Hollywoods Golden Age 1927 1947 Key Features From

Hollywood’s Golden Age 1927 -1947

Key Features • From silent to sound production • Consolidation of the studio system • Establish official regulatory organization (MPAA) • Changes in the look/technique of movies • … and movies & America

From Silent to Sound • The Jazz Singer (1927) • “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet” (* clip)

• Sound conversion complete by 1930 • box office up 50% • proving again: • $ = giving people what they want • 1938: ~80 million going to the movies every week • today’s numbers

The Studio System • Vertical integration (top-down) • Major studios maximized profits by controlling each stage of a film's life • Pre-production, distribution, and exhibition

The Studio System… • "The Big Five" • owned vast real estate for elaborate sets • set the exact terms of films' release dates, locations… • Owned/operated the best movie theaters (movie palaces) • decided things like: which sound/tech systems • actors and actresses

• “The Big Five” • • • Warner Bros. Paramount 20 th Century Fox Loew's (MGM) RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum)

• Controlled which/when films were seen • A-level films: • “it” stars, lavish productions • only seen in studio-owned, first-run theaters • B Movies

The Rating System • 1922, producers create committee • Mostly for public-relations • 1930, adopted the Motion Picture Production Code • guidelines on acceptable/unacceptable subject matter • came about because… art can influence the morality of those that consume it (assumably for the worse) • 1934, became mandatory • (1968 replaced in by the MPAA rating system) • This Film Is Not Yet Rated *

The Look of the Hollywood Movie • period of conformity, not innovation • giving people what they wanted • movies stressed the values of the time • Pre-WWII: heroism, family, citizenship, etc. with some comic relief • Est. new film genres • The musical, screwball comedies, gangster & war films

• Citizen Kane (1941) changes it all • Orson Welles’s film revolutionized film • storytelling success: a complex plot told by 7 narrators (not all reliable) • historical success: 7 months before Pearl Harbor – antifascist message • cinematic success: innovative techniques and will influence the structure and pace of nearly all movies that came after

Homework (s) DUE TOMORROW, 8 pm (even if you are absent on Tuesday!) - Read a little about the film Citizen Kane (1941) and its director Orson Welles - Then, before 8 pm on Wednesday (10/10), add one fun fact you learned about the film/director here. - Write the fun fact (and “fun” isn’t specific, it can be interesting, surprising, weird, intriguing, etc. ) in your own words; copying and pasting info will not suffice. - And please don’t send the first fact you find, read a bit – if your fact is unique, you’ll be rewarded.