THE GOLDEN AGE OF HOLLYWOOD THE 1930’S THE GOLDEN AGE OF HOLLYWOOD

THE GOLDEN 30’S The 1930s decade has been nostalgically labeled "The Golden Age of Hollywood" The 30s was also the decade of sound and color revolutions and the advance of the 'talkies', and the further development of film genres. gangster films musicals newspaper-reporting films historical biopics social-realism films lighthearted screwball comedies westerns horror

THE GOLDEN 30’S As the 1930s began, there were a number of unique firsts. young 'platinum blonde' star Jean Harlow appeared in her first major role in Howard Hughes' World War I aviation epic, Hell's Angels (1930); the "Blonde Bombshell" was signed by MGM in 1932 and soon became a major star!

THE GOLDEN 30’S The first of Hollywood's dramatic prison dramas (a new subgenre) was produced by MGM, The Big House (1930), directed by George Hill. In 1930, the Motion Picture Production Code, administered by Joseph I. Breen set film guidelines regarding sex, violence, religion, and crime (not yet strictly enforced until the Production Code Administration (1934) B-actor John Wayne made his debut in his first major role in a western directed by Raoul Walsh, The Big Trail (1930) Curly-topped, dimpled child star Shirley Temple appeared in her first films, an Our Gang type series of shorts titled Baby Burlesks (1933)

THE GOLDEN 30’S The first appearance of the cartoon character Popeye was in the Betty Boop cartoon from Paramount and Max Fleischer, Popeye the Sailor. The world's first drive-in theatre opened in Camden, N.J. in June, 1933; the fourth drive-in was located on Pico in Los Angeles, CA and opened in September, 1934. Walt Disney's 8-minute The Wise Little Hen (1934) featured the first appearance of Donald Duck.

THE SOUND ERA IS COMING OF AGE Most of the early talkies were successful at the box-office, but many of them were of poor quality. dialogue-dominated play adaptations, with stilted acting (from inexperienced performers) and an unmoving camera or microphone. Screenwriters were required to place more emphasis on characters in their scripts. title-card writers became unemployed☹

Rouben Mamoulian Rouben Mamoulian, a successful Broadway director, refused to keep the cumbersome sound cameras pinned to the studio floor, and demonstrated a graceful, rhythmic, fluid, choreographed flowing style in his films. his directorial debut film, Applause (1929) was one of the first great American musicals starring legendary Roaring 20s torch singer Helen Morgan in her first film role. Applause also introduced a revolutionary sound technique: a double-channel soundtrack with overlapping dialogue.

Two-Color and Three-Color Technicolor One of the first 'color' films was Thomas Edison's hand-tinted short Annabell's Butterfly Dance. Two-color (red and green) feature films were the first color films produced, including the first two- color feature film The Toll of the Sea, and then better-known films such as Stage Struck (1925) and The Black Pirate (1926). It would take the development of a new three-color camera, in 1932, to usher in true full-color Technicolor.