“Everybody comes to Hollywood; they wanna make it in the neighborhood. They like the smell of it in Hollywood (…)”, lines of a famous Madonna song from last year. Hollywood, the purpose-built dream factory at the West Coast of the United States and the filmic center of the world produces countless films and movies every year. The unprecedented success story of the Californian film industry is a summary of work, imagination, hopes, and dreams of many talented and gifted human beings. The HOLLYWOOD sign atop of Mount Lee was erected in 1923. Originally, it read HOLLYWOODLAND and intended to draw attention to new housing developments in the nearby Hollywood Hills. Nowadays, the sign symbols the world’s gateway for fantasies and dreams. In the United States, the film industry started to emerge in New York City and was later joined by steadily growing and stronger forces in California. Over time, the center of the industry moved across the country and set foot in Los Angeles. Films started out with static, silent pictures and without sound. In 1928, sound was added to movies for the very first time, in that way giving birth to the film musical. Film musicals further encouraged fantasies and became one of the industry’s largest and most successful genres at the beginning of a new era. In the following paragraphs, I want to explain the formation of the talkies by means of one of its most successful divisions – the film musical. Altogether, when things happened, where, why, and in which order is not clearly recognizable any more. For these causes, I want to develop a strongly intertwined scheme of a cycle of histories as well as analyzing sociological, political, technological, ideological and other relevant factors of the time to describe the evolution and outstanding success of the Hollywood musical. First, technical advancements at the beginning of the last century and the birth of Hollywood have to be given a close look to examine the entertainment industry which grew rapidly around and after the turn from the 19th to the 20th century. The reason for this shift towards more time for leisure activities went hand in hand with the fewer hours workers had to spend for their duties, tasks and responsibilities. Originally intended to save labor capacity, industrial innovations like the assembly line and other new, time-saving technologies passed their ways through in the employment market. [...]
Table of Contents
I. Technical advancements at the beginning of the 20th century and the birth of Hollywood.
1. The entertainment industry grew rapidly around 1900.
a. Early forms of entertainment production.
b. Sound and music as a technology grew more important.
c. New innovations surfaced everywhere.
2. The birth of the film industry in California.
a. Shift from the East to the West Coast.
b. The film industry emerged on a broad scale level.
c. The studio system was established.
3. Vertical integration was the final accomplishment of the business.
II. Visionaries and Specialists in the film industry in the years 1930 to 1933.
1. Achievements were put to ‘perfection’ and sound was added to movies.
2. Innovative Professionals headed West.
a. Leading songwriters and Tin Pan Alley started to cooperate with studios.
b. New careers for Broadway celebrities in Hollywood.
c. Success and difficulties of the studios after 1930.
3. Busby Berkley as the master of this new genre.
a. Innovative camera work.
b. Idiosyncratic choreography and aesthetic mimicry.
4. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as the No.1 couple of the Depression.
III. Demographic and sociological facts play an important role in the success story of the film industry.
1. Constitution of the American People around the turn of the century.
a. Immigration numbers peaked and contributed to the gains.
b. Urbanization as another matter of cause.
c. The age structure of Americans played a significant role, too.
2. Sociological facts have to be investigated.
a. A shift in leisure activities occurred and the “Age of Play” was born.
b. Besides, the emerging star system contributed to the success.
c. Mass media further heated up the industry’s aura.
IV. A combination of inner and outer factors paved the way for the tremendous success of Hollywood and the film industry.
1. The Musicals themselves contribute largely to the triumph.
a. From Broadway to Hollywood.
b. Original musicals were transformed into filmic revues.
2. The dual structure of the musicals was a main factor for success.
a. Tensions among several parameters are observed.
b. A happy end is what the audiences wanted to experience.
Objectives and Research Themes
This work explores the evolution of the Hollywood film musical, analyzing how technological advancements, sociological shifts, and demographic changes converged to create one of the most successful genres in cinema history. The primary research goal is to understand how the film industry transitioned from silent movies to sound-based productions and how these musicals functioned as a mechanism for escapism and mass cultural formation during the Depression era.
- The impact of early 20th-century technical innovations on film production.
- The emergence of the studio system and vertical integration in Hollywood.
- The influence of demographic shifts, such as immigration and urbanization, on moviegoing habits.
- The role of the "star system" and Broadway influence in shaping the popularity of musical films.
