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7 Episodes 2010 - 2010
Episode 1
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.
Episode 2
Mon, Nov 8, 201061 mins
California was quickly recognized as the ideal setting for the American film industry, with its relative freedom from patent problems, constant sunshine and varied geography. As early as 1909, movie makers were hard at work in Hollywood, including William Selig, who had founded one of the country's first movie studios in Chicago. In California, he would develop such performing talent as Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Tom Mix. In 1913 Jesse Lasky, Samuel Goldwyn and Cecil B. DeMille formed a filmmaking company and established themselves among the first generation of Hollywood moguls, producing one of the first feature-length films in the U.S., The Squaw Man (1914). Mack Sennett had his Keystone Kops careening all over the cityscape of Los Angeles and discovered one of the cinema world's towering talents, Charlie Chaplin, who become the best-loved clown of the American silent screen. Other players who quickly became world famous included comedienne Mabel Normand, cowboy star William S. Hart, Mary Pickford (whose girlish innocence captivated audiences) and Lillian Gish (whose combination of vulnerability and strength would make her a star for more than seven decades). Director D.W. Griffith expanded the vision of the movie screen to epic proportions with his innovative techniques and sprawling subject matter- including the Civil War in The Birth of a Nation (1915), a film that has stirred controversy since its release because of charges of racism.
Episode 3
Mon, Nov 15, 201061 mins
Looks in on the years between 1920 and 1928. In this time it's said that this was Hollywood most creative period and we had a wide range of stars from comedians like Keaton and Chaplin to more horrific acts like Lon Chaney. Also on hand were the more sexual stars like Rudolph Valentino and of course Clara Bow who would make a splash do to that certain "It" she had. Along the way Hollywood must form to some new rules as the publicity of the Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle trial had put a black cloud over them. Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd comedies are mentioned. Greta Garbo and her legend is discussed and we even get to hear about her "lost months" where she was out of the public eye and MGM made sure no one knew why.
Episode 4
Mon, Nov 22, 201059 mins
In the film we kick off with THE JAZZ SINGER which pretty much killing off silent movies and their stars and then we look at a few big folks who didn't make it in the sound era including Clara Bow who would be forced out of movies at the age of 28. We then see how many major players would push for sound only to die before their dreams came to be but we also see Hollywood's new line of stars including Cagney, Robinson, Hepburn and of course Mae West who proved that sex could still sell. The documentary comes to an end just as GONE WITH THE WIND was breaking records and Hitler's impact was about to be felt. The documentary centers more on the stars and the power that they held.
Episode 5
Mon, Nov 29, 201060 mins
The period from 1941 to 1950 is covered including the production of The Grapes Of Wrath, Darryl Zanuck, Orson Welles and his famous film 'Citizen Kane" and the battles over it with William Randolph Hearst; Charlie Chaplin's film ("The Great Dictator," which was the first to portray Hitler in a bad light; "Casablanca," and then some World War II movies and the efforts of celebrities to help out. Also, we see and learn a few things about Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Louis B. Mayer, Cary Grant, Preston Sturges, Samuel Goldwyn and "The Best Years Of Our Lives," Humphrey Bogart, film noir, Joan Crawford, Lew Wasserman, "activists," unions, racketeers and then the teaser at the end about "anti-trusts."
Episode 6
Mon, Dec 6, 201060 mins
After Congress said that the studios couldn't own their own theaters, the moguls ran into more trouble when TV came into play. For many there wasn't a need to go out to the movies when you could stay home and watch this box for free so the studios had to come up with something to get these folks back. The plan was to make movies in widescreen, in color and even a few in 3D. As the 1950s wore on a new crowd were watching movies and that was teens who idolized the likes of James Dean and Marlon Brando. As the decade wore on many of the moguls who started these major studios were dying and a new generation was about to be born. After a slow start to the series things have finally picked up over the last two episodes and continued with this one. Once again we're treated to some nice footage from back in the day as we get to look at some theaters back then and the adjustments that had to be made for widescreen movies to be shown. We get a good idea of what type of numbers TV took away from the movies before the studios realized they could use this new enemy as a way to promote their own films. Roger Corman, Leonard Maltin, Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. and Robert Osborne are just a few of the people interviewed here.
Episode 7
Mon, Dec 13, 201059 mins
If you think the '60s was bad news, you won't like the glorifying of liberal thought and films and if you thought the '60s were very cool, you'll love this segment. One emphasis was just the fact that days of moguls were completely done now, Hollywood films being produced by either mega-corporations or by independent filmmakers. They also took a hard look at European films ("New Wave," etc.), played more to the young audiences that were now attending (a majority being 24 years old and younger), watched the rise of power of the film critic....and a lot more. All of these seven episodes were packed with topics and information. Among the films highlighted were Cleopatra, Dr. Strangelove, Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolfe, Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduation, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, The Green Berets, Night Of The Living Dead and Easy Rider. All in all, another interesting segment topped by a touching tribute to those old moguls who built Hollywood and the movies to the lofty cultural status and profitable business enterprise (usually) that it became.