History MediaNotes / TheSilentAgeOfHollywood

As early as 1915, the Los Angeles area had outpaced New York in terms of motion picture output, and by the end of the decade, the United States had claimed the title once held by France and Italy (whose film industries had been devastated by UsefulNotes/WorldWarI) as the film capital of the world. During the Silent Era, seven of Hollywood's "Big Eight" studios emerged -- Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer (the product of a 1924 merger of three companies), [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Paramount Pictures]], Creator/FirstNationalPictures (acquired by Creator/WarnerBros in 1928), Fox Film Corporation (merged with [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox Twentieth Century Pictures]] in 1935), [[Creator/{{Universal}} Universal Pictures]], Creator/ColumbiaPictures, and Creator/UnitedArtists. (The eighth, Creator/RKOPictures, was a very minor studio in the silent era called Film Booking Offices of America.) It was also in this era that the "studio system" and the "star system" began to develop, forming the bedrock of Hollywood until the mid-20th century. More information on these systems can be found in the section on UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood, which is when they reached their zenith.

The Silent Age of Hollywood is generally held to have lasted from 1911, with the opening of the first Hollywood studios, to 1927, with the release of ''Film/TheJazzSinger'', the first movie to include scenes with synchronized speech, and 1928, when ''Film/LightsOfNewYork'', the first full-length 100% "talkie", came out. See UsefulNotes/RiseOfTheTalkies for what happened then.

For what was going on in animation of the time, see UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfAnimation.

!! History

!! Mechanics

The early assumption that ''all'' silent films were shot at 16 fps led to further complications. In practice, some films were shot at as few as 14 or as many as 26-30 fps. It is believed, for example, that Film/{{Metropolis}} was shot at around 20 fps, and there is still [[http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s3200frame.html much debate]] about its correct projection speed.

!! Preservation

There is one major exception: Dawson City, in the Yukon Territory in Canada, was the last destination for film distribution and returning the reels was often not considered worth the trouble. So it was stored indefinately, which resulted in a number of fires, until hundreds of films, when not just thrown into the river, were buried under a swimming pool and largely forgotten. Since those buried reels were stored in the area's permafrost, they were largely preserved until they were dug up in 1978. By that time, the archival value of such film was recognised and arrangements were made to deliver them south, although the assistance of the Canadian Armed Forces was necessary as no civilian delivery company wanted to transport such chemically volatile and flammable materials on their vehicles. Eventually, the reels were divided between Archives Canada and the US Library of Congress for preservation on safety stock and you can see selections of the films in the documentary, ''Dawson City: Frozen Time''.

The Library of Congress estimates that [[https://www.theatlantic.com/thewire/redirect/355775/ 75% of silent films produced in the United States have been lost]]. The Film Foundation ([[Creator/MartinScorsese Marty Scorsese's]] outfit) asserts that 90% of the released films from this period have been lost, mostly to a few spectacular fires in studio film vaults; that film stock in use at the time was based on cellulose nitrate, aka "gun cotton", which is highly flammable (and safer cellulose acetate film stock was not developed until decades later). Thus film preservation was liable to such fires for decades, and since film was usually not considered to have much long-term value anyway, simply disposing of it was often considered the best thing to do for economic and safety reasons.

The Library of Congress estimates that [[https://www.theatlantic.com/thewire/redirect/355775/ 75% of silent films produced in the United States have been lost]]. The Film Foundation ([[Creator/MartinScorsese Marty Scorsese's]] outfit) asserts that 90% of the released films from this period have been lost, mostly to a few spectacular fires in studio film vaults. The problem of that time is that film celluloid was based on a nitrate compound, which was highly flammable, and safer film stock was not developed until decades later. Thus film preservation was liable to such fires for decades, and since film was usually not considered to have much long-term value anyway, simply disposing of it was often considered the best thing to do for economic and safety reasons.

In the 1920s, Hollywood reached a level of film output that has only been matched since then by UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}}, with over ''eight hundred'' feature films being made per year. Initially, the studios tried to keep their actors anonymous to prevent them from becoming stars and demanding more money with their popularity, but ultimately proved impossible with a moviegoing public too curious to be denied knowing about the players. Notable stars of the silent era included Creator/CharlieChaplin, Creator/BusterKeaton, Creator/LillianGish, Creator/JohnGilbert, Creator/ClaraBow, Creator/DouglasFairbanks, Creator/GloriaSwanson, Creator/MaryPickford and child stars Creator/JackieCoogan and Creator/BabyPeggy. The main competition that Hollywood had during this time came from {{vaudeville}}, a popular type of theater show consisting of acts by musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians and acrobats. During this era, vaudeville had the chief advantage of having sound to back up what was going on on stage, [[SilenceIsGolden which film didn't]]. But not for long...

