The Hollywood Studio System
1930-1949, part 2
Lecture 19
Studio System: Historical Outline
• b/t 1900-1925: 64 studios
• After 1930: 8 studios, collecting 95% of revenues
– “Big Five”
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Paramount (Adolph Zukor), formerly Famous-Players-Lasky
Loew’s MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
Twentieth Century Fox
Warner Brothers
Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO)—25% smaller
– “Little Three
• Universal (only production and distribution)
• Columbia (only production and distribution)
• United Artists (distribution for independents)
VERTICAL INTEGRATION, EARLY YEARS
• Begins with Adolph Zukor of Famous-PlayersLasky (later Paramount)
– Fallout from the MPPC
• 3-part strategy:
– 1) Differentiate Product
• “the star” and “contractual servitude”
– 2) Distribute nationally and internationally
– 3) Dominate exhibition through first-run theaters
VERTICAL INTEGRATION, CONT.
• By 1920, studio system faces three obstacles:
A) Government litigation
B) International Distribution
C) Threat of labor unrest
VERTICAL INTEGRATION, CONT.
• Solutions:
– Self-Regulation
• Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America
(MPPDA) established in 1922 with Will Hays as
president
– Prevent strict enforcement of anti-trust laws
– Regulate movie content
» “Hays Code” 1934-1968
– Worked with Federal government to get films into foreign
markets
• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1927)
Vertical Integration
• FDR’s National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
went into effect in 1933
– Sanctioned collusion
– Allowed for collective bargaining
HOW DID THE STUDIOS MAXIMIZE PROFITS?
• Theater ownership
– Block booking
• Practice of forcing exhibitors to take a studios entire annual
production
– Blind bidding
• Practice of forcing exhibitors to take films sight unseen
• Price discrimination
– Price depended on the “run”
• Run-zone-clearance system
– First “run”: first time shown
DEMISE OF THE STUDIO SYSTEM
• U.S. vs. Paramount case and the Paramount
decree of 1948
• Rise of television
• Suburbanization and baby boom
Screwball Comedy Cycle
(mid-1930s-early 1940s)
• Gained prominence with It happened One Night (Frank
Capra, 1934)
• Slapstick, wisecracks, comedy of manners, sexual
innuendo
• Ridiculous situations
• Fast-paced repartee
• Mistaken identities
• Preston Sturges:
– The Great McGinty (1939)
– Christmas in July (1940)
– The Lady Eve (1941)
The Social Problem Film
(30s, 40s, 50s)
• Dramatizes topical social issues like prison life, capital punishment,
poverty, capital punishment
• Conflict centers around the relation between an individual and
social institutions
• Reflected left-liberal political views in line with FDR’s New Deal
• Populism (“men of good will)
• Conflict b/t the forces of good and evil
• Traditional form
– Linear narratives
– Characters to identify with
– Happy ending
• Frank Capra:
– Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
– Meet John Doe (1941)
The Social Problem Film (cont.)
• Roffman and Purdy (1981):
– “[Social problem films] arouse indignation over
some facet of contemporary life, carefully
qualifying any criticism so that it can in the end be
reduced to simple causes, to a villain whose
removal rectified the situation. Allusions to the
genuine concerns of the audience play up
antisocial feelings only to exorcise them on safe
targets contained within a dramatic rather than a
social context.”
Meet John Doe
(Frank Capra, 1941)
How would you categorize Sullivan’s
Travels generically?
Screwball comedy or social problem film or…?