Moguls & Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood

Episode 1

Peepshow Pioneers: 1889-1907

Mon, Nov 1, 201059 mins

Audiences were watching projected images as early as the 18th century. But the pictures were drawings, and they didn't move. That would come in the 1880s. The first movie pioneers were self-taught engineers and tinkerers, itinerant entertainers and street-smart showmen. The first film producer was probably the man known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park," Thomas Edison. He perfected a machine that created pictures that moved, although much of the credit belongs to his assistant, W.K.L. Dickson, the industry's first director. From the beginning, American movies were special, but they were influenced by breakthroughs overseas. From France, the brothers Lumiere, owners of a family photography lab, brought scenes of everyday life to the screen, while an ingenious magician, George Melies, created special visual effects that still have the power to amaze. In America, early moviegoers were astonished and amused by almost anything that moved - from vaudeville acts and boxing matches to three-minute gag reels. After a series of odd jobs, ambitious Edwin S. Porter found motion pictures in the early 1890s. While working for Edison, Porter was soon shooting and selling his own. Porter would create one of the first movies with a story, The Great Train Robbery. At the turn of the 19th century, while the movies were being born, America was experiencing a burst of technological ingenuity. The country's social fabric was being transformed by millions of new immigrants. The newcomers arrived with dreams, and many came with the will and imagination to make those dreams come true. The first generation of American movie makers joined with other innovators and entrepreneurs to create a totally new kind of entertainment and an art form that would transform the world. Adolph Zukor, once a successful furrier, joined with Marcus Loew in 1905 to establish a string of "penny arcades." Zukor would eventually found Paramount Pictures, and Loew would create a major theater chain. Carl Laemmle, the future founder of Universal Pictures, was another immigrant entrepreneur who saw promise in making a penny or nickel at a time. The Warner family settled in Youngstown, Ohio. Four brothers - Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack - started their movie careers as itinerant showmen, screening movies from town to town. From Hungary came William Fox, who was raised in poverty but found movies a path to success. Louis B. Mayer was the son of an immigrant junk dealer who, like other founding moguls, began as a theater owner. New York quickly became a business and distribution center, but the first "Hollywood" was in Ft. Lee, N.J. Here, the first great American film director, D.W. Griffith, learned his trade and began to develop the foundations of motion picture storytelling. The popularity of movies was unprecedented, and so was the profit potential. Realizing this, Edison joined a group of investors and equipment manufacturers, including Eastman Kodak, to corner the market. They established the Motion Picture Patents Company and demanded royalties from anyone who made movies. The pressures of the trust forced independents to look elsewhere, to the far-reaches of Los Angeles, with the safety of the Mexican border a short distance away. An unlikely southern California hamlet was about to become the world famous capital of motion pictures.