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1.3 THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF CINEMA 1917-1945, maxresdefault, jazzsinger, page…
1.3 THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF CINEMA 1917-1945
By 1917 movies were the biggest entertainment media in the USA.
However, before 1920s movies had no sound.
In 1927 the first talkie came out, 'The Jazz Singer'. But it shook the industry as there were stars who looked good but did not sound right.
After the FWW movies gave the public an evening out.
By the 1930s Cinemas changed their feature movie twice a week. There was a B-Movies, short cartoon and newsreels.
By the 1940s there were 10,500,000 movies seats one for every 12.5 people.
The movies then created a market for fan magazines.
There were magazines devoted to the lives of Holywood stars
In the late 1930s there were 20 fan magazines with a circulation of 200,000 to 1,000,000 readers
The movies offered escapism and Clara Bow became a popular figure as she was the 'it' girl.
She specialised in flapper roles and people asked for the 'bow cut'
THE STUDIO SYSTEM
By 1930/40 90% of movies were made in Hollywood.
8 companies that had total control of staff and stars.
They chose what movies to make and what age classifications they were.
Cheapest B-Movies had a budget of 50,000 and 100,000 and were most of the output during the depression.
A-Movies were 200,000 to 500,000 to make.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE STARS
Stars were expected to behave in a way that reflected their image.
However, some stars took drugs, had parties and had casual sex and this was reported in gossip magazines.
Big stars earnt big shirely Temple earnt 5,000 a month.
Stars could earn money by sponship. MGM made a 500,000 with coca cola for sponsorship.
The monopoly of the studios meant that if a star was blacklisted they could not work for anywhere else.
REGULATING THE MOVIES
There was criticism towards the movie industry as it was seen as promoting bad values. EG Women were scantily dressed and drank and smoked, whilst gangster genre promoted violence.
From 1929-1930 the government produced the hays code and all movies had to conform to the code.
Studios had to make stars sign up to a 'morality' clause.
Hays code outlined that no crime should be presented in detail and that no swearing.
