Film History Part II 1/2
A continuation …
MGM
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The company went through several name
changes, partnerships and re-partnerships
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Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg were two big
names involved in this company.
The MGM lion roared for the first recorded and
viewed in a film in 1928
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The Big Parade (1925)
Broadway Melody (1929)
Grand Hotel (1932)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Other MGM productions
Tarzan films
 Tom and Jerry Cartoons
 Stars:
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 Greta
Garbo
 Clark Gable
 Spencer Tracy
Garbo, Gable, Tracy
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Fox Film (1912) . . .
20TH - Century Fox (1935)
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Originally founded by William Fox
 Known
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for B-westerns
Once 20th – Century Fox, Became famous
for Shirley Temple films in the mid-30s
and Betty Grable musicals in the 40s
Temple, Grable
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Little Three Studios
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Lacked one element of vertical integration: they
did not own their own theatres
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Universal Pictures
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United Artists
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W.C.Fields, Abbott and Costello, Flash Gordon and Woody
Woodpecker
Formed in 1919 by Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie
Chaplin and D.W. Griffith
Columbia Pictures
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Founded in 1920 by Jack and Harry Cohn and Joseph Brandt
Rita Hayworth films, Batman serials
View - Charlie Chaplin
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The Movie Palace
Major studios built luxurious ‘picture
palaces’ designed for an orchestra to play
along with the projected films.
 First opened in New York City in 1914
 Roxy Theatre opened in NYC in 1927
seating 6,200.
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 Cost
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about $10 million to build!
Unsurpassed until Radio City Musical Hall
opened five years later!
Before the movie palace . . .
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The Roxy
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Radio City Music Hall
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Grauman’s theatres
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Sid Grauman built server movie palaces in
Los Angeles during this time period
 Million
Dollar Theater (Feb 1918, 2,345 seats)
 Egyptian Theatre (1922, 1,760 seats)
 Chinese Theater (May 1927, 2,258 seats)
 Opened
 He
with Cecil B. DeMille’s King of Kings
started the tradition of having stars leave
their prints in cement in front of the theater.
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Pickfair the 1st celebrity super couple:
Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks
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Two of the biggest silent movie stars
“America’s Sweetheart” divorced her husband, Douglas
Fairbanks, Sr, divorced his wife and the two wed in
March 1920
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A major cultural event AND quite the scandal!
Began the tradition of movie stars moving to the Hollywood hills.
Stayed married until 1935
Her “bob” hair cut was the first fashion trend to
come from moviedom! (1928)
The Taming of the Shrew (1929) the first
(and only) film that co-starred both actors.
It was a “talkie” version
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Other BIG names:
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Harold Lloyd, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph
Valentino, Norma Shearer, John
Barrymore, Greta Garbo, Clara Bow
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“Sweethearts” Janet Gaynor and Charles
Farrell were paired in 12 films
Lloyd, Swanson, Valentino,
Barrymore, Bow
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Cecil B. DeMille
Extravagance!
 Huge Budgets
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 The
 Till
Ten Commandments (1923)
I Come Back to You (1918)
 Old Wives for New (1918)
 Don’t Change Your Husband (1919)
 The Affairs of Anatol (1921)
The Birth of the Talkies
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Late 1920s . . .