The Golden Age or Golden Era of Hollywood is often disputed by
film historians worldwide. While many regard the advent of
sound & studio system as Golden Era; others opine that it was
the Classical Hollywood Era that should be regarded as the Golden Era.
Clearly both critics draw out their logic from the perennial conflict of,
the artistic v/s the commercial - and their arguments are both logical
V E R S I O N - 1
Golden era of Hollywood - Classical Hollywood Cinema
These are terms used
to define both narrative and visual style of film-making which
developed in and characterized American cinema between 1917 and 1960 and eventually became the dominant method of film-making in the US.
Classical Hollywood Cinema
Years - Developed 1917–1960, continues to the present
Country - United States
Major figures - D.W. Griffith, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder
Classical Hollywood is characterized by a set of rules that concern the use of particular technical devices (three-point lighting, continuity editing, framing, musical scores, etc.) to establish three main interrelated systems: narrative logic (causality), cinematic time, and cinematic space. The narrative logic of classical Hollywood treats film narration much like literary narration, with a plot centered around the motivation of the characters and their struggle towards a goal. Likewise, the visual approach towards storytelling treats film much like a photographed play, using the manipulation of cinematic time and space to make the film appear as real as a production on the stage. The "Classical Hollywood" approach to narrative and visual storytelling became the most powerful style of film-making worldwide.
Narrative Logic Classical narration progresses always through psychological motivation, i.e. by the will of a character and its struggle with obstacles towards a desired goal. This narrative element is commonly composed of a primary narrative (often a romance) intertwined with a secondary narrative, such as a business or a crime. This narrative is structured with a beginning, middle and end.
Cinematic Time Time in classical Hollywood is continuous, linear and uniform.
Cinematic Space The greatest rule of classical continuity regarding space is object permanence; achieved through treatment of cinematic space. This treatment consists of four main aspects: centering, balancing, frontality and depth. Persons or objects of significance are mostly in the center part of the picture frame and never out of focus. Balancing refers to the visual composition, i.e. characters are evenly distributed throughout the frame. The action is subtly addressed towards the spectator (frontality) and set, lighting (mostly three-point lighting) and costumes are designed to separate foreground from the background (depth).
Background
Theatre, since time immemorial, was the only visual standard of narrative storytelling. However, the first narrative film, Lumière's L'Arroseur arrosé, made in 1895, paved way for filmmakers to capture the power and realism of narrative storytelling on the cinema screen. Most of these filmmakers started as directors on the late 19th century stage, as such early film-makers largely failed to recognize both the limitations and the freedom of the new medium.
Classical Hollywood cinema In the Silent Era (1917-late 1920s)
The era of "Classical Hollywood Cinema" is distinguished by a narrative and visual style which would begin to dominate the medium in America by 1917. Major films in this period include
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917)
The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917)
Wild and Woolly (1917)
Broken Blossoms (1919)
The Last of the Mohicans (1920)
Within Our Gates (1920)
Pollyanna (1920
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
Ben-Hur (1925)
The Gold Rush (1925)
Classical Hollywood cinema In the Sound Era (late 1920s-1960)
The narrative and visual style of Classical Hollywood Style further developed in the talkies, sound & dialogues became a prominent feature of films. The major change in American film-making came during this phase, the advent & the control of the studio system. While, this mode of production, films starring reigning star bankrolled by major studios, had preceded sound by several years; by mid-1920 most of the prominent American directors and actors, who had worked independently, became a part of the new studio system to continue to their work.
The beginning of the sound era is ambiguous and subject of intense debate. Some begin the start of the sound era with The Jazz Singer released in 1927; others begin the era in 1929, when the silent age had definitively ended, as most films had talkie portions in them. Hollywood films from the late 1920s to 1960 adhered closely to one or the other genre - western, slapstick comedy, musical, animated cartoon, biopic (biographical picture) - and the same creative teams often worked on films made by the same studio. For instance, Cedric Gibbons and Herbert Stothart always worked on MGM films, Alfred Newman worked at Twentieth Century Fox, Cecil B. DeMille's films were almost all made at Paramount Pictures.
Many great works of cinema emerged from this period of highly regimented film-making. One reason this was possible is that, with so many films being made, not everyone had to be a big hit. A studio could gamble on a medium-budget feature with a good script and relatively unknown actors: Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles fits that description. In other cases, strong-willed directors like Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock and Frank Capra battled the studios in order to achieve their artistic visions.