- The function of musical cinema as a medium for social diversion during economic hardship.
Excerpt from the Book
Vertical integration was the final accomplishment of the business.
Vertical integration of a whole industry was the final and last step to be completed by the ever growing Hollywood studios. “The dismantling of the Trust paved the way for the surfacing of the classic ‘Big Five’ studios of the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’ ”, a group which included Twentieth-Century Fox, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), Warner Brothers, RKO, and Paramount” (Internet IV). In the early years of the studio system, vertical integration was not the norm. The cinema and movies, and more important in this aspect, the movie theaters and cinemas themselves, were a very new form of entertainment in the very two first decades of the 20th century. Hence, they lacked adequate technologies and often had to deal with only ill-equipped theaters and cinemas and so together with the far-reaching blindness to the ongoing changes in the poorly developed amusement industry, new structures were necessary for success.
Adolph Zukor of Paramount pioneered a system of vertically integrating the three major stages of film making; namely: production, distribution, and exhibition and gathered these processes under one company, a structure which was to be copied at once by the others. Formerly, sovereign exhibitors were free to decide which ‘background music’ or plays were to accompany the films they showed in their halls. But with rapid changes going on these days, their independence was counted and “in 1921, Paramount owned and operated already 303, cinemas and the days of the independent exhibitors were numbered (…). This movement towards vertical integration was in many ways a prerequisite for the full commercial introduction of synchronized sound in the cinema in the mid- to late 1920s” (Mundy 37).
Summary of Chapters
I. Technical advancements at the beginning of the 20th century and the birth of Hollywood.: This chapter details the rise of the entertainment industry around 1900, the migration of film production from the East Coast to California, and the birth of the studio system.
II. Visionaries and Specialists in the film industry in the years 1930 to 1933.: This section examines the transition to sound, the impact of Broadway talent on Hollywood, and the contributions of figures like Busby Berkeley and the pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
III. Demographic and sociological facts play an important role in the success story of the film industry.: This chapter analyzes how immigration, the "Age of Play," and urbanization contributed to the creation of a massive, receptive audience for film musicals.
IV. A combination of inner and outer factors paved the way for the tremendous success of Hollywood and the film industry.: The final chapter synthesizes how the structure of the musicals themselves, characterized by their "happy end" formula and escapist nature, solidified the genre's triumph during the Great Depression.
Keywords
Hollywood, Film Musical, Studio System, Vertical Integration, Sound Film, Great Depression, Broadway, Urbanization, Star System, Mass Culture, Escapism, Choreography, Narrative, Spectacle, Leisure Society
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary subject of this research?
The work examines the development of the Hollywood film musical as a major cultural and economic phenomenon, focusing on the period between the early 20th century and the mid-1930s.
What are the core themes addressed in the text?
The main themes include the evolution of film technology (specifically sound), the socio-economic impact of the Great Depression, the shift in labor and leisure time, and the influence of Broadway on cinematic narratives.
What is the research goal?
The study aims to explain the formation of the "talkies" and the outstanding commercial success of the film musical by analyzing the interaction between technological, sociological, and ideological factors.
Which methodologies were applied?
The author employs a historical analysis of the film industry, examining business structures like vertical integration and investigating how demographic data (age, immigration, urbanization) correlates with the growth of the cinema as a form of mass entertainment.
What topics are covered in the main body?
The main body covers the birth of the studio system, the transition from silent movies to synchronized sound, the role of key figures like Busby Berkeley and the Astaire-Rogers duo, and the dual nature of musical narratives in providing social diversion.
Which keywords characterize this work?
Key terms include Hollywood, Film Musical, Studio System, Vertical Integration, Great Depression, Escapism, and Mass Culture.
How did vertical integration contribute to the film industry?
Vertical integration allowed studios to control production, distribution, and exhibition, ensuring efficient operations and a direct path to the consumer, which was essential for the commercial success of synchronized sound films.
Why were "diversion films" so successful during the Great Depression?
These films offered audiences an escape from the harsh economic realities of the time, providing a spectacle of beauty, love, and "happy ends" that contrasted sharply with the struggles of daily life in the 1930s.
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- Christian Simon (Autor:in), 2004, From Broadway to Hollywood - The Evolution of Sound in Film Musicals, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/30308
