American Cinema In The First Half Of The 20th Century

“Write an essay analysing, with examples, why the cinema of the United States of America (Hollywood) came to dominate over all other national cinemas, including British cinema, during the first half of the twentieth century.”

Movies have captured the mind and imagination of billions since the start of the 20th Century; but one industry has proceeded to monopolise the whole business since the birth of film; Hollywood. From the early Penny Arcades to modern day multi-storey cinema complexes; Hollywood’s productions’ have been a mainstay through the generations and continue to grow to this day. From the flawless settings in California to the cost effective land and labour, Hollywood hit the ground running and hasn’t stopped since.
Adolph Zukor, Carl Laemmle and William Fox emigrated to the USA in the early 1900’s to pursue the American Dream. To find a way around Thomas Edison’s Motion Pictures Patents Trust (MPPT), which restricted the importation of foreign films, they moved to California, The MPPT demanded that people pay license fees to produce their own films and Laemmle handed in his license and moved west to begin his own company, ‘Universal’. Zukor and Fox followed suit and also moved to California where they started Paramount and 20th Century Fox respectively. First and foremost businessmen, they realised that audiences were becoming bored with short films only one reel long and so they began to import movies illegally from abroad to test the market for longer films at around four reels. Zukor imported a four reel French film, ‘Queen Elizabeth’, which starred stage actress Sarah Bernhardt and this film had great success. They settled in California, and eventually Hollywood, which provided a great setting for shooting movies. Plenty of sunshine gave clear, sharp light for shooting, Cheap land and cheap labour made it cost effective to film movies, and the various landscapes delivered different settings to shoot in.
In terms of making movies, California offered so much more than Britain for the three men. The sunshine all year round in California gave a better picture for shooting, in comparison to the dull, cloudy weather of parts of Europe, especially Britain. Other parts of America, such as New York, didn’t match the ‘sunshine state’. Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell note in ‘Film History’ (1994) that the clear, dry weather in California allowed for filming almost 365 days a year and along with the vast array of landscapes on offer made a variety of genres available to shoot for. They also wrote that Western movies excelled in California due to desert landscapes in the state, as opposed to them not being as realistic if filmed elsewhere. Movies made in California became more popular than ones made elsewhere; the clear, sharp light offered in the west led to a better picture in the film, meaning that they made more money than films made in locations where the weather wasn’t as kind. By being more popular, the movies raked in a larger profit and helped to establish Hollywood’s dominance in the film industry.
The availability of land and labour for cheap prices in the west meant that the producers could make a film of a better quality with the same amount of money. By hiring good actors for less it meant that for a cut-price, movies could still attract a large audience due to the quality of acting, without having to worry about spending too much. This was a benefit in Hollywood that Britain didn’t have and meant that Hollywood had spare money to spend on other aspects of film-making. Actors were not given recognition in credits of movies either, in order to keep costs as low as possible, because the fame would allow for the actors to seek improved wages.
The cheap land allowed for Laemmle, Zukor and Fox to start their own movie studios for a cost effective amount. Others started to see the window of opportunity in California too, stage actor Thomas Ince moved there in 1910 and only 6 years later had renovated

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American Cinema In The First Half Of The 20th Century

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American Cinema In The First Half Of The 20th Century

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