Entertainment:
During the 1920's the movie industry set sail, and was centered around Hollywood, California. This industry started to become big business. People went to go see movies on the weekends and as a form of entertainment. It was the new big thing to go and do. This was something that people all over the country could do no matter if you lived in the big city, a small town, or the suburbs. People could now go out and enjoy a movie for fun with friends or as a date, this was something that no matter where your wealth stood you could probably afford to go to. Going to the movies became a social normal for "poor" people and it allowed people to escape the world around them and live in a fantasy world for the time the movie was playing. Women and men were both equally enthusiastic about going to the movies. Women were known for talking about movies all the time as coffee talk and discussing the mystery of movies or the stars and possible alternative endings. Movies were a huge new technology that people were amazed by and loved. Movies opened up a world of imagination and creation because during a movie you could create a whole new world and feel like you were in it.
During the 1920's the movie industry set sail, and was centered around Hollywood, California. This industry started to become big business. People went to go see movies on the weekends and as a form of entertainment. It was the new big thing to go and do. This was something that people all over the country could do no matter if you lived in the big city, a small town, or the suburbs. People could now go out and enjoy a movie for fun with friends or as a date, this was something that no matter where your wealth stood you could probably afford to go to. Going to the movies became a social normal for "poor" people and it allowed people to escape the world around them and live in a fantasy world for the time the movie was playing. Women and men were both equally enthusiastic about going to the movies. Women were known for talking about movies all the time as coffee talk and discussing the mystery of movies or the stars and possible alternative endings. Movies were a huge new technology that people were amazed by and loved. Movies opened up a world of imagination and creation because during a movie you could create a whole new world and feel like you were in it.
The Big 5: The studio system was came about in this time period. Now there were long-term contracts for stars, higher production values, and increasingly strict control of directors and stars by the studio's production chief and in-house publicity departments. The five big studios were Paramount, RKO Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn Pictures, Warner Brothers and Fox film Corporations. Certain actors and actress' were associated with different production companies. It was usually very easy to tell what film came from what company because they all had their own sense of style and distinct qualities.
The Little 3: Columbia Pictures, United Artists, Universal Pictures
Actors and Actresses
People began to idolize certain stars at this time making them known as Movie Stars. America fell in love with their favorite actors and actresses and put them above themselves giving them fame. Girls fell in love with the actors of the time and would talk about them as if they were magical. A famous male actor in this time period was Rudolph Valentino. Some other box-office stars of this time were Harold Lloyd, Gloria Swanson, Tom Mix, Norma Talmadge, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Colleen Moore, Norma Shearer, John Barrymore, Greta Garbo, Lon Chaney, Sr., Clara Bow, and "Little Mary" Pickford. This profession was big money to the people who could actually make it.
Film Facts
- Most people are unaware that the greatest output of feature films in
the United States occurred in the 1920s and 1930s when an
average of about 800 films were released in a year.
- Silent films were what most of these films were but movie technology was
improving and movies were now longer, bigger, costlier and more published.
- An average movie cost 25 cents
- Many different genres of films: Romance, biblical epic, mysteries, comics,
horror, gangster/crime, westerns - During this time period the US was the leading producer of films in the world
- Extravagant "picture palaces" were being made to view these new released films. There would be an area for orchestras or bands because during silent films the they would play as background music for the film to portray emotion or points of suspense in movies.
- Mickey Mouse appeared in 1928 in this debut and there was an emerge of Walt Disney in the late 20s.
- Films connected people living out on farms and far away from cities because they
were seeing the same movie as people in big cities. This in a sense brought
America together.
- Films connected people living out on farms and far away from cities because they