by Herminne Tonita -

In the 1920s American films filled the cinema screens of the world. Most were made in Hollywood, a suburb of the city of Los Angeles in California. Hollywood’s big attraction for film-makers was its clean air and plentiful sunshine. The movies made there were bright and clear. By 1920s it had become the film-making capital of the world.

Hollywood films were made by large companies called studios. The men who ran these studios were businessmen and their main aim was to make as much money as possible. They soon found that one way to do this was to standardize their films. When audiences had shown that they liked a certain kind of film, the studios made many more of exactly the same kind.

Another sure way for a studio to make money was to turn its actors into "st ars". Stars were actors who were so popular that people went in crowds to see any film they appeared in, no matter how good or bad it was. A famous star could make any film a certain success. So the studios went to great lengths to make their actors into stars. They encouraged fan magazines. They set up special publicity departments to get stories about their actors into the newspapers.

The films in the 1920s were silent. They spoke in pictures, not words, and so the language was international. Al over the world, from Berlin to Tokyo, from London to Buenos Aires, tens of millions of people lined up every night of the week to see their favorite Hollywood stars- and, without realizing it, to be Americanized.

Hollywood films showed people a world that was more exciting, freer, more equal than their own. To most people this world of the films remained a dream world, separate from real life. But to some it became more. It made them realize that perhaps their conditions of life could be improved.
Films in the 20s written by Herminne Tonita for FamousWhy.com
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Tags: 1920s, films, cinema screens, hollywood, film-makers, studios, stars	[edit tags]

Category: Entertainment  - ( Entertainment Archive)

Date Added: 31 May '07

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