THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE HOLLYWOOD STUDIO SYSTEM
THE EARLY YEARS – LATE 1920S and 1930s
THE MAJORS
Paramount Pictures
Mogul: Adolph Zukor
Known for: concentrated on the acquisition of theater chains – excelled in film made by European directors and
stars (Valentino, Dietrich, Chevalier)
M-G-M
Moguls: Louis B. Mayer, Irving Thalberg
Known for: most successful studio of the 1930s, “more stars than there are in the heavens” – Garbo, Crawford,
Gable, Harlow, Garland, Rooney – “ars gratia artis” (“art for art’s sake”)
20th Century-Fox
Mogul: Darryl Zanuck
Known for: targeted a rural audience (few urban or ethnic stars) – Shirley Temple, Will Rogers - among the first
to pioneer sound technology (acquired patent rights to a German process) – after 1935, placed emphasis on
technical polish and visual gloss, with more glamorous stars (Loretta Young, Betty Grable)
Warner Bros.
Moguls: Harry, Jack, Albert and Sam Warner (especially Jack)
Known for: working-class, urban, gritty films – specialized in gangster films (Bogart, Cagney, Edward G.
Robinson), early musicals (Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Busby Berkeley) – produced The Jazz Singer
RKO
Mogul: David O. Selznick (briefly); no influential artistic head during the classic era
Known for: a mostly shaky history, but flourished in the 1930s -- enjoyed a long partnership with Astaire and
Rogers – later, was the studio that made Citizen Kane, and the only major studio to ultimately fail – owned by
Howard Hughes for some time, and suffered economic problems during his reign in the late 40s and early 50s was purchased in 1957 by 2 former contract players, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and became Desilu
THE MINORS
Universal
Mogul: Carl Laemmle
Known for: excelled in horror film in the early 1930s (Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi)
Columbia
Mogul: Harry Cohn
Known for: grew more successful/major in the 30s – reputation made by It Happened One Night in 1934 –
Capra, Howard Hawks, Cary Grant
United Artists
Moguls: founded in 1919 by Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, D.W. Griffith
Known for: 1st studio established by artists, not businessmen – function was to finance and distribute movies
independent of the Hollywood system in hopes of producing quality films
POVERTY ROW
less powerful, less influential studios established in the 1930s to make B movies to fill second half of double bills
– Republic, Monogram, Grand National, etc. – some of these (especially Republic) established more solid
reputations by making occasional better-quality films