It began in 1911, when a number of filmmakers from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, seething at the restrictions placed on the industry by UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison's Motion Picture Patents Company, moved west to UsefulNotes/{{California}} to escape the reach of his lawyers and set up the first film studio in Hollywood, a trolley suburb of UsefulNotes/LosAngeles that the fast-growing city had annexed a year ago. In 1924, to promote a new subdivision named Hollywoodland, a certain now-famous sign was erected (the "LAND" part was removed in 1949).

There is one major exception: Dawson City, in the Yukon Territory in Canada, was the last destination for film distribution and returning the reels was often not considered worth the trouble. So it was stored, which result in a number of fires, until hundreds of films, when not thrown into the river, buried under a swimming pool and largely forgotten. Since those buried reels were stored in the area's permafrost, they were largely preserved until they were dug up in 1978. By that time, the archival value of such film was recognised and arrangements were made to deliver them south, although the assistance of the Canadian Armed Forces was necessary as no civilian delivery company wanted to transport such chemically volatile and flammable materials on their vehicles. Eventually, the reels were divided between Archives Canada and the US Library of Congress and you can see selections of the films in the documentary, ''Dawson City: Frozen Time''.

There is one major exception: Dawson City, in the Yukon Territory in Canada, was the last destination for film distribution and returned the reels was often not considered worth the trouble. So it was stored, which result in a number of fires, until hundreds of films, when not thrown into the river, buried under a swimming pool and largely forgotten. Since those buried reels were stored in the area's permafrost, they were largely preserved until they were dug up in 1978. By that time, the archival value of such film was recognised and arrangements were made to deliver them south, although the assistance of the Canadian Armed Forces was necessary as no civilian delivery company wanted to transport such chemically volatile and flammable materials on their vehicles. Eventually, the reels were divided between Archives Canada and the US Library of Congress and you can see selections of the films in the documentary, ''Dawson City: Frozen Time''.

There is one major exception: Dawson City, in the Yukon Territory in Canada, was the last destination for film distribution and returned the reels was often not considered worth the trouble. So it was stored, which result in a number of fires, until hundreds of films, when not thrown into the river, buried under a swimming pool and largely forgotten. Since those buried reels were stored in the area's permafrost, they were largely preserved until they were dug up in 1976. By that time, the archival value of such film was recognised and arrangements were made to deliver them south, although the assistance of the Canadian Armed Forces was necessary as no civilian delivery company wanted to transport such chemically volatile and flammable materials on their vehicles. Eventually, the reels were divided between Archives Canada and the US Library of Congress and you can see selections of the films in the documentary, ''Dawson City: Frozen Time''.

In this era, film truly began to take off as a form of popular entertainment. The 1915 EpicMovie ''Film/{{The Birth of a Nation|1915}}'' pioneered a long list of filmmaking techniques and tropes, proved that cinema was commercially viable, and stirred a whole pot of controversy with its heavy-duty UnfortunateImplications. Unfortunately, there was also the case of Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio in 1917 that had the US Supreme Court say that film as a medium was not a legitimate form of speech, but merely a product of a business, which made it open season for censorship for decades until the Supreme Court finally corrected this misjudgment in 1952 in the Miracle Decision.

The Library of Congress estimates that [[https://www.theatlantic.com/thewire/redirect/355775/ 75% of silent films produced in the United States have been lost]]. The Film Foundation ([[Creator/MartinScorsese Marty Scorsese's]] outfit) asserts that 90% of the released films from this period have been lost, mostly to a few spectacular fires in studio film vaults.

It began in 1911, when a number of filmmakers from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, seething at the restrictions placed on the industry by UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison's Motion Picture Patents Company, moved west to UsefulNotes/{{California}} to escape the reach of his lawyers and set up the first film studio in UsefulNotes/{{Hollywood}}, a trolley suburb of UsefulNotes/LosAngeles that the fast-growing city had annexed a year ago. In 1924, to promote a new subdivision named Hollywoodland, a certain now-famous sign was erected (the "LAND" part was removed in 1949).

