1. Early Swashbuckler

2. Zorro and Robin Hood 

3. Co-Founder of United Artists

4. Marries Mary Pickford after divorcing previous spouse, this is one of the first "Hollywood" marriages. 

Balaban, Katz, Roxy (Picture Palaces)

1. Glamorous Movie Theatres

2. Beautiful architecture and theming

3. Usher service, food occasionally served

4. Full orchestral accompaniment

5. Theory was to enhance the movie-going experience and to truly make it a departure from normalty. 

1. Hungarian large theatre-chain owner who wanted to go into production.

2. Famous Plays with Famous Players

3. Merged w/ Hodkinson to create Paramount Pictures

4. Out-competed the Trust

Carl Laemmle 

1. Owned lots of nickelodeons, but wanted to go into production. 

2. Created IMP; independent motion pictures

3. First to understand the star system: bought the "biograph girl" Florence Lawrence and began marketing her by name on films.

4. Staged first publicity stunt. 

5. IMP --> Universal (later)

1. Contemporary/associate of Muybridge in the "Horse Gait Debate." 

2. Had the photographic gun and also studied animal locomotion.

George Melies

1. Master/Pioneer of Trick Photography

2. Progenitor of Science Fiction

(he was French)

3. Trip to the Moon

4. Hugo

WKL Dickson

1. Invented the Kinteoscope and Kinteograph under Edison's direction at Edison studios.

2. Eventually ditched Edison who he felt was using him and created Biograph (w/ Biograph & Mutoscope).

Edwaerd Muybridge

1. Studier of human & animal locomotion

2. Hired by Leland Stanford to settle his horse debate

3. Used high-speed photography to prove that indeed, four hooves leave the ground during a horses gallop. 

1. Liked to think of himself as inventor of cinema. Not really true.

2. WKL Dickson invented the Kinteoscope/graph under his supervision.

3. Gobbled up all the patents in the U.S. he could, even if he had little grounds for them.

4. Formed the "Trust" or the Motion Picture Patents Co w/ several other studios in an attempt to monopolize the industry. 

United Artists

1. Co-Founded by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and DW Griffith

2. The actors were worried that their salaries may be lowered due to non-competitiveness. 

3. Also worried Paramount would absorb First National. 

1. First "flapper." Modern women w/ short hair that was all for women's rights.

2. She was known as the "It" girl: drank from a flask, danced the charleston, had short bobbed hair. 

Cecil B. DeMille

1. Made The Squaw Man, first feature film

2. Made high-budget, simpler films where the "money was on the screen" in elaborate sets and costumes. 

3. Leading director at Paramount for a long time. 

Harold Lloyd

1. All-american, nerdy boy.

2. Human fly, always climbing shit

3. Famous for hanging from clocktower.

4. Contemporary of Keaton/Chaplin

5. Retired into extravagence w/ transistion to sound, owned "Green Acres" largest property in BV Hills. 

Film Industry in Depression

1. Struggled as many studios went into bankruptcy or recievership. 

2. MGM did very well during depression.

3. Concession sales began with and endured following the depression because it was found highly profitable.

4. Double billing was also very popular. 

1. Worked for Edison initially. Basically "borrowed" / stole camera from Edison, learned how it worked and copied it. 

2. Created the vitagraph camera and studios. 

1.Experimented with sound-on-disc synchronized sound.

1b. Created the technology w/ help of audion tube. 

2. No studio wanted it, but Warner Brothers, who did. 

3. Called there system intially Vitaphone, but then ditched that company when they realized they could market sync sound to the other studios in the industry. 

4. They had a monopoly on telecommunications in the United States for a very long time. 

The Jazz Singer

1. Warner Brothers were pressing their advantage with their lead in sound innovation. 

2. Only partially in sound but hugely successful. 

3. Starred singer/stage performer Al Johnson

Birth of Hollywood

1. 350 sunny days

2. Variety of scenery

3. Cheap labor and property

4. Distance from New York & "Trust"

5. Mystique of "Hollywood"

1. Storefront peepshows that cost a nickel.

2. Lated 60-90 seconds

3. Kinetoscope or mutoscope, likely. 

1. Started w/ merger of Zukor's production company Famous Players and Hodkinson's smaller distribution conglomerate. 

2. Zukor bought out and took over Paramount intially making 100 films a year, scaled back to 50

1. Began w/ attempted to mechanically sync w/ edison's kinetophone. These were hella shitty. 

2. Audion Tube and "Optical Sound" invented by Lee De Forest, but ignore by all studios as risky/unneccessary. 

3. AT&T goes back to mechanically sync'd sound w/ electric triggers, it works well but only W.B. buys in. 

4. WB profits from their decision to invest in vitagraph and rest of hollywood follows suit

Erich Von Stroheim

1. Kind of a weirdo

2. Highly-artistic protege of DW Griffith

3. Wanted adult films w/ dark, heavy, hard-hitting themes

4. Liked/wanted to include graphic sex scenes 

5. Wore out his welcome just about everywhere

1. Mentor to Chaplin @ Keystone. 

2. Scandal w/ rape & murder of Virginia Rappe.

3. Acquitted but career irrevocably ruined. 

1. Made huge money-making films but also made smaller, more-artistic films interspersed in there as well. 

2. Worked w/ MGM and RKO. 

1. Was the manager of MGM and built the studio into one of the most financially successful studios.

2. Appointed w/ the merger of Loew's Inc, Goldwyn Pictures, and Metro distribution by Loew. 

3. MGM only studio to pay divedends during depression. 

1. Enormous return on concession sales. 

2. Popcorn particularly profitable w/ like ten-fold return. 

3. Coca-Cola in paper cups also popular. 

4. Came about during the depression when exhibitors struggled. 

1. "America's Sweetheart" star who played the sweet virginal girl roles for a very long time (too long?)

2. Also a co-founder of United Artists. 

3. Married Fairbanks and created "Pickfair" in BV Hills. 

1. Mid-Level producer/distributor (Rin Tin Tin dog films)

2. Goldman Sachs and Watchill Catchings i-banks thought they were poised for growth

3. WB takes gamble on Vitaphone technology presented by AT&T / Western Electric and experiments w/ it. 

4. After some short subjects, make Jazz Singer to huge success, they grow something like ten-fold over two years. 

1. Creator of hollywood studio system.

2. Method of mass production. 

3. Story-based, encouraged screenplays and essentially generated role of screenwriter. 

4. Producers stuck to the screenplay. 

5. Division of labor encouraged specialization. 

6. Studio system churned out high-quality films en masse and the broad-based culture of US got international attention. 

1. Cinematography

2. Lighting

3. Acting

4. Editing

5. Biography

6. Intolerance

7. Birth of a Nation

8. United Artists

9. Lost prominence as role of artistic people declined. 

1. Tad bit racist. 

2. The Clansman source material

3. Southern perspective on post-war

4. Glorifies & Legitimizes KKK

5. Huge boost in recruiting

6. Longest feature film to date and earns DW lots of $

7. Griffith would spend a long time defending it.

1. HUGE budget

2. Griffith trying to fix image

3. Four interweaving stories across time

4. Criticized intolerance throughout history

5. Too avant-garde and too complicated

1. HAYS CODE

2. DW GRIFFITH

3. SYNCHRONIZED SOUND

(these are my guesses)

1. RCA was shut out of Hollywood so they bought up a bunch of smaller divisions to create a radio/film conglomerate

2. RKO became a major