Hollywood At War
Remembering The Golden Age of Hollywood
The Golden Age of Hollywood is said to have begun in the late 1920′s, during the end of the silent film era, and continued through the late 1950′s. The 1927 release of The Jazz Singer signaled an end to silent films and box office receipts started to climb. This new surge in film popularity gave Hollywood enough momentum for three decades of successful filmmaking.
During this magical era the big time studios MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, and RKO Pictures gave birth to dozens of new stars. Many of these stars would go on to become Hollywood legends. A few of these familiar names would be Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Ingrid Bergman.
At the very beginning of Hollywood’s Golden Age things were a little slow to start due to the financial troubles caused by the Great Depression, However, Hollywood still managed to produce outstanding movies. These films had a very positive effect providing an escape for audiences who were struggling with the tough times caused by the Depression.
American movie goers reveled in the entertainment of Hollywood’s new found stars who lit up the screen with great flairs of passion and glamour; they laughed with comedic actors W.C. Fields, Bob Hope and the Marx Brothers, and fell madly in love with a dancing, singing curly haired little girl by the name of Shirley Temple.
Some of Hollywood’s most memorable classics were created during this Golden Age and included “Gone With The Wind“(1939), “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) John Steinbecks “The Grapes of Wrath“(1937), and the debut of Walt Disneys “Snow White and Seven Dwarfs” (1937). In fact, it is a common opinion that 1939 was the greatest year in movie history.
The War Effort
After the outbreak of World War II, 1940′s Hollywood did their part for the war effort by producing documentaries, film shorts, news reels, and by holding a great many fundraisers in an effort to help Americans through such this tough and fearful time. Movies also began to take on more of a patriotic theme helping to lift the morale on the country.
Wartime stars like Jimmy Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, Ronald Reagan, Ingrid Bergman, Judy Garland, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, and Bob Hope all made major contributions during this period and are some of the most patriotic and memorable performers of the era.
The 1950′s
By the early 1950′s, with most post-war American households having a television in their living rooms, the impact on the Hollywood movie industry was significant. It was time for Hollywood to get creative concerning their target audience.
One such creative was to satisfy the enormous appetite of the new teenage market. This was successfully accomplished with the producing of rebellion movies, younger leading actors and actresses, and the opening of a new way to go to the movies…the Drive In Movie Theater.
However, this was not the only notable adjustment made to filmmaking. Hollywood also became more edgy when it came to sexuality on the silver screen, with stars like Marilyn Monroe, the most infamous and legendary sex symbol of Hollywood, putting the essence of raw, yet playfully seductive sexuality back into film just as Jean Harlow did in the 1930′s prior to the censorship codes.
Once again the film industry was able to change with the times allowing the Golden Age of Hollywood to continue a little longer.
About the Author
Carl DiNello is a Blog Owner whose passion is Hollywood history and those movies from the 1920s – 1950s that make up this rich history.
Hollywood Movie Memories…Movies to Remember and Discover!
Enjoy reading more Hollywood Movie Memories Hollywood History Articles.
|
|
Looney Tunes: Golden Collection, Vol. 6 $24.36 Sufferin’ Succotash! It’s the final collection of “Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies” in this series, featuring 60 more unforgettable cartoons, some never before released on home video. Bugs, Daffy, and the other “All-Stars” appear in “Hare Trigger,” “Birth of a Notion,” “Dog Gone South,” “Heaven Scent,” and others; the Stars and Stripes are saluted in patriotic favorites such as “Meet John Dough… |
|
|
Fear of a Black Planet $3.35 PE’s third album is dense, heavy, and urgent as a bullet. Fear of a Black Planet single-handedly added half a dozen phrases to the language, and not just from Chuck D.’s troop-rallying bellow–Flavor Flav’s “911 Is a Joke” is as catchy an indictment of urban policy as anyone has ever come up with. The Bomb Squad’s music is complicated, challenging, terse, and totally funky, and Chuck matches it wi… |
|
|
Tom and Jerry – Spotlight Collection $10.76 Tom and Jerry, the animation franchise, lasted six decades and saw several geniuses of the form–Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, and Friz Freleng–have a hand in updating and refreshing the series in later years. But Tom and Jerry: The Spotlight Collection, Premiere Volume celebrates the original mastery of producer-directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who took the familiar cat-chases-mouse concept… |
|
|
An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge / The Coup de Grace [VHS] $13.23 … |
|
|
Dean Martin Hollywood Classics 2 Pak (Tape 1: At War With The Army, Tape 2: Hollywood’s Leading Men) 1994 [VHS] $5.00 … |
|
|
At War with the Army $19.99 Martin and Lewis’ first starring vehicle has the duo as neighborhood friends who join the army and get mixed up in all kinds of wild situations at their army base. Based on the play by James B. Allardice. Directed by Hal Walker…. |
|
|
The Notebook $3.79 When you consider that old-fashioned tearjerkers are an endangered species in Hollywood, a movie like The Notebook can be embraced without apology. Yes, it’s syrupy sweet and clogged with clichés, and one can only marvel at the irony of Nick Cassavetes directing a weeper that his late father John–whose own films were devoid of saccharine sentiment–would have sneered at. Still, this touchingly i… |
|
|
Clue: The Movie $3.12 The favorite mystery game comes to the screen in a hilarious whodunit that challenges you to guess who killed Mr. Boddy. Was it Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, or Lesley Ann Warren? 96 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital mono, French Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English; alternate endings; theatrical trailer…. |
|
|
Pearl Harbor (Two-Disc 60th Anniversary Commemorative Edition) $5.45 Titanic WWII adventure from Michael Bay stars Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett as friends who enlist in the Army Air Corps in early 1941 and Kate Beckinsale as a nurse who falls for Affleck. When Affleck is shot down while flying for the RAF in England, Beckinsale and Hartnett begin their own romance, but the trio is reunited at the U.S. military base in Hawaii on the eve of the infamous Japanese att… |
|
|
DNA Hair Growth $180.00 DNA Hair Growth is designed to reinforce and cure the human scalp of baldness. It is: -Homeopathic How does it work? After 35 years of research and 234 iterations, Dr. Marcel Diennet has discovered the cu… |
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
