The 1920's

The Silent Era

The Motion Picture
Patents Company
Trust, 1908-1915
Edison joined with
Biograph, Vitagraph,
Essanay, Kalem, Selig
Polyscope, Lubin, Star
Film, Pathe Freres &
Kleine Optical
Exploited patents, fixed
prices, restrict foreign
film distribution, regulate
production, licensing &
distribution as well as the
flow of film stock from
Eastman Kodak
The Silent Era
The Motion Picture
Patents Company Trust
Vertical and horizontal
monopoly
Kodak did not have a
share of the profits &
began to sell film stock to
others, namely the
Motion Picture
Distributing & Sales
Company and the
Latham Loop patent was
overturned in court
The Silent Era
Rise of the
"ndependents who
became the "Moguls'
The Move West
ncreased need for
product
Avoid MPPC
Year-round production
By 1915, most production
had moved to California
Carl Laemmle of Universal
The Silent Era
The Birth of the Studios
The Silent Era
The MoguIs
Adolph Zukor (Paramount), Marcus Loew (MGM),
William Fox (Fox), Jack Warner (Warner Brothers),
The Silent Era
The Directors
D.W. Griffith, Thomas nce, Cecil B. DeMille, Mack Sennett,
Charlie Chaplin, Erich von Stroheim
The Silent Era
Cecil B. DeMille
Epics & Melodramas
The Silent Era
Thomas nce
Architect of the
"Assembly Line
mode of production
Murder covered up
by William Randolph
Hearst it remains
unsolved to this day
read more on
snopes.com
Fictionalized in the
film The Cat's Meow
The Silent Era
Shooting stages
Exterior sets
Back lot for exteriors
Film processing
Prop room
Editing suites
Zoo
The Silent Era
Mack Sennett
Signed Chaplin for a
time
Partnership with
comedienne Mabel
Normand
Slapstick Comedy
with the eystone
Cops & Bathing
Beauties
The 1920's
Times were changing
Middle class solidly into the
theatres
"Rural values vs
cosmopolitan views of
writers such as F. Scott
Fitzgerald and Ernest
Hemingway and filmmakers
such as Erich von Stroheim
Films became more
expensive and polished
Erich von Stroheim's nd Husbands (1919)
The 1920's
The Stars
Started with Griffith
Not only who the
public paid to see but
the public face of the
industry
Mary Pickford
The 1920's
Mary Pickford
Married to Douglas
Fairbanks
"America's Sweetheart
Child actress at Biograph
Gave up career in 1929
Considered the artist of
the pair
The 1920's
Douglas Fairbanks
nvented the action
film with The Mark of
Zorro (1920)
The 1920's
Rudolph Valentino
Former tango dancer
Androgynous
personality
Died suddenly &
young (31)
Power shift from
executives to stars
The 1920's
The 1920's
Greta Garbo, Clara Bow, Lillian Gish, John Barrymore,
Lon Chaney Sr., Ramon Navarro, Laurel & Hardy
The 1920's
Scandals
Roscoe "Fatty Arbuckle
Mary Miles Minter
& William Desmond
Taylor
The 1920's
1922 - Censorship
begins
Morals clauses inserted
into contracts
Established the Motion
Picture Producers &
Distributors of America
with former postmaster
general, Will Hays
First act was to ban
Arbuckle's films
Began to regulate
content - more powerful
later on in the 1930's
The 1920's
United Artists
Founded in 1919
Control of work - first
independent film
company
Charles Chaplin, Mary
Pickford, Douglas
Fairbanks & D.W. Griffith
Five pictures a year
proved impossible to
produce, direct and/or
star in
D.W. Griffith left in 1924
Others brought in to run
the company
Douglas Fairbanks, D.W. Griffith,
Mary Pickford & Charles Chaplin
The 1920's
Director/Artist
medium
Harold Lloyd
received 80% of
profits for $afety Last
The 1920's
. until Erich von Stroheim
Serious filmmaker
Legendary excess in budgets
and length
oosh W;es, the 1st million
dollar picture, was 6 hours
long
Lots of trouble with censors
Was fired mid-production on
Merry-Go-Round for financial
reasons indicating a shift in
power
Erich von Stroheim
The 1920's
Greed's nine hour cut - lost
Shot in Death Valley - in the
summer
" want you to hate each
other like you hate me!"
