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| American Film Institute |
| Actress Lillian Gish on the cover of Motion Picture magazine. Moving from stage to screen, Gish began her film career in 1912 with the director D.W. Griffith in his film An Unseen Enemy. |
Classical Hollywood conjures visions of lavish, technically accomplished movies, magnificent movie idols, moguls chomping cigars and handing down edicts, and parties in the Hollywood hills. The world that seems to have sprung up fully formed in the 1920s actually grew slowly out of several elements that emerged during the 1910s. By 1920, the movies had acquired a patina of glamour, derived from a change in focus from working-class to middle-class patrons and the birth of the star system. The industry had regularized, due to the now-standard feature-film format and three-tiered system of production, distribution and exhibition. And finally, Hollywood and its multiple studios had formed the official heart of American filmmaking."Go West, Young Industry"
The first element of the Hollywood system was Hollywood itself. The movies' move from the East Coast center of New York and New Jersey to the West Coast took place between 1908 and 1912. Eager to shed their poor, blue-collar origins, moviemakers sought a less urban hub. Southern California offered many incentives, including distance from Edison's Trust lawyers, almost constant sunshine for shooting, the proximity of the mountains, ocean and desert for location shooting, and a cheap, non-union labor force. By 1915, over 60 percent of American film production occurred in Los Angeles.
As movies brought in more profits and gained more widespread recognition, moviemakers eagerly courted not only their newly middle-class audience but, further, an upper-class status. Theaters progressed from storefront locations to playhouses to luxurious movie palaces. These extravagant spaces included such attributes as orchestral accompaniment, up to 6,000 plush seats and live pre-show entertainment. As producer/exhibitor Marcus Loew stated, "We sell tickets to theaters, not movies."
More stars than there are in the sky
In addition, they were selling tickets to stars. Although The Trust avoided identifying specific actors in movies, for fear that their fame would allow them to demand exorbitant salaries, audiences clamored to know the names of their favorite personalities. Independent exhibitors recognized that popular stars would sell tickets, and accordingly furnished their names in lobby advertisements. The Hollywood star system developed rapidly, propelled by new publicity departments and fan magazines. Beloved celebrities like Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish afforded Hollywood an aura of glamour and excitement.
 | | American Film Institute | | Often called "America's Sweetheart," Mary Pickford began her career in film in 1909 with D.W. Griffith and the Biograph company. Pickford helped form United Artists in 1919 with Griffith, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. | |  | | American Film Institute | | Gish was one of the biggest film stars of her day. She starred in dozens of D.W. Griffith's films, including The Birth of a Nation. Gish worked in the film industry for 75 years; her last film, The Whales of August, was released in 1987. | |
With increased exhibition spaces and a new pool of stars came an ever-increasing audience, hungry for new, improved movies. Feature-length films began to appeal to studios because they allowed for more complicated narratives, allowed higher ticket prices and were easier to advertise than multiple titles. Europe led the way in the conversion to features, producing such multi-reel epics as Quo Vadis (1913), a lavish two-hour spectacle directed by Enrico Guazzoni that enthralled American audiences. Its success reassured the studios that a longer film could recoup its costs, and soon the industry reorganized around the feature.
The production factory
As films quadrupled in length, crews became larger, stars commanded higher salaries, and production costs soared. In order to stay profitable, the industry tightened its organization and developed a cost-effective, factory-based production system, embodied by the studio system and its moguls. Adolph Zukor, Carl Laemmle, William Fox, Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, Jesse L. Lasky, and a handful of other Jewish immigrants formed the competing but symbiotic studios Paramount, Metro Pictures (later MGM), Fox Film Corporation, Warner Brothers, United Artists, Famous Players-Lasky and First National. Each studio soon developed a distinctive style and often concentrated on a few specific genres, thus allowing them each a share of the profits. For instance, MGM was known for its lavish productions filled with stars; Paramount dominated comedy and sophisticated, European-flavored films; and Warner Brothers tended toward realistic, socially conscious pictures.
American Film Institute | Lillian Gish and movie producer Louis B. Mayer. In 1924, Mayer formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, merging his Louis B. Mayer Cororation with the Metro Pictures Corporation and the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation. |
The outbreak of World War I created an economic boom and at the same time wiped out the European film market, which cleared the path for American moguls to gain predominance over filmmaking. The Hollywood studio grew into an entertainment factory, churning out formulaic, consistently engaging wares and breaking production into a series of jobs. For instance, on one part of the studio lot were the writers' quarters, while down the street stood the costume department, then the equipment warehouse and the makeup trailers, each filled with specialized professionals. Together, they collaborated to produce entertainment seen around the world, a mass medium that both reflected and shaped American customs, opinions and mythologies.