The Golden Era of Hollywood gave classics like
The Wizard of Oz
Gone with the Wind
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Stagecoach
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Destry Rides Again
Young Mr. Lincoln
Wuthering Heights
Only Angels Have Wings
Casablanca
The Adventures of Robin Hood
It's a Wonderful Life
It Happened One Night
King Kong
Rebecca
Suspicion
Citizen Kane
On the Waterfront
V E R S I O N - 2
Golden era of Hollywood - Studio System in Hollywood
The period stretching from the introduction of sound to the beginning of the demise of the studio system, 1927/29–1948/1949, is referred to by some film historians as the Golden Age of Hollywood.
The years 1927 and 1928 are generally seen as the beginning of Hollywood's Golden Age and the final major steps in establishing studio system control of the American film business. The success of 1927's The Jazz Singer, gave a big boost to the then mid-sized Warner Bros. studio. The following year saw introduction of sound throughout the American film industry; and Warner delivered two more hits: The Singing Fool and Hollywood's first "all-talking" feature, Lights of New York. Offscreen developments included, Warner Bros., high on profits, acquiring Stanley theater chain in September 1928; quickly followed by taking stake & controlling interest in the First National production company. This acquisition gave Warner a 135-acre studio facility, as well as, another large string of movie theaters.
The last of the "Big Five" Hollywood conglomerates of the Golden Age emerged in 1928. RKO. The Radio Corporation of America (RCA), led by David Sarnoff, was looking for ways to exploit the cinema sound patents, newly trademarked RCA Photophone, owned by its parent company, General Electric. As the leading film production companies were all preparing to sign exclusive agreements with Western Electric for their technology, RCA got into the movie business itself. In January, General Electric acquired a sizable interest in Film Booking Offices of America (FBO), a distributor and small production company owned by Joseph P. Kennedy, father of future president John F. Kennedy. In October, through a set of stock transfers, RCA gained control of both FBO and the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chain; merging them into a single venture, it created the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation. With RKO and Warner Bros. - Fox, Paramount, and Loew's/MGM completed the Big Five that would rule film industry for thirty years.
The ranking of the Big Five in terms of profitability (closely related to market share) was largely consistent during the Golden Age: MGM was number one eleven years running, 1931–41. Paramount, the most profitable studio of the early sound era (1928–30), faded for the better part of the subsequent decade, and Fox was number two for most of MGM's reign. Paramount began a steady climb in 1940, finally edging past MGM two years later; from then until its reorganization in 1949 it was again the most financially successful of the Big Five. With the exception of 1932—when all the companies but MGM lost money, and RKO lost somewhat less than its competitors - RKO was last, almost every year of the Golden Age.
Hollywood's success grew during the Great Depression, possibly because films helped audiences escape their personal difficulties. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt reportedly said of Shirley Temple, "When the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time, during this Depression, it is a splendid thing that for just fifteen cents an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby". By 1939 there were 15,000 movie theaters in the United States; while only the 14th largest by revenue, it was 2nd in the percentage of profits that its executives received. Top stars like Bing Crosby and Claudette Colbert were paid more than $400,000 a year (around $6.5 million today).
One of the techniques used to support the studio system was block booking, a system of selling multiple films to a theater as a unit. Such a unit - five films was the standard practice for most of the 1940's; it usually had only one attractive film, the rest a mix of A-budget pictures of lesser quality and B movies. Life magazine wrote in 1957, "It wasn't good entertainment and it wasn't art, and most of the movies produced had a uniform mediocrity, but they were also uniformly profitable; the million-dollar mediocrity was the very backbone of Hollywood."
On May 4, 1948, in a federal antitrust suit known as the Paramount case brought against the entire Big Five, the U.S. Supreme Court specifically outlawed block booking. Holding that the conglomerates were indeed in violation of antitrust, the justices refrained from making a final decision as to how that fault should be remedied, but the case was sent back to the lower court from which it had come with language that suggested divorcement - the complete separation of exhibition interests from producer-distributor operations. The Big Five, though, seemed united in their determination to fight on and drag out legal proceedings for years - the Paramount suit had originally been filed on July 20, 1938.
Behind the scenes, however, at RKO - the shakiest of the conglomerates; the court ruling was used to the studio's advantage. After court's decision, multimillionaire Howard Hughes acquired a controlling interest in RKO, he decided that starting a divorcement domino effect could actually help put his studio on a more equal footing with his competitors. Hughes signaled his willingness to the federal government to enter into a consent decree obliging the breakup of his movie business. Under the agreement, Hughes would split his studio into two entities, RKO Pictures Corporation and RKO Theatres Corporation, and committed to selling off his stake in any of the two, by a pre-specfied date. Hughes's decision to concede to divorcement, actually undermined the argument by lawyers for the rest of the Big Five that such breakups were unfeasible.