It began in 1911, when a number of filmmakers from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, seething at the restrictions placed on the industry by UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison's Motion Picture Patents Company, moved west to California to escape the reach of his lawyers and set up the first film studio in UsefulNotes/{{Hollywood}}, a trolley suburb of UsefulNotes/LosAngeles that the fast-growing city had annexed a year ago. In 1924, to promote a new subdivision named Hollywoodland, a certain now-famous sign was erected (the "LAND" part was removed in 1949).

As early as 1915, the Los Angeles area had outpaced New York in terms of motion picture output, and by the end of the decade, the United States had claimed the title once held by France and Italy (whose film industries had been devastated by UsefulNotes/WorldWarI) as the film capital of the world. During the Silent Era, seven of Hollywood's "Big Eight" studios emerged -- Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer (the product of a 1924 merger of three companies), [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Paramount Pictures]], First National (acquired by Creator/WarnerBros in 1928), Fox Film Corporation (merged with [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox Twentieth Century Pictures]] in 1935), [[Creator/{{Universal}} Universal Pictures]], Creator/ColumbiaPictures, and Creator/UnitedArtists. (The eighth, Creator/RKOPictures, was a very minor studio in the silent era called Film Booking Offices of America.) It was also in this era that the "studio system" and the "star system" began to develop, forming the bedrock of Hollywood until the mid-20th century. More information on these systems can be found in the section on UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood, which is when they reached their zenith.

The Los Angeles area attracted filmmakers for several reasons: its [[ItsAlwaysSpring perpetually warm and sunny climate]] allowing for constant film production with little regard to seasonal shifts in the weather, a relative abundance of cheap labor due to its proximity to Mexico, and a favorable court ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (which covered the West Coast) that restricted Edison's ability to enforce patent law there. Another popular early destination, for many of the same reasons, was Hobe Sound, Florida, which was built up into the motion picture production center of "Picture City" during the Florida land boom in TheRoaringTwenties. However, the busting of the Florida real estate bubble in 1926, coupled with the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, derailed these plans.

In the 1920s, Hollywood reached a level of film output that has only been matched since then by UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}}, with over ''eight hundred'' feature films being made per year. Initially, the studios tried to keep their actors anonymous to prevent them from becoming stars and demanding more money with their popularity, but ultimately proved impossible with a moviegoing public too curious to be denied knowing about the players. Notable stars of the silent era included Creator/CharlieChaplin, Creator/BusterKeaton, Creator/LillianGish, Creator/JohnGilbert, Creator/ClaraBow, Creator/DouglasFairbanks, Creator/MaryPickford and child stars Creator/JackieCoogan and Creator/BabyPeggy. The main competition that Hollywood had during this time came from {{vaudeville}}, a popular type of theater show consisting of acts by musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians and acrobats. During this era, vaudeville had the chief advantage of having sound to back up what was going on on stage, [[SilenceIsGolden which film didn't]]. But not for long...

In this era, film truly began to take off as a form of popular entertainment. The 1915 EpicMovie ''Film/{{The Birth of a Nation|1915}}'' pioneered a long list of filmmaking techniques and tropes, proved that cinema was commercially viable, and stirred a whole pot of controversy with its heavy-duty UnfortunateImplications (which reportedly horrified its director, Creator/DWGriffith, who [[AuthorsSavingThrow directly criticized racism]] with his follow-up film, ''Film/{{Intolerance}}''). Unfortunately, there was also the case of Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio in 1917 that had the US Supreme Court say that film as a medium was not a legitimate form of speech, but merely a product of a business, which made it open season for censorship for decades until the Supreme Court finally corrected this misjudgment in 1952 in the Miracle Decision.

In the 1920s, Hollywood reached a level of film output that has only been matched since then by UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}}, with over ''eight hundred'' feature films being made per year. Initially, the studios tried to keep their actors anonymous to prevent them from becoming stars and demanding more money with their popularity, but ultimately proved impossible with a moviegoing public too curious to be denied knowing about the players. Notable stars of the silent era included Creator/CharlieChaplin, Creator/BusterKeaton, Creator/LillianGish, Creator/JohnGilbert, Clara Bow, Creator/DouglasFairbanks, Creator/MaryPickford and child stars Creator/JackieCoogan and Creator/BabyPeggy. The main competition that Hollywood had during this time came from {{vaudeville}}, a popular type of theater show consisting of acts by musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians and acrobats. During this era, vaudeville had the chief advantage of having sound to back up what was going on on stage, [[SilenceIsGolden which film didn't]]. But not for long...

