very rich. Going to the movie theatre in the 20s was classy, fashionable, and it became a

During the 1950’s, 1960’s, and 1970’s various aspects of the United States society changed tremendously. These three decades were times of extreme evolvement amongst culture in an unusual brisk manner. Nowadays it is easy to forget that current people involved in our life actually were witness to these revolutionary events.

The change tearing through America in the 1950’s persists to this day. 2010 has brought a busier, more materialistic, culture than ever before. The trends of women working outside of the home and increasing teenage autonomy persists. American teenagers are given more discretionary time than ever before in history. Reed Larson studied this continuing trend and explains, “If we look back over the past 200 years, the most striking historic change in young people’s use of time is that youths spend much less time on labor activities today than they did in America’s agrarian past” (160). Some teenagers use

This just made the fear of communism even larger and allowed McCarthy to manipulate the populace

The decade of the 1950s represents an era where life was balanced, simple, and innocent. A time in the American history where a high school education promised a comfortable living and where family values were presented to audiences through television shows. In the article, Coontz argues that the simplicity and innocence that the people who lived in this time period enjoyed came at a high price. Coontz claims that generally those who felt that the 1950s was the "best time for children to grow up" would show their dislike for the treatment of women. They also would add that they would not particularly enjoy living with the most "of the fathers they knew in their neighborhoods." She also points out the economic and social reasons why the 1950s is so appealing to quite a lot of people. There were lower divorce rates, federal economic expansion programs, corporate tax programs, and

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,

It can also be seen as a downfall as seen in the 1950s. Communism was beginning to become a threat for the United States, as coined ‘The Red Scare’. Wisconsin Senator, Joseph McCarthy, established The House Un-American Activities Committee to get rid of any existence of Communism within the United States. The committee heavily focused on Hollywood during this time. Since the film industry was a big part of the pop culture it was widely publicized within every home. An effort to get rid of anyone who had ties or an involvement with communism due to their beliefs in poltics was put on the blacklist. The list included: Alvah Bessie (screenwriter), Herbert Biberman (screenwriter and director), Lester Cole (screenwriter), Edward Dmytryk (director), Ring Lardner, Jr. (journalist and screenwriter), John Howard Lawson (writer), Albert Maltz (author and screenwriter), Samuel Ornitz (screenwriter), Adrian Scott (screenwriter and film producer) and Dalton Trumbo (screenwriter and novelist). The films of the 1960s were no longer considered part of Hollywood as more and more films were shot on location in different countries as well as far off studio facilities. The 60s also saw the rise of foreign language films, paranoia films of the Cold War, and direct cinema, a type of documentary. The 1980s were all about the creation of the sequels and prequels. This can be seen with the Indiana Jones Series