1. The 1920s
• By the mid-1920s, film was BIG business
• Around $2 billion of capital investment
• 20 Hollywood Studios by the mid-1920s
• Biggest output in the history of America’s film industry
• Average of 800 a year! (Compared with 500 a year today…)
• Productions becoming more polished, longer and costlier
• Films were being manufactured, assembly-line style, in
Hollywood's 'entertainment factories,' in which production was
broken down and organized into its various components
(writing, costuming, makeup, directing, etc.)

2. Genres
• Films were beginning to be
placed into genres according
to:
• Storylines
• Settings
• Costumes
• Characters
• Gangster, comedy, melodrama,
biblical epics were all
established by this point
• The first non-fictional narrative
film also emerged in the 1920s

3. The Studio System
THE BIG 5 & little 3
• The studio system was essentially born with long-term contracts for
stars, lavish production values, and increasingly rigid control of
directors and stars by the studio's production chief and in-house
publicity departments
• After World War I and into the early 1920s, America was the leading
producer of films in the world - using Thomas Ince's "factory
system" of production, although the system did limit the creativity
of many directors
• Production was in the hands of the major studios (that really
flourished after 1927 for almost 20 years), and the star system was
burgeoning
• By the 1920s, THE BIG 5were established: Warner Bros, RKO, 20th
Century Fox, Paramount and MGM
• As were the little 3: Columbia, United Artists and Universal

4. Poverty Row Cinema
• Small, poorer, less professional
studios also existed
• These were called poverty row films
• They where cheap, independent
pictures, made with low budgets,
stock footage, and second-tier actors
• Notable ‘poverty row’ studios: Tiffany
Studios, Larry Darmour Productions,
Grand National Films, Mascot
Pictures, Republic Pictures...
Tiffany Studios

5. Compared to this…
MGM Studios

6. British Cinema
• By the mid-1920s, British film production has ground to a
halt (only 33 British films were made in 1925)
• In 1926, over 600 American films were shown in Britain
• In 1927 Parliament brought in an important piece of
legislation the Cinematographers Trade Bill, designed to
ensure there was a guaranteed home market for British
made films
• This meant that 5% of the total number of movies shown in
theatres had to be from Britain (this figure rose to 20% by
1936)
• American companies simply came over to the UK and
started making films
• These were terrible and known as ‘Quota Quickies’

7. The End Of The Nickelodeons
• The major film studios built luxurious 'picture palaces'
that were designed for orchestras to play music to
accompany projected films
• The 3,300-seat Strand Theater opened in 1914 in New
York City, marking the end of the nickelodeon era and
the beginning of an age of the luxurious movie palaces.
• By 1920, there were more than 20,000 movie houses
operating in the US. The largest theatre in the world
(with over 6,000 seats), the Roxy Theater (dubbed "The
Cathedral of the Motion Picture"), opened in New York
City in 1927, with a 6,200 seat capacity.
• It was opened by impresario Samuel Lionel "Roxy"
Rothafel at a cost of $10 million.

8. The Roxy Theatre

9. Mary Pickford
• America flocked to the movies to
see the Queen of Hollywood,
dubbed "America's Sweetheart" and
the most popular star of the
generation - "Our Mary" Mary
Pickford.
• She had been a child star, and had
worked at Biograph as a bit actress
in 1909, and only ten years later
was one of the most influential
figures in Hollywood at Paramount.
• In 1916, she was the first star to
become a millionaire.
Mary Pickford

10. Douglas Fairbanks
• Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. also became
an American legend after switching
from light comedies and starring in
a series of exciting, costumed
swashbuckler and
adventure/fantasy films, starting
with The Mark of Zorro (1920),
soon followed with his expensively-
financed, lavish adventure film
Robin Hood (1922) with gigantic
sets (famous for the scene in which
he eluded death from sword-
wielding attackers by jumping off a
castle balcony and sliding down a
50 ft
Douglas Fairbanks

11. Pickford marries Fairbanks
• Pickford was married, Douglas
Fairbanks, Sr.
• Their wedding in late March, 1920
was a major cultural event,
although it was highly controversial
since both of them had to divorce
their spouses so they could marry
each other.
• She was presented with a wedding
gift - "Pickfair” - a twenty-two room
palatial mansion (former hunting
lodge) in the agricultural area of
Beverly Hills - marking the start of
the movement of stars to lavish
homes in the suburbs of W.
Hollywood and the making of Pickford & Fairbanks
Hollywood royalty.