While many today point to the May court ruling, it was actually Hughes's agreement with the federal government - signed November 8, 1948 - that was truly the death knell for the Golden Age of Hollywood. Paramount soon choked and entered into a similar consent decree; the Golden Age was over.
Note - Articles might have inputs from articles in public domain
Classical Hollywood Cinema
Years - Developed 1917–1960, continues to the present
Country - United States
Major figures - D.W. Griffith, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder
Classical Hollywood is characterized by a set of rules that concern the use of particular technical devices (three-point lighting, continuity editing, framing, musical scores, etc.) to establish three main interrelated systems: narrative logic (causality), cinematic time, and cinematic space. The narrative logic of classical Hollywood treats film narration much like literary narration, with a plot centered around the motivation of the characters and their struggle towards a goal. Likewise, the visual approach towards storytelling treats film much like a photographed play, using the manipulation of cinematic time and space to make the film appear as real as a production on the stage. The "Classical Hollywood" approach to narrative and visual storytelling became the most powerful style of film-making worldwide.
Narrative Logic Classical narration progresses always through psychological motivation, i.e. by the will of a character and its struggle with obstacles towards a desired goal. This narrative element is commonly composed of a primary narrative (often a romance) intertwined with a secondary narrative, such as a business or a crime. This narrative is structured with a beginning, middle and end.
Cinematic Time Time in classical Hollywood is continuous, linear and uniform.
Cinematic Space The greatest rule of classical continuity regarding space is object permanence; achieved through treatment of cinematic space. This treatment consists of four main aspects: centering, balancing, frontality and depth. Persons or objects of significance are mostly in the center part of the picture frame and never out of focus. Balancing refers to the visual composition, i.e. characters are evenly distributed throughout the frame. The action is subtly addressed towards the spectator (frontality) and set, lighting (mostly three-point lighting) and costumes are designed to separate foreground from the background (depth).
Background
Theatre, since time immemorial, was the only visual standard of narrative storytelling. However, the first narrative film, Lumière's L'Arroseur arrosé, made in 1895, paved way for filmmakers to capture the power and realism of narrative storytelling on the cinema screen. Most of these filmmakers started as directors on the late 19th century stage, as such early film-makers largely failed to recognize both the limitations and the freedom of the new medium.
Classical Hollywood cinema In the Silent Era (1917-late 1920s)
The era of "Classical Hollywood Cinema" is distinguished by a narrative and visual style which would begin to dominate the medium in America by 1917. Major films in this period include
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917)
The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917)
Wild and Woolly (1917)
Broken Blossoms (1919)
The Last of the Mohicans (1920)
Within Our Gates (1920)
Pollyanna (1920
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
Ben-Hur (1925)
The Gold Rush (1925)
Classical Hollywood cinema In the Sound Era (late 1920s-1960)
The narrative and visual style of Classical Hollywood Style further developed in the talkies, sound & dialogues became a prominent feature of films. The major change in American film-making came during this phase, the advent & the control of the studio system. While, this mode of production, films starring reigning star bankrolled by major studios, had preceded sound by several years; by mid-1920 most of the prominent American directors and actors, who had worked independently, became a part of the new studio system to continue to their work.
The beginning of the sound era is ambiguous and subject of intense debate. Some begin the start of the sound era with The Jazz Singer released in 1927; others begin the era in 1929, when the silent age had definitively ended, as most films had talkie portions in them. Hollywood films from the late 1920s to 1960 adhered closely to one or the other genre - western, slapstick comedy, musical, animated cartoon, biopic (biographical picture) - and the same creative teams often worked on films made by the same studio. For instance, Cedric Gibbons and Herbert Stothart always worked on MGM films, Alfred Newman worked at Twentieth Century Fox, Cecil B. DeMille's films were almost all made at Paramount Pictures.
Many great works of cinema emerged from this period of highly regimented film-making. One reason this was possible is that, with so many films being made, not everyone had to be a big hit. A studio could gamble on a medium-budget feature with a good script and relatively unknown actors: Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles fits that description. In other cases, strong-willed directors like Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock and Frank Capra battled the studios in order to achieve their artistic visions.