As early as 1915, the Los Angeles area had outpaced New York in terms of motion picture output, and by the end of the decade, the United States had claimed the title once held by France and Italy (whose film industries had been devastated by UsefulNotes/WorldWarI) as the film capital of the world. During the Silent Era, seven of Hollywood's "Big Eight" studios emerged -- Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer (the product of a 1924 merger of three companies), [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Paramount Pictures]], First National (acquired by Creator/WarnerBros in 1928), Fox Film Corporation (merged with [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox Twentieth Century Pictures]] in 1935), [[Creator/{{Universal}} Universal Pictures]], Creator/ColumbiaPictures, and Creator/UnitedArtists. (The eighth, Creator/RKOPictures, was a very minor studio in the silent era called Film Booking Offices of America.) It was also in this era that the "studio system" and the "star system" began to develop, forming the bedrock of Hollywood until the mid-20th century. More information on these systems can be found in the section on the GoldenAgeOfHollywood, which is when they reached their zenith.

As early as 1915, the Los Angeles area had outpaced New York in terms of motion picture output, and by the end of the decade, the United States had claimed the title once held by France and Italy (whose film industries had been devastated by UsefulNotes/WorldWarI) as the film capital of the world. During the Silent Era, seven of Hollywood's "Big Eight" studios emerged -- Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer (the product of a 1924 merger of three companies), [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Paramount Pictures]], First National (acquired by Creator/WarnerBros in 1928), Fox Film Corporation (merged with [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox Twentieth Century Pictures]] in 1935), [[Creator/{{Universal}} Universal Pictures]], ColumbiaPictures, and Creator/UnitedArtists. (The eighth, Creator/RKOPictures, was a very minor studio in the silent era called Film Booking Offices of America.) It was also in this era that the "studio system" and the "star system" began to develop, forming the bedrock of Hollywood until the mid-20th century. More information on these systems can be found in the section on the GoldenAgeOfHollywood, which is when they reached their zenith.

In the 1920s, Hollywood reached a level of film output that has only been matched since then by UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}}, with over ''eight hundred'' feature films being made per year. Initially, the studios tried to keep their actors anonymous to prevent them from becoming stars and demanding more money with their popularity, but ultimately proved impossible with a moviegoing public too curious to be denied knowing about the players. Notable stars of the silent era included Creator/CharlieChaplin, Creator/BusterKeaton, Creator/LillianGish, Creator/JohnGilbert, Clara Bow, Creator/DouglasFairbanks and Creator/MaryPickford. The main competition that Hollywood had during this time came from {{vaudeville}}, a popular type of theater show consisting of acts by musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians and acrobats. During this era, vaudeville had the chief advantage of having sound to back up what was going on on stage, [[SilenceIsGolden which film didn't]]. But not for long...

In this era, film truly began to take off as a form of popular entertainment. The 1915 EpicMovie ''Film/TheBirthOfANation'' pioneered a long list of filmmaking techniques and tropes, proved that cinema was commercially viable, and stirred a whole pot of controversy with its heavy-duty UnfortunateImplications (which reportedly horrified its director, Creator/DWGriffith, who [[AuthorsSavingThrow directly criticized racism]] with his follow-up film, ''Film/{{Intolerance}}''). Unfortunately, there was also the case of Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio in 1917 that had the US Supreme Court say that film as a medium was not a legitimate form of speech, but merely a product of a business, which made it open season for censorship for decades until the Supreme Court finally corrected this misjudgment in 1952 in the Miracle Decision.

For what was going on in animation of the time, see TheSilentAgeOfAnimation.

The Silent Age of Hollywood is one of the shorter ones, lasting less than twenty years, yet it would lay the foundation for everything that would follow. It began in 1911, when a number of filmmakers from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, seething at the restrictions placed on the industry by UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison's Motion Picture Patents Company, moved west to California to escape the reach of his lawyers and set up the first film studio in UsefulNotes/{{Hollywood}}, a trolley suburb of UsefulNotes/LosAngeles that the fast-growing city had annexed a year ago. In 1924, to promote a new subdivision named Hollywoodland, a certain now-famous sign was erected (the "LAND" part was removed in 1949).