Golden Age of Hollywood

The Golden Age of Hollywood was a period of great growth, experimentation and change in the industry that brought international prestige to Hollywood and its movie stars.
Under the all-controlling studio system of the era, five movie studios known as the “Big Five” dominated: Warner Brothers, RKO, Fox, MGM and Paramount. Smaller studios included Columbia, Universal and United Artists.
The Golden Age of Hollywood began with the silent movie era (though some people say it started at the end of the silent movie age). Dramatic films such as D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) and comedies such as The Kid (1921) starring Charlie Chaplin were popular nationwide. Soon, movie stars such as Chaplin, the Marx Brothers and Tallulah Bankhead were adored everywhere.
With the introduction of movies with sound, Hollywood producers churned out Westerns, musicals, romantic dramas, horror films and documentaries. Studio movie stars were even more idolized, and Hollywood increased its reputation as the land of affluence and fame.
During World War I, after President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany, the Big Five jumped on the political-propaganda bandwagon.
Often under pressure and guidance from the Wilson administration, they produced educational shorts and reels on war preparedness and military recruitment. They also lent out their wide roster of popular actors to promote America’s war efforts.
By the 1930s, at the height of Hollywood’s Golden Age, the movie industry was one of the largest businesses in the United States. Even in the depths of the Great Depression, movies were a weekly escape for many people who loved trading their struggles for a fictional, often dazzling world, if only for a couple of hours.
Despite the tough economic times, it’s estimated up to 80 million Americans went to the movies each week during the Depression.
Some of the greatest films made in all of Hollywood history were made in the late 1930s, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Gone with the Wind, Jezebel, A Star Is Born, Citizen Kane, The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach and Wuthering Heights.
Hollywood during World War II
As World War II dominated news headlines, people needed to laugh more than ever, and Hollywood was happy to oblige them. Movie studios created scripts for their funniest comedians such as Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Bob Hope and Jack Benny.
Pre-movie cartoon reels left audiences guffawing and were often used to promote war propaganda in a lighthearted way. On a serious note, documentary newsreels brought the realities of war to life in ways audiences had never experienced yet couldn’t resist.
But things weren’t business-as-usual in Hollywood. Movie studios had to prepare for civil defense and erected elaborate bomb shelters. Filming from the sea or near military installations was banned. Nighttime blackout rules prohibited filming at night.
In 1942, the War Production Board initiated a maximum $5,000 budget for new film sets, forcing movie studios to cut corners, recycle props and equipment and find creative and cheap ways to produce movies.
Many established movie stars enlisted in the armed forces, including Clark Gable, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart and Mickey Rooney. Hollywood actresses lent their stardom to the war effort by becoming pinups for love-starved GIs. Most Hollywood movie stars used their fame to help sell millions of war bonds.
In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled movie studios couldn’t own movie theaters that showed only their films. This was the beginning of the end of the Golden Age of Hollywood. The ruling forced the Big Five to sell their movie theaters and become more selective about the films they produced.
Movie studios were also bound by the Hays Code, a voluntary set of rules for censorship in movies. While not a major issue in the 1950s, it tied their hands even as audiences grew more liberal in the 1960s.
As television popularity exploded in the 1950s, movie attendance suffered. In the 1960s, foreign movie studios proved they could easily snag some of Hollywood’s glory with their James Bond franchise and movies such as Zulu and Lawrence of Arabia.
Finally, with the advent of tabloid magazines, many Hollywood stars were called out for scandal and questionable behavior, eradicating their wholesome images and knocking them from their lofty pedestals.
During the Cold War, paranoia grew in Hollywood and the rest of the United States over communism. In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a House of Representatives group who investigated potential communist ties, decided to investigate communism in films. At least 40 people in the movie industry were called to testify.
After the fiasco, the Hollywood Ten, not including Dmtryk, and anyone else in the industry suspected of supporting communism were blacklisted and denied work. Hundreds of actors, musicians, writers, producers and directors made the ignominious list, including Lena Horne, Orson Welles, Charlie Chaplin, Lloyd Bridges, Burl Ives and Anne Revere.
Second Golden Age of Hollywood
Some critics and movie fans regard the 1960s and 1970s as a second Golden Age of Hollywood, as the old studio system of the 1930s completely broke down and restrictions on sexual content, obscenity and violence loosened.
These changes gave groundbreaking directors like Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Mike Nichols, Francis Ford Coppola and others free reign over controversial content that definitely wasn’t “family-friendly.”
Noteworthy films that embraced the counterculture ethos of the 1960s and 1970s include Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Easy Rider, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Conversation, Mean Streets, The Godfather and All the President’s Men.
Reign of the Blockbuster
By the mid-1970s and 1980s, computer-assisted special effects had evolved and helped launch massive blockbuster action movies such as Jaws and the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. Feel-good movies like Rocky and E.T. sent moviegoers flocking to theaters and made their movie stars larger-than-life.
Movie ticket sales declined in the 1990s, Reign of the Blockbuster
By the mid-1970s and 1980s, computer-assisted special effects had evolved and helped launch massive blockbuster action movies such as Jaws and the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. Feel-good movies like Rocky and E.T. sent moviegoers flocking to theaters and made their movie stars larger-than-life.
Movie ticket sales declined in the 1990s, but Hollywood pressed on thanks to a surge in VCR video rentals and later, DVDs and Blue-Ray. With the 2000s came an increase in Disney movies, big-budget blockbusters and crude comedies.
Changing technology continues to move people to a more digital world and Hollywood has more exposure than ever. Yet in an era of economic inequality, many Americans today are much less enthralled with Hollywood movie stars and their glamorous lifestyle. Social media, tabloids, a 24-hour news cycle and online movie review websites can make or break movies, movie stars and movie industry professionals overnight.
As a result, Hollywood will no doubt remain on the cutting edge of technology and continue to evolve how they do business to stay relevant by engaging and entertaining audiences worldwide.

Blogger-Akash Shinde😍 (Assistant Director)

Student Of Journalism and Mass communication.