Hollywood Golden Age

For over one hundred years, Americans have loved the communal experience of going to the movie theater. The popularity of motion pictures gave rise to the Golden Age of Hollywood, which existed from the late 1910s through the 1960s. The era introduced the idea of the glamorous movie star. Technological and artistic innovations abounded, which transformed the medium. How did celebrity and spectacle define the Golden Age of Hollywood?

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StudySmarter Editorial Team

Team Hollywood Golden Age Teachers

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    Hollywood Golden Age Definition

    A Golden Age is a period in history when art is at its peak. Hollywood's Golden Age can be thought of as the period when moving pictures ceased to be a technology and transformed into art. Many of the elements associated with film today, such as movie stars and film studios, first came into being during this period from 1915 through the 1960s.

    Hollywood Golden Age Birth of a Nation Poster StudySmarterFig. 1 -Birth of a Nation Poster

    The Birth of a Nation, a Troubling Start

    Film historians generally agree that The Birth of a Nation in 1915 was the film that launched The Golden Age of Hollywood. The film is an adaptation of the 1905 novel The Clansman by Thomas Dixon Jr. The film boasted many innovations which developed what a motion picture could be. Despite its artistic achievements, the film was highly controversial for its overtly racist storyline depicting Ku Klux Klan members as heroic defenders against evil African Americans during Reconstruction. Beyond the film's technical achievements, it highlighted the medium's ability to reflect or impact social issues.

    Innovations of The Birth of a Nation

    • Closeups
    • Fadeouts
    • Large battle scenes
    • Use of extras
    • First full-length sequel

    Social Responses to the Film

    Birth of a Nation was extremely popular with most White audiences. African American audiences reacted to the film's racist depictions by staging NAACP-led boycotts and protests. The New York Times called the film "inflammatory," and white allies like Jane Addams opposed it.

    Birth of a Nation and KKK Revitalization

    Birth of a Nation didn't just entertain audiences but also influenced them. The film turned out to be equally inflammatory, as the New York Times review stated. The popular heroic image of the KKK the film created turned the group into merchandise, a party theme, and more, and shortly after the film's release, lynchings skyrocketed. The KKK was reborn in November of 1915, just months after the film was released.

    Hollywood Golden Age, A black and white photograph of a movie theater in 1922, StudySmarterFig. 2 - A black and white photograph of a movie theatre in 1922

    The Silent Era

    From 1894 to 1929, films were only "motion pictures" without sound. Before The Birth of Nation, many silent films were simply curiosities similar to carnival attractions. They were usually shown on a continuous loop with piano accompaniment in venues called nickelodeons. As silent films progressed, they found an audience and became more elaborate. By the time of the Golden Age of Hollywood, they were often accompanied by live orchestras playing the film score. They had title cards throughout the film to deliver the dialogue and narration.

    Originally, film distributors sold short movies and charged theaters by the foot of the movie's physical film. Between 1909 and 1912, longer narrative films with higher production costs became popular. They were more similar to attracting a more middle-class audience than early short films' cheap, working-class spectacle.

    This led to rearranging how films were distributed, with distributors and theaters splitting a percentage of the box office receipts. This arrangement largely continues to this day. Eventually, film studios would seek to retain the gross of films by also owning the distributors and theaters themselves. Anti-trust actions at the end of the golden age would put an end to that practice.

    Motion Picture Patents Company

    Before the studio system and the film industry relocated to Hollywood, an organization known as the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPCC) tried to control the industry. The producers and distributors attempted to use patents on film recording and projection developed by Thomas Edison to maintain control of the industry. Many of their methods and assumptions did not align with where motion pictures would eventually head.

    Tactics of the MPCC

    • Made films around New York City using stage actors

    • Didn't identify the stars of films

    • Believed the public wouldn't want to watch a film more than ten or twenty minutes long

    End of the MPCC

    Several factors contributed to the end of the MPCC. Their attempts to hold the industry through patents proved too costly to litigate as many production companies, distributors, and theater owners ignored them. In 1917, the company was dissolved after it was found to violate anti-trust laws. The film business had already started to move West to Hollywood for better year-round shooting weather and escape the reach of the MPCC back East. The era of the studios was ready for feature-length films and big-name stars in sunny Hollywood, California

    As films became more popular, studios needed to produce new ones constantly. Early movies mainly were shot outside to use bright, natural light. Moving to California allowed year-round shooting.

    Hollywood Golden Age A frame from the trailer for the film The Petrified Forest from Warner Brothers StudySmarterFig. 3 - A frame from the trailer for the film The Petrified Forest from Warner Brothers

    The Studio Era

    The Studio Era is often considered the height of the Golden Age of Hollywood. The Big Five and the Little Three had almost complete control of the industry, from production to distribution to screening. The studios signed a pool of talent who they developed into household names. 95% of films released in the United States between 1930 and 1948 were products of the eight studios. New technologies like sound and color films combined with further artistic advances to bring the stars to audiences in increasingly exciting ways.

