Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Rise and Fall of the Silent Film Era, Vol III: The Film Studios & Directors
    The Rise and Fall of the Silent Film Era, Vol III: The Film Studios & Directors
    The Rise and Fall of the Silent Film Era, Vol III: The Film Studios & Directors
    Ebook155 pages2 hours

    The Rise and Fall of the Silent Film Era, Vol III: The Film Studios & Directors

    By James R Ashley

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Movies during the silent era were hugely influential. They were the primary means of how people leaned social etiquette, how to dress, how to act on a date, and even the proper way to kiss. People studied their favorite movie stars intensely and emulated their mannerisms, speech, and demeanor. The women were just coming out of the Victorian Era and into the Jazz Age, and they were looking for guidance in how they should fit into this new age of freedom for them. Men also were groping for how they needed to respond to the new modern woman; in other words, the most effective way of pursuing and “getting” the now sexy women whose allure was now all but irresistible. The movies were never as important to establishing social mores as they were then, as they were the only guidelines people had to the new era that was dawning. And to adding to the excitement was the fact that the newly-arrived movie stars were just making it all up as they went along. It was new and unsullied era rolling along as an irrepressible tide of enthusiasm and experimentation that we will never see the like of again. And it all began with a small peep-box.

    By 1930 all the films being produced were “talkies.” This created major problems and expenses for the studios. Most silent stages were unsuitable for making sound films. Every sound around picked up on equipment: a pigeon walking on the glass roof, the rumble of a train passing by, street traffic, footsteps, sneezes, coughs, and rude bodily sounds. Actor’s hair had to even be combed with oil to prevent the crackle of a static electricity discharge. At one point stagehands had to walk around on the set in their stocking feet. The whirring of the gears in the cameras themselves got to be a problem and the cameras had to be placed in insulated boxes big enough to hold both the cameraman and director. The heat of the overhead lighting on the set turned these camera boxes into ovens. On one shoot the camera box’s door accidently opened and spoiled the sound track. For the reshoot the cameraman was locked inside the box. The irony for the new movie sound industry was that the silence once on the film now made its way to the sound stages, which actually had been quite noisy during the silent film era.

    The studios spent $24 million upgrading their studios to make sound movies and another $300 million to wire up their theaters (it cost roughly $20,000 to sound-wire a movie theater). Sound stage walls were soundproofed by double patricians 1’ thick with 6” of air space between them. Outside the patricians on either side were 3” walls made of gypsum blocks, which were then covered with heavy draperies. In the theaters it was estimated that 10,000 musicians lost their jobs between 1928 and 1930.

    And so with sound the silent film era came to a close. In the excitement of the new movie stars like Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Sylvia Sidney, Humphrey Bogart, and others, the silent era was quickly relegated to the dustbin of history and quickly forgotten. The legendary beauty of the actresses and handsomeness of the actors quickly faded, as did their names and they were forgotten by all but a few.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJames R Ashley
    Release dateJul 22, 2013
    ISBN9781301303564
    The Rise and Fall of the Silent Film Era, Vol III: The Film Studios & Directors

    Read more from James R Ashley

    Related to The Rise and Fall of the Silent Film Era, Vol III

    Related ebooks

    Entertainers and the Rich & Famous For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Rise and Fall of the Silent Film Era, Vol III

    4/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Rise and Fall of the Silent Film Era, Vol III - James R Ashley

