American Cinema

1. American Cinema • Today – Start Hollywood and TV • Tomorrow – Test will be postponed to tomorrow • Change of plans – I will be replacing the unit “1960’s Counterculture” With “American Animation”

2. Hollywood and the age of television

3. Before TV’s popularity • From 1930-1945, film going was the nation’s standard mode of entertainment • Movies averaged 80 million in attendance weekly • $.83 of every dollar spent on entertainment was for movies • The American family was the primary audience • Often called the “classic period” or the “golden age” of movies

4. Technical changes • World War II Stops TV’s Growth • Most of the engineers in television joined the military and developed radar, sonar, radio-guided missiles and battlefield communications • Post-War Development • In the early 1940s the audience was excited to see any transmitted picture and the industry broadcast anything available including talentless performances, live shots of a sunset and even test patterns • By 1948, TV set sales increased by 500 percent over the previous year, and viewership grew by 4000%

5. Changes in movie attendance • After an economic boom of the WWII years, less prosperity equated to lower movie attendance • By 1952, weekly attendance had fallen to 42 Million • Started loosing its audience to TV (American family) • TV meant free family entertainment at home • Many people started moving to the suburbs for the American dream of a house with a yard – people no longer within walking distance of a theater

6. Cult film/cult star • The 1950’s brought the idea of mega stars that gained cult followings • The movies they involved themselves with often found cult following • Stars included: John Wayne, Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Elvis Presley, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Montgomery Clift, and Marilyn Monroe • Movies that received the most attention were “super-westerns”, historical or biblical epics, and integrated musicals

7. The Entrance of the Movie Studios • In 1954 Walt Disney was the first movie studio leader to associate his name with a television program • Disney saw the possibilities of TV for promoting his Disneyland theme park and his feature films, as well as generating income from the program itself • After Warner Brothers movie studios began producing the western “Cheyenne” for ABC in 1955, all the major film studios started producing television programming as well as feature films

8. The blockbuster • Competition with TV led Hollywood to produce bigger pictures with the biggest starts • Similar topics to the cult films – the bible, history, etc. • Length of the films grew to 3-4 hours • Budgets grew dramatically to range between 20-50 million (remember this is the 50’s and 60’s) • “Europeanization” and “Internationalization” with many spectacular non-American settings and foreign actors, particularly British actors • Use of the newest technology possible (Technicolor meant new colorized movies)

9. Our Movies • Rear Window (1954) – Alfred Hitchcock • The Sound of Music (1965) – Robert Wise

10. The Sound of Music • 1965 • One of the biggest of the blockbuster movies for the time - $80 million • Robert Wise • A woman leaves an Austrian convent to become a governess to the children of a Naval officer widower.