Films in the 1920's

History The first films were played in 1896. They were known as “motion pictures”. At this point, film making was a small business as not many could afford to see them. They had no sound, and were Black and White. They were short as well, averaging from 10-30 min.

The Roaring Twenties After the first World War came to an end, there was lots of money going around and films became very popular. During these years, the “motion pictures” began to be known as “movies”, the term used today. Here is an example of what they looked like...

Sound! The first films were known as “silent films” because they had no audio. The first films to have sound came out with just dialogue, no music or effects. They were known as “talkies”. This is when movies became very popular. Because of this popularity, movie production companies such as Paramount were born, and they made a lot of money...

The Big Five These were the biggest movie production companies at the time... 20th Century Fox Warner Brothers A Radio Picture Paramount Metro Goldwyn

The Little Three At the same time, there were three smaller companies... Universal United Artists Columbia

“Poverty Studios” However, all eight of these companies were huge compared to the “Poverty Studios”. But even these companies made a fair amount of profit... Disney Republic Pictures Selznick International Pictures

Theatres and “Theatre Chains”.... Back in the 1920’s theatres were known as “Picture Places”. Large companies owned multiple theatres, because the more theatres you had, the more money you made. These were known as theatre chains. For example, the “Allen Chain”, a Canadian company, started in 1906 and by 1919 it had 45 theatres. Later it was bought by the well known American company, “Famous Players”.

And on to the thirties…

Films in the 1930s! :)

Improvements Films have now reached the age of colour and sound! (the talkies) More genres of movies including : Comedies, Horror, Musicals, etc. Some actors experienced difficulty transitioning from silent movie to sound. Still known as “The golden ages of Hollywood

Depression Despite being the golden ages of film for Hollywood the depression affected the film industry quite a bit because of the economy, which meant a smaller audience in the theaters

The “Hays code” Hays code named after Will. H. Hays He created a list of topics for Hollywood films to AVOID This later became the “Product Code Administration” which was followed by nearly all if not all films at that time. In this age and time the product code has been changed.

Oh my! The Horror! The Dirty Thirties was also well known for having many of the iconic horror monsters in their films. Some examples: (1931) Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932) The Mummy, White zombie (1933) King Kong (1939) Hunchback of Notre Dame Werewolf in London ----------------->

The End…