12. Comedy!
• It was a great era for light-hearted silent comedy, with the
triumvirate of humorists: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and
Harold Lloyd, and the early popularity of Roscoe "Fatty"
Arbuckle until a scandal destroyed his career in 1921
• "Fatty" Arbuckle was one of the earliest silent film comedians
(as well as director and screenwriter).
• He started out with the Selig Polyscope Company in 1909
• his first film was Ben's Kid (1909), and then went onto Universal
Pictures in 1913 where he appeared in several of Mack Sennett's
Keystone Comedies films, noted for fast-paced chase sequences
and 'pie-in-the-face' segments

13. Comedy!
• In 1917, Arbuckle formed his own
production company (Comique Film
Corporation) with producer Joseph
Schenck which afforded more
creative control, hiring Buster Keaton
to star in his first film The Butcher
Boy (1917)
• By 1919, he had secured at $3
million/3-year contract with
Paramount Pictures - the first multi-
year, multi-million dollar deal for a
Hollywood studio. It is little
mentioned that Arbuckle mentored
and aided Buster Keaton and Charlie
Chaplin as they entered the film
business, before his own downfall in
the early 1920s

14. Comedy!
• The popularity of Charlie Chaplin as
the Tramp soared in movies after his
initial films with Keystone, Essanay,
and Mutual.
• As already stated, he co-founded
United Artists studios in 1919 with
Mary Pickford, D. W. Griffith, and
Douglas Fairbanks.
• His first silent feature film was First
National's 6-reel The Kid (1921) (with
child star Jackie Coogan), in which he
portrayed the Tramp in an attempt to
save an abandoned and orphaned
child. (35 year old Chaplin married
his underage, 16 year-old The Kid co-
star Lita Grey in 1924)

15. The Birth Of The Talkies
• By the late 1920s, the art of silent
film had become remarkably mature.
• Although called silents, they were
never really silent but accompanied
by sound organs, gramophone discs,
musicians, sound effects specialists,
live actors who delivered dialogue,
and even full-scale orchestras.
• There would be two competing sound
or recording systems developed
during the early 'talkie' period:
sound-on-disc, and sound-on-film

16. The Birth Of The Talkies
• In 1925-26, America technologically
revolutionized the entire industry,
with the formation of the Vitaphone
Company (a subsidiary created by
Warner Bros. and Western Electric).
• Warner Bros. launched sound and
talking pictures, with Bell Telephone
Laboratory researchers, by
developing a revolutionary
synchronized sound system called
Vitaphone (a short-lived sound-on-
disc process developed in 1925 that
quickly became obsolete by 1931).

17. The Birth Of The Talkies
• This process allowed sound to be recorded on a phonograph
record that was electronically linked and synchronized with the
film projector - but it was destined to be faulty due to inherent
synchronization problems.
• Originally, Warner Bros. intended to use the system to record
only music and sound effects - not dialogue.
• The process was first used for short
one- and two-reel films, mostly
comedies and vaudeville acts
• The first feature-length film with
synchronized Vitaphone sound effects
and musical soundtrack (canned
music and sound effects recorded on
large wax discs), but without spoken
dialogue, was Warner Bros.' romantic
swashbuckler adventure Don Juan
(1926)

18. Investment In Sound
• Most of the studios started to
convert from silent to sound film
production - a tremendous capital
investment
• Thousands of existing theaters had
to be rewired for sound at great
expense
• In the mid 1920s, Warners Bros
invested over $3 million in
outfitting its 'picture palaces' to
show Vitaphone films, and went
into debt because of it

19. Investment In Sound
• In 1926, William Fox of the Fox
Film Corporation responded to
Warners' success with its own
similar and competing, advanced
Movietone system - the first
commercially successful sound-on-
film process developed in
conjunction with General Electric
• It added a 'soundtrack' directly
onto the strip of film and would
eventually become the
predominant sound technology
• The first feature film released using
the new Fox Movietone system was
Sunrise (1927)