The Golden Era of Hollywood gave classics like
The Wizard of Oz
Gone with the Wind
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Stagecoach
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Destry Rides Again
Young Mr. Lincoln
Wuthering Heights
Only Angels Have Wings
Casablanca
The Adventures of Robin Hood
It's a Wonderful Life
It Happened One Night
King Kong
Rebecca
Suspicion
Citizen Kane
On the Waterfront
V E R S I O N - 2
Golden era of Hollywood - Studio System in Hollywood
The years 1927 and 1928 are generally seen as the beginning of Hollywood's Golden Age and the final major steps in establishing studio system control of the American film business. The success of 1927's The Jazz Singer, gave a big boost to the then mid-sized Warner Bros. studio. The following year saw introduction of sound throughout the American film industry; and Warner delivered two more hits: The Singing Fool and Hollywood's first "all-talking" feature, Lights of New York. Offscreen developments included, Warner Bros., high on profits, acquiring Stanley theater chain in September 1928; quickly followed by taking stake & controlling interest in the First National production company. This acquisition gave Warner a 135-acre studio facility, as well as, another large string of movie theaters.
The last of the "Big Five" Hollywood conglomerates of the Golden Age emerged in 1928. RKO. The Radio Corporation of America (RCA), led by David Sarnoff, was looking for ways to exploit the cinema sound patents, newly trademarked RCA Photophone, owned by its parent company, General Electric. As the leading film production companies were all preparing to sign exclusive agreements with Western Electric for their technology, RCA got into the movie business itself. In January, General Electric acquired a sizable interest in Film Booking Offices of America (FBO), a distributor and small production company owned by Joseph P. Kennedy, father of future president John F. Kennedy. In October, through a set of stock transfers, RCA gained control of both FBO and the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chain; merging them into a single venture, it created the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation. With RKO and Warner Bros. - Fox, Paramount, and Loew's/MGM completed the Big Five that would rule film industry for thirty years.
The ranking of the Big Five in terms of profitability (closely related to market share) was largely consistent during the Golden Age: MGM was number one eleven years running, 1931–41. Paramount, the most profitable studio of the early sound era (1928–30), faded for the better part of the subsequent decade, and Fox was number two for most of MGM's reign. Paramount began a steady climb in 1940, finally edging past MGM two years later; from then until its reorganization in 1949 it was again the most financially successful of the Big Five. With the exception of 1932—when all the companies but MGM lost money, and RKO lost somewhat less than its competitors - RKO was last, almost every year of the Golden Age.
Hollywood's success grew during the Great Depression, possibly because films helped audiences escape their personal difficulties. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt reportedly said of Shirley Temple, "When the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time, during this Depression, it is a splendid thing that for just fifteen cents an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby". By 1939 there were 15,000 movie theaters in the United States; while only the 14th largest by revenue, it was 2nd in the percentage of profits that its executives received. Top stars like Bing Crosby and Claudette Colbert were paid more than $400,000 a year (around $6.5 million today).
One of the techniques used to support the studio system was block booking, a system of selling multiple films to a theater as a unit. Such a unit - five films was the standard practice for most of the 1940's; it usually had only one attractive film, the rest a mix of A-budget pictures of lesser quality and B movies. Life magazine wrote in 1957, "It wasn't good entertainment and it wasn't art, and most of the movies produced had a uniform mediocrity, but they were also uniformly profitable; the million-dollar mediocrity was the very backbone of Hollywood."
On May 4, 1948, in a federal antitrust suit known as the Paramount case brought against the entire Big Five, the U.S. Supreme Court specifically outlawed block booking. Holding that the conglomerates were indeed in violation of antitrust, the justices refrained from making a final decision as to how that fault should be remedied, but the case was sent back to the lower court from which it had come with language that suggested divorcement - the complete separation of exhibition interests from producer-distributor operations. The Big Five, though, seemed united in their determination to fight on and drag out legal proceedings for years - the Paramount suit had originally been filed on July 20, 1938.
Behind the scenes, however, at RKO - the shakiest of the conglomerates; the court ruling was used to the studio's advantage. After court's decision, multimillionaire Howard Hughes acquired a controlling interest in RKO, he decided that starting a divorcement domino effect could actually help put his studio on a more equal footing with his competitors. Hughes signaled his willingness to the federal government to enter into a consent decree obliging the breakup of his movie business. Under the agreement, Hughes would split his studio into two entities, RKO Pictures Corporation and RKO Theatres Corporation, and committed to selling off his stake in any of the two, by a pre-specfied date. Hughes's decision to concede to divorcement, actually undermined the argument by lawyers for the rest of the Big Five that such breakups were unfeasible.
While many today point to the May court ruling, it was actually Hughes's agreement with the federal government - signed November 8, 1948 - that was truly the death knell for the Golden Age of Hollywood. Paramount soon choked and entered into a similar consent decree; the Golden Age was over.
Note - Articles might have inputs from articles in public domain