      The Rise and Fall of the Silent Film Era

      Vol III: The Film Studios & Directors

      James R Ashley

      Copyright 2015 James R Ashley

      Smashwords Edition

      Table of Contents

      Movie Making

      The Movie Studios

      Balboa Amusement Company

      Biograph

      Columbia

      Cosmopolitan Pictures

      Edison Studios

      Essanay Studio

      First National Pictures Inc

      Fox Studios

      Hal Roach Studios

      Independent Moving Pictures Company

      Jesse Lasky Feature Play Company

      Keystone

      Mack Sennett Comedies Company

      Metro

      Metro Pictures Corporation

      MGM

      Motion Picture Patents Company

      Mutual Film Corporation

      New York Motion Picture Company

      Paramount

      Pathe

      Reliance-Majestic Film Company

      Samuel Goldwyn Studio

      Selig Polyscope Company

      Triangle Motion Picture Company

      United Artists

      Universal Pictures

      Vitagraph Company

      Warner Brothers

      Directors

      Cecil B DeMille

      Victor Fleming

      D.W. Griffith

      Thomas Ince

      Mauritz Stiller

      William Desmond Taylor

      Erich von Stroheim

      Bibliography

      Movie Making

      Movies during the silent era were hugely influential. They were the primary means of how people leaned social etiquette, how to dress, how to act on a date, and even the proper way to kiss. People studied their favorite movie stars intensely and emulated their mannerisms, speech, and demeanor. The women were just coming out of the Victorian Era and into the Jazz Age, and they were looking for guidance in how they should fit into this new age of freedom for them. Men also were groping for how they needed to respond to the new modern woman; in other words, the most effective way of pursuing and getting the now sexy women, whose allure was now all but irresistible. The movies were never as important to establishing social mores as they were then, as they were the only guidelines people had to the new era that was dawning. And to add to the excitement was the fact that the newly-arrived movie stars were just making it all up as they went along. It was new and unsullied era, rolling along as an irrepressible tide of enthusiasm and experimentation that we will never see the like of again. And it all began with a small peep-box.

      The Touring Company The primary source of entertainment for most Americans in the late 19th century was the theatrical stage and vaudeville. The difference between the 2 was that the theater was for the more refined tastes and derived its venue from historical works or current best-selling books. Vaudeville was more for the lower-class tastes of the baser elements of society and consisted of a number of different acts per show ranging from dancing monkeys and acrobats, to singing waiters and lewd dancing. In the larger cities both forms of entertainment had permanent performing halls but to cover the smaller cities and rural areas, the actors and performers were organized into troupes and went on tour on either the small-time or big-time circuits.

      Life for the actors was hard on tour, as generally when they finished their act in the evening they had to almost immediately catch a train to their next destination on the circuit. This meant a lot of waiting and sleeping on uncomfortable railroad office benches and hardly less comfortable railroad train seats. Vaudeville and theatrical performers started young on the circuits, many in their teens and a number considerably younger. For many youthful performers this meant they had to live out of a suitcase and forego their education and childhood friendships. Once they arrived at their destination they got a room in a run-down, flea-bag rooming house and proceeded to sneak into the room as many fellow performers as they could get away with. Sleeping 3 to a bed was not all that uncommon for vaudeville performers. Often times, as likely as not, they would then sneak away without paying their bill, which only added to the public perception of their being riff-raff. There were signs posted in a number of rooming houses stating no dogs or theater people allowed. After a greasy lunch of substandard food, the performers were ready to go the theater and repeat the process over and over again.

      The advent of motion pictures killed vaudeville and severely reduced theatrical tours. By the 1920s both venues were finished. Theater still managed to exist in fixed locations but only on Broadway in New York and in a number of other large cities. The nation was now filled with millions of immigrants, most of whom could understand little if any English. Theaters were definitely out for them and so was much of vaudeville, where understanding of the spoken word was necessary to fully appreciate the entertainment. The silent motion pictures, however, needed no command of the English language to understand them; the gestures and facial expressions of the actors supplied all the communication the immigrants needed. A whole new industry would now rise up which would not only entertain people but show them how they were to acclimate to the new country they had chosen as their home.

      Nickelodeons The silent film era begins in the 1890s in the penny arcades. For a penny a machine would show the viewer watching through an eyepiece a number of cards rapidly flipping by as a crank was turned. The images seen were usually of a suggestive or violent nature (i.e. a dancing girl or a boxing match) and lasted anywhere from 15-30 seconds. The machines were generally located in dance halls and barrooms that were exclusively patronized by men. They were, in effect, an early form of pornography, and at the time only slightly less racy than the French Postcard.

      Then, in 1894 The Thomas Alva Edison’s Movie Company shipped 25 Kinetscopes to Atlantic City, Chicago, and New York. The $300 machines played a 50’ loop of silent film for viewers. The machines were a big hit with recent male immigrants and the price of viewing soon went up to a nickel and as a result the machines soon acquired the name, nickelodeons. Biograph’s version of the Kinetscope was called the Mutoscope.

