The Film Industry During The 1930's

Before the depression, there was a limited concept of social class which allowed the rich and poor to enjoy many of the same luxuries. Hollywood began to produce more films when the demand of movies and live performances began to rise. As the depression was beginning to take its toll on American citizens, the people wanted an escape from their reality so the movies had an important role with Americans. As the movie industry grew, the venues had to accommodate the massive increase of people attending the shows and they were primarily placed in larger cities (Khan Academy). The prices of a movie ticket were very low which meant that anybody who was rich or poor, old, or young could attend these showings. The affordability of the tickets allowed people to escape their issues and enjoy simple

Musicals were powerful films where singing and dancing were a substantial part of the film. In the 1930’s silent films were coming to an end although some silent film stars such as Vilmy Banky, John Gilbert, and Norma Talmadge remained silent. The 1930’s also was looked at as the decade of sound and color,the advance of the Talkies and development of other film genres such as gangster films, newspaper-reporting films, musicals, historical biopics, westerns, horror, and comedies are just a few of how many we have today. By 1933, the financial effects of the Depression affected the amount of people attending movie

While the actual films produced during the silent era of American film production and distribution are frequently discussed and analyzed, both as primary historical documents and important cultural contributions, the actual practice of exhibiting and viewing those films gets somewhat less attention. Prior to 1927 (the year when sound films first emerged onto the national stage), movie exhibition in the United States was still growing into the massive industry it represents today, and it reflected in the films being produced. By examining the history of film exhibition prior to 1927 in general, and the experiences of Denver and New York in particular, it will be possible to understand how the medium's nearly thirty-year existence prior to sound was characterized by a chaotic, open-ended exhibition system that nevertheless predicts the gradual takeover of exhibition by a few large chains.

The winds came and blew more than fifty miles an hour from 1936 to 1940. Dust

With America still trying to battle it’s economic crisis of the Great Depression, Germany ravished by the loss of WWI, and Italy and Japan wanting to expand their world power, the 1930’s was a hectic time in world politics. As America watched Europe toil with the start of the war, many things lead to the onset of America joining in the fight against the Axis powers in WWII. From Japan invading China and Germany’s fascist dictator, Adolf Hitler spreading communism throughout Europe, America was pressured to take action. America began to mobilize the war effort after invasions by the Axis powers began to escalate. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 drew the final straw. This ultimately lead to the Allies being victorious

The Great Depression had a profound effect on the generation that lived through it, with many people struggling just to get by, and the crisis lasted for years. An entire decade was shaped by this event and so were its people. Because of the effects of the Great Depression, essentially everyone had to change their lifestyle and their daily routines. Because of these tough times, the American outlook on life was grim, the Great Depression lasted for over a decade and no one knew when it was going to be over. Entertainment was a way for people to forget about their troubles and problems they had in their own lives, however due to the financial restraints at the time, most people had to find extremely inexpensive or free sources of entertainment. Because of the Great Depression, it would change the scene of entertainment forever, launching the film industry along with radio shows. While the Great Depression was detrimental to the economy as a whole, many well-known radio programs, films, and books were created during this time. Even though the Depression was a horrible time, it produced many good things as well.

Radio shows and musicals were even made to be relatable to viewers and listeners. In fact, some of the most influential movies, musicals, and radio shows that society knows and loves today were produced in the Great Depression. First, most people know about movies. Some famous movies like the Wizard of Oz, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Gone with the Wind.

In the 1920’s, one of the biggest studios in Hollywood was Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. Or as you may know it as, “MGM”, or “the company with the lion at the beginning of movies.” This studio was founded in 1924 and their first film was released in 1925. They have released many popular films that most people have either seen or heard of as well as some not-so popular films that most people didn’t even knew existed. Some you may recognize is Poltergeist, The Hobbit, and even The Wizard of Oz. Today, Metro-Goldwyn Mayer is still one if the biggest and most influential studios in Hollywood. However, the success, figuring everything out, and how the studio became, didn’t happen overnight.

Many people think that the Great Depression was caused solely by the stock market crash. Anybody who tells you this probably didn’t pass U.S. History in high school. The fact is, the Great Depression was caused many different factors. Four of which were overproduction, uneven distribution of wealth, protective tariffs, and the four “sick industries” of the 1920’s.

Hollywood has influenced American history since it began. It boosted and shaped the morale of a nation for almost a century. But Hollywood has not only been the influencing American society, it has been influenced by American society. In the 1920s, American society was booming; people were getting rich, spending and borrowing money, and they thought life was looking good. Then in October of 1929 the stock market crashed. Many people lost all they owned. People had invested all their money into the banks before the Crash. After the Crash, the banks had nothing. People were destitute. They had no money to pay for their houses, electrical bills, and food. It became the Great Depression. Likewise, Hollywood was impacted by the Great

The development of 1920s and 1930s media and technology was extremely influential upon the period of time immediately after. Media in the 1920-30s and its relevance to the years that followed, focusing on the western world. Through the journalism and writing movements during the era, new technology was exposed to the public and impacted events in the years that followed. The term technology can also apply to machinery, medicine and weaponry; however, none of them corresponded with the changes to media in the 1920s and 1930s. The evolvement of media and technology in the 1920s and 1930s impacted events during the era and later in the Second World War.

The first film that showed early signs of a rise in the quality of technology was the Western “The Great Train Robbery.” When this film first came out the audience were so amazed at the fact that they could watch something on a TV or at the cinema. Although this film was very good for the 1900s it still lacked some key features that make films much easier to understand such as dialogue, sound and camera shots. The one feature of a film that developed the quickest over the period of time was sound. Sound was introduced in October 1927 in the film “The Jazz singer”, which had three song numbers and a few lines of spoken dialogue. Apart from these few songs and words, the rest of the movie was silent, but the audience still thought that it was amazing that words had been spoken in the film, they used to call it “the movie that talked”.

The industry was not immune from the depressions impact. They had difficulties with production costs and theater attendance drastically fell by about 40 percent. The industry had to trim salaries, cut costs of production, fire employees, and slash admission prices. The industry needed help, President Roosevelt introduced The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) in June 1933. The NIRA authorized labor unions and collective bargaining. Hollywoods workers succeeded in establishing unions by the time the United States entered WWII. The economic condition of the theater industry gradually improved in the early

In the 1960’s, “for the first time in its history, Hollywood fell behind the rest of the world- aesthetically, commercially, and even technologically” (Cook, 669) It wasn’t until the mid-1970s when a wider license for personal filmmaking and cultural critique was eclipsed by the rapid consolidation of media corporations and the franchised blockbuster, did Hollywood reach a turning point.

The American film industry is one of the most far reaching and influential businesses in today’s world. Movies constantly spawn franchises which have die-hard fans lined up for hours just to get a ticket for a movie that is months away. The celebrities in our movies are elevated to a position of super-fame. It is the nature to a human to adapt to conditions over a given period of time. Adaptation continues through into our entertainment as well. Audiences are becoming accustomed to seeing the same things on the screen over and over again. Filmmakers are constantly trying to keep audiences entertained, which is becoming an increasingly difficult task. Today’s general film-going audience quickly becomes bored and seeks more stimulation from the movies.