Subject matter way too dark
Reconstructed with stills
Hand-tinted sequences
Death Valley Sequence Trini keeps her money until the end
The 1920's
"ueen ey with Gloria
Swanson
Swanson's lover, Joseph
Kennedy (yes those
Kennedys), had the plug
pulled when she became
unhappy with the storyline
Sound came in and film was
shown in limited release
Used in $unset oue;ard
with Gloria Swanson
The 1920's
f you live in France, for
instance, and you have written
one good book, or painted one
good picture, or directed one
outstanding film, fifty years ago,
and nothing ever since, you are
still recognized as an artist and
honored accordingly. People
take off their hats and call you
maitre. They do not forget. n
Hollywood - in Hollywood you're
as good as your last picture. f
you didn't have one in
production within the last three
months you're forgotten, no
matter what you have achieved
ere this..
part of an eulogy von Stroheim
gave for D.W. Griffith on the
BBC
The 1920's
And speaking of
control.
Buster Keaton was
convinced to
exchange his set up
at United Artists to
go work for MGM
and he was never
allowed control over
his work ever again
Joseph Schenck & Brother-in-Law, Buster
Keaton
The 1920's
UA had contracts with
independent producers
& bought theatres
Producing partners
drifted away with
changing economics
and United Artists
ceased to exist as
producer and distributor
ways by the late 40's
Howard Hughes, Alexander Korda & Samuel Goldwyn
The 1920's
Need for content so
great that Hollywood
began to import
talent, notably from
Germany and
Sweden
Greta Garbo, Ernst Lubitsch, F.W. Murnau & Josef von Sternberg
The 1920's
Then something
else happened.
Bob Witt & Cy Berg in The Vo.e rom the $.reen
The 1920's
While people had
been experimenting
for years, sound had
finally come to pass
Dickson's Untitled Experimental
Sound Film (1895) & Alice Guy-
a.h's Le Vra Ju-Jtsu (1905)
The 1920's
The Jazz $nger (1927)
First full length picture
with sound sequences
The first all talking
picture was released
the next year (Lghts of
New York)
Theatres rushed to
convert to sound
The 1920's
Vitaphone 1926-
1930
Sound on disc
The 1920's
Sound on film
The 1920's
Setback to
cinematic innovation
Could not move
camera
The 1920's
Some actors could
not make the
transition
Mary Pickford, John Gilbert & Clara Bow
The 1920's
Some actors could
Janet Gaynor, Ronald Coleman,
Greta Garbo & Carol Lombard
The 1920's
Sound ended the careers
of Douglas Fairbanks &
Mary Pickford
Chaplin was rich enough
to do what he wanted
and continued to make
silents - Cty Lghts
(1931)
Many people thought the
"art was lost with the
coming of sound.
$unset oue;ard
$unset oue;ard (1950)
Dir. by Billy Wilder,
written by Wilder &
longtime collaborator
Charles Brackett
With Gloria Swanson a
real silent star who never
made the transition to
"talkies
Probably first film
narrated by a dead man
(William Holden)
The 1920's
Billy Wilder, 1906-
2002
Started as a
screenwriter
Went on to become
one of the greatest
Hollywood directors
ever
$unset oue;ard
Gloria & Gloria
$unset oue;ard
Stars who played
themselves:
H.B. Warner, Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson
$unset oue;ard
Stars who played
themselves:
Cecil B. DeMille, Director and Hedda Hopper, Gossip Columnist
$unset oue;ard
Eric von Stroheim played
a version of himself (he
called it "that goddamned
butler part)
His last Hollywood film,
"ueen ey is used as
one of Norma
Desmond's films