      Nickelodeons had quite an unsavory beginning that generated a lot of bad press. They were typically located in poorer neighborhoods of the large cities and appealed largely to immigrant men, who did not need any language skills to figure out what was being shown them. The typical nickelodeon viewing hall consisted of an old store filled with folding chairs. A projection booth with tin walls was built at the back of the story. The projector, which had a bulb that heated up like a furnace, projected the image on a white sheet or a white painted wall. The film was hand-cranked by the projectionist, so the speed of the action varied considerably, depending on the age and enthusiasm of the crankier. The average film lasted anywhere from 15-30 minutes and consisted of several 100’-200’ films being shown. In 1905 nickelodeons were changing their programs twice a week; by 1907, 6 times a week. The film rental was about $15 a day to the nickelodeon owner and he needed to have a weekly attendance of about 4,000 in order to cover his $200 weekly operating costs. Seating was kept below 200, because at 200 seats a $500 theatrical license was required

      The viewing room generally stunk from urine, vomit and other strong smells, as there was generally little, if any, ventilation in the rooms. Prostitutes and pick-pockets worked the crowd inside and outside the nickelodeon, which consisted largely of immigrant men, who usually found the experience an interesting diversion from their regular haunt, the tavern. One always had to be on your guard when in a nickelodeon, however, for a lapse in attention could lead to one’s wallet being ‘lifted or being jack rolled by a prostitute, who was handy with a blackjack. At the end of the program audiences frequently attempted to stay in their seat for another showing and bouncers, called chasers," were hired to literally throw patrons out who reluctant to leave.

      The first nickelodeon was opened in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 1905. By 1907, there were 10,000 nickelodeons. By 1913, with the advent of silent film movie houses, the age of the nickelodeons was over.

      At the turn of the 20th century vaudeville workers struck for higher wages, and for theaters the only way to stay open was to begin showing movies. Film equipment was purchased by theater owners in large quantities but with the end of the vaudeville strike all the projectors were dumped onto the market. The penny arcades and nickelodeons, who had been wanting for some time to upgrade their exhibit halls and increase their revenues, jumped at the chance to acquire high-end projection equipment at bargain-basement prices. Now all they needed was a steady stream of films to show.

      Silent Movie Theaters The first noteworthy film produced for this new market was The Great Train Robbery (1903), photographed and directed by Edwin S Porter, Thomas Alva Edison Company’s former cameraman. The film was 14 minutes long and contained 14 scenes filmed at Edison’s studio in New Jersey. The film was based on the Hole in the Wall gang’s (Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid) robbery of a Union Pacific train near Table Rock- Wyoming, in 1900.

      New movie studios now popped up almost daily to begin shooting 1-reel silent movies, for the demand of the movie theaters for them was almost insatiable. Unlike today, where a movie debuts at movie theaters, plays for a number of weeks there, then goes to cable, then to DVD, movies of that era were shown once at a theater, then either melted down for the silver nitrate in the film or thrown into trunks and forgotten. That meant that theaters needed a lot of movies, and, consequently, the theater owners were always beating the bushes for more movies they could show. The problem was that movie making was in its infancy and neither the equipment nor the techniques for making movies was well developed, so movie output remained relatively small for the continually growing demand.

      As the supply of movies increased, theaters began to build specially designed movie houses to show the movies, No more hot and smelly halls with folding chairs and a sheet for a movie screen. Now the trend was well ventilated buildings, fixed and padded seats, and large specially-developed viewing screens. By 1910 there were 13,000 movie theaters and 26 million silent movie viewers. Comfort in the movie studios now gave way to opulence and the movie palaces were now built in many large cities. Many were patterned after European opera houses in the ornamentation of their architecture. Men wore tuxedos to these palaces and women wore their best gowns and tons of jewelry (with several rings the size of large marbles and necklaces that would be the envy of an Egyptian pharaoh). There was a large changing room downstairs where maids would help their mistresses change into different dresses and jewelry during each of the 4 intermissions during the

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1