Hollywood

Between 1910 and 1915, the movie industry left New York and Edison's monopoly on licences to go to Hollywood where the land was cheap, and the landscape so varied that movies could be shot on location: sophisticated studio material was no more necessary. Besides the labor force was very numerous.

Right from the beginning, the western as well as the slapstick comedy – which was very popular among immigrant groups – made Hollywood's success.

With the development of the movie industry, appeared a need for concentration. Paramount, the first major (that is the biggest company), was thus founded by Adolph Zukor just after World War One.

Cinema was the most popular leisure activity and Hollywood films were widely broadcast overseas. Hollywood then became very attractive to directors and actors alike.

It also became very excessive. In 1930, widespread criticisms on contents and titles led to the adoption of the Hays' code which was to serve as a guideline for producers. The foundation of the "Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences" (January 1927) also contributed to create a new image for the industry.

Meanwhile, Fox and Warner experimented with sound and in 1927 the first talkie was released. Fox then developed Movietone techniques. The sound changed the acting style and the way of writing scripts.

Most screenwriters such as Dashiell Hammet were writers from New York. It was the climax of the star and studio systems. The majors were powerful and prided themselves on their All Stars Movies.

After the sound, the industry focused on color and the Technicolor era started in 1935. Hollywood had then really become the dream industry.
But the honeymoon was to end with the end of the Second World War.

The "Witch Hunt" (la « chasse aux sorcières », cf. Mac Carthy), which started in Hollywood in 1947, saw the exodus of many screenwriters and writers.

At the same time, the studios were accused of violating the anti-trust legislation and had to accept divorcement (that is separation of the different activities of the movies industry).

Finally, the birth of television confronted Hollywood with a new technological challenge. It relied on Cinemascope but people seemed to prefer their TV sets. Movies tended to be shot away from Hollywood, which annouced its decline.

In the sixties, New York seemed to be the place to be but the late seventies and early eighties proved that Hollywood was not dead yet. It now served as a reference for a new generation of movie makers whose films fed on the early years of the myth.