The Handy California Answer Book by Kevin Hile

Author:Kevin Hile
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Perseus Books, LLC
Published: 2016-03-13T05:00:00+00:00

William Selig founded Selig Polyscope Company in Chicago, and he opened the first permanent film studio in California in Edendale near L.A.

THE SILENT ERA

What was Hollywood like during the Silent Movie Era?

Hollywood became an epicenter in the 1910s, with filmmakers flocking to the city, and by the 1920s people readily acknowledged it as the film capital of the world. Virtually all movies shown in the United States were produced in Hollywood, and it was Hollywood that provided about eighty percent of short and feature films to Europe. Movie directors, actors, and actresses from across the nation and Europe were drawn to Southern California, which is how Americans became familiar with Greta Garbo (Sweden), Heddy Lamarr (Austria), Rudolph Valentino (Italy), Peter Lorre (Slovakia), and Bela Lugosi (Romania), and directors such as Fritz Lang (Austria) and Ernst Lubitsch (Germany).

Who was Adolph Zukor?

Adolph Zukor (1873–1976) was the founder of Paramount Pictures. Born to Jewish parents in Hungary, he immigrated to the United States in 1889. He found success as a furrier and became wealthy as owner of the Novelty Fur Company. Then, in 1912, he started the Famous Players Film Company with the goal of taking established stage actors and putting them in films. Merging efforts with the Lasky Feature Play Company owned by Jesse Lasky (1880–1958), Famous Players–Lasky became Paramount Pictures in 1914. It was Lasky who hired director Cecil B. De Mille (1881–1959). They soon signed contracts to such immortal actors and actresses as Clara Bow, Mary Pickford, Rudolph Valentino, and Douglas Fairbanks. Zukor was president of Paramount until 1936 and chairman of the board until retirement as chair emeritus in 1959.

What is the significance of D. W. Griffith’s film The Birth of a Nation?

Debuting on February 8, 1915, at Clune’s Auditorium in Los Angeles, The Birth of a Nation broke ground for its artistic direction, faithfulness to historic costuming, and outdoor settings. While it was a silent movie, it was accompanied by original music scores, the first feature movie to do so. That said, the movie about the Civil War and Reconstruction eras was, and is, very controversial for its portrayal of blacks as savage beasts and the KKK as an heroic organization.

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