20. The First Talkie
• In April, 1927, Warners built the first sound studio to produce a
feature film with sound
• It was the first feature-length talkie (and first musical), The Jazz
Singer (1927) adapted from Samson Raphaelson's successful 1925-26
musical stage play (that starred George Jessel in the Broadway role)
• It was also the most expensive film in the studio's history, at a budget
of about $500,000
• Here was a revolutionary film that was mostly silent - with only about
350 'spontaneously spoken' words, but with six songs (in the film's
partly-synchronized musical soundtrack)
• The film was about an aspiring Jewish cantor's son who wanted to
become a jazz singer rather than a cantor in the synagogue
• Producer Sam Warner died one day before the film's premiere at
Warners' Theatre in New York City

21. The Problems With Sound
• As anticipated, the arrival of sound created great
upheaval in the history of the motion picture industry
• Film studios were confronted with many problems
related to the coming of sound, including restricted
markets for English-language talkies
• Many Hollywood actors/actresses lacked good voices and
stage experience, and their marketability decreased

22. The Problems With Sound
• Technically, camera movements
were restricted, and noisy, bulky
movie cameras had to be housed in
clumsy, huge sound-insulated
booths with blimps (sound-proof
covers), to avoid picking up camera
noise on the soundtrack
• Artistically, acting suffered as
studios attempted to record live
dialogue, because stationary or
hidden microphones (in either their
costumes or other stage props)
impeded the movement of actors

23. The Death Of The Silent Film
• Silent film studios became
obsolescent, and new investments
had to be made for expensive new
equipment, technological
innovations, and sound-proofed
stages.
• Cameras were mounted on
moveable, squeak-proofed dollies,
and microphones were hung from
booms that could be held above the
action (outside of the camera's
view)

24. Surviving the Transition
• Films that began production as silents were quickly transformed
into sound films
• All of the studios were forced to follow suit. By 1930, the silent
movie had practically disappeared, and by the mid 1930s, film
industry studios had become sound-film factories
• In 1927, only 400 US
theatres were wired
for sound, but by the
end of the decade,
over 40% of the
country's movie
theatres had sound
systems installed

25. Surviving the Transition
• Many stars of the silent era with heavy
accents and disagreeable voices saw
their careers shattered
• Others like Joan Crawford, Paul Muni,
Greta Garbo, Ronald Colman, Lon
Chaney, Sr., Richard Barthelmess and
Gloria Swanson survived the transition -
but elocution lessons from diction
coaches became a necessity for some
• Other silent stars, such as Mary
Pickford, failed to make the transition to
talkies and retired in the 30s. Many new
film stars and directors that had to be
imported from Broadway, would become
familiar Hollywood names in the 1930s.

26. Colour
• Colour had been applied to films in
various different forms
• The Great Train Robbery (1903)
hand-painted some of the slides,
turning explosions and gun shots
ornage in colour
• These methods however, were
largely impractical, laborious, and
unrealistic looking
• Another process called Kinemacolor
used a movie camera and projector
that both exposed and projected
black and white film through
alternating red and green filters

27. Colour
• In 1915, the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation developed a more
advanced system to colorize motion pictures
• The company's first color process was a two color (red and green)
additive system that used two color negatives pasted or printed
together
• The first two-color Technicolor production was The Gulf Between (1917)
• The first commercial, two-color Technicolor feature film made was the
six-reel The Toll of the Sea (1922), also noted as the first to use a
subtractive two-color process
• The first feature-length blockbuster color picture using this same
innovative process was The Black Pirate (1926) with Douglas Fairbanks,
Sr

28. Self Regulation
• In 1922, the Hollywood studios formed the Motion Picture Producers
and Distributors of America (MPPDA) - a trade organization to lobby
politicians, self-regulate the industry, and to counter negative publicity
from a rash of scandals
• This perhaps was a reaction to the infamous Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
rape/murder case in September 1921
• Producers appointed conservative
Will H. Hays, the former
Postmaster General of the US, to
be the head of the MPPDA, to
begin efforts to clean up the
motion picture industry before the
public's anger at declining
morality depicted in films hurt the
movie business