    The Big Five

    • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
    • Paramount Picture Corp
    • 20th Century Fox
    • Warner Brothers
    • RKO Radio Pictures

    The Little Three

    • Universal Pictures
    • United Artists
    • Columbia

    Hollywood Golden Age Actors and Actresses

    The studios often viewed stars as a product as much as the films they made. Although studios occasionally loan stars between themselves, the stars were usually signed to four to seven-year contracts with a studio that had complete control over every aspect of their lives. Studios forced stars to change their names, appearances, public images, and love lives to appeal to the press and the public. The stars had to perform in whatever role their studio told them or lose their contract. Although their public lives were sometimes as much of a performance as their films, the public became infatuated with the Hollywood stars, curated by studio publicity.

    Hollywood Hush

    Film star Rock Hudson was a gay man in a time when studios did not accept his lifestyle. A magazine threatened to expose his orientation, but his agent worked to keep a lid on the information. He was forced into a sham marriage to hide his sexuality. It was not until he was revealed to have AIDS that his homosexuality was publicly acknowledged.

    Other stars, like Jean Harlow, were forced to keep their marriages a secret. Sex appeal was a part of stars public image, which studios worked to carefully craft. To get around studio rules on female stars getting pregnant, Loretta Young hid her pregnancy from the public and pretended to have adopted her daughter. These are just some of the many examples of the level of control studios demanded over movie stars personal lives.

    Hollywood Golden Age Actors

    • Humphrey Bogart
    • Cary Grant
    • Clark Gable
    • James Stewart
    • Rock Hudson
    • Spencer Tracy
    • Gary Cooper

    Hollywood Golden Age Actresses

    • Marilyn Monroe
    • Ingrid Bergman
    • Marlene Dietrich
    • Rita Hayworth
    • Bette Davis
    • Katharine Hepburn
    • Grace Kelly

    Hollywood Golden Age A black and white photograph of director Orson Welles StudySmarterFig. 4 - A black and white photograph of director Orson Welles

    Hollywood Golden Age Time Period

    The Golden Age of Hollywood is considered to be the time period between 1915 and the early 1960s. During this period, innovations came fast. These innovations were both on the technical side and the artistic side.

    Technical Advances in Filmmaking

    The two most significant advances of the Golden Age of Hollywood were sound and color films. In 1927 The Jazz Singer was released. This was not the first film with sound, but it popularized full-length movies with sound, also called "talkies." Technicolor was a series of processes developed for producing films in color. The first wide release was in 1922, but Snow White in 1937 and The Wizard of Oz in 1939 are often remembered as films that popularized color cinematography.

    Artistic Advanced in Filmmaking

    The films of the Golden Age quickly progressed from ten-minute shorts of the nickelodeon era. Orson Welles was a director known for leading innovation with new camera angles, flashbacks, and complex themes in his work. Directors worked to develop lighting that did not just make a scene visible to audiences but also helped set the scene's mood and tone. Films like King Kong and Frankenstein advanced special effects and makeup to bring to life worlds of fantasy. New kinds of imagery and narrative devices combined to create features that resonated with audiences of the Golden Age.

    Hollywood Golden Age Directors

    • Cecil B Demille

    • Alfred Hitchcock

    • Orsen Welles

    • Victor Fleming

    Hollywood Golden Age Films

    • Casablanca
    • Citizen Kane
    • Wizard of Oz
    • Snow White
    • Rear Window
    • Ten Commandments

    End of the Golden Age

    Three main factors led to the end of the Golden Age. The first was the popularity of television, which allowed Americans to watch filmed narratives from the comfort of their homes. The second was that the cost of making films was rising as box office receipts were shrinking. The final reason was government intervention against the Big Five and Little Three. After the Attorney General brought a case against the eight corporations, they voluntarily agreed to give up direct ownership of the movie theaters.

    Hollywood Golden Age - Key takeaways

    • Hollywood Golden Age began in 1915 with the film Birth of a Nation.
    • The studio system dominated most of the Golden Age.
    • This era saw key artistic innovations such as flashbacks and lighting to create the story's mood.
    • Innovations in technology such as sound and color changed the industry forever.
    • The studios controlled stars, even their private lives.
    Frequently Asked Questions about Hollywood Golden Age

    What is considered the golden age of Hollywood?

    The Golden age of Hollywood is the period between the 1910s and 1960s when feature-length films became popular. 

    Why was it called the Golden Age of Hollywood?

    A Golden Age means a time period when art and skill were at their peak. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, many classic films were produced and innovations were created in the medium. 

    When did the Golden Age of Hollywood begin?

    The Golden Age began when The Birth of a Nation was released in 1915. 

    When did the Golden Age of Hollywood end?

    The Golden Age of Hollywood ended in the 1960s. 

    What happened to the Golden Age of Hollywood?

    The Golden Age ended due to government anti-trust action, the popularity of television, and the rising cost of making films.

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