12/14/2015

Movie industry moves from Penn to California

Tries to be more cost effective to film outdoors year round
Make more movies a year
Starts in failed housing development
Entrepreneur buys land east of Los Angeles wanting to create upscale
residential community with homes overlooking all of Los Angeles and pacific
Ocean
People arent interested 3 months into advertising huge storm and the last
three letters of Hollywoodland fall down so takes down l to become Hollywood
Stars from the East Coast dominate silent film period
Most wont transfer into talking pictures
Rudolph Valentino, Italian from Brooklyn NY, decided from producers to make
him out to be a shiek
Looks swarthy or middle eastern, known in movies playing Arab prince
rescuing women
Mary Pickford 48 always plays the maiden who is taken advantage of
Men approach her she shoots them down, they do something bad to her
Best character Pauleen shorts of 20mins called Perils of Pauleen
Shown before the main attraction
Will marry Douglas Fairbanks Senior
Both become angry with payment they are receiving
Pool money and make own movie studio
United Artists known now today
Clara Bough played strong independent Flapper in movies
Charlie Chaplin- British Comic
Errol Flynn cast as a pirate, usually shirtless rescuing damsels at sea
Rudolph doesnt go into talking films, release one talking film and career
ruined because he had a nasally high pitched voice that was not at all middle
eastern
Pickford wont either because she has a soft voice
Clara translates
Charlie Chaplin doesnt translate
Douglass Fairbanks does translate over
Errol Flynn does translate for short period of time, from Brooklyn NY, but does
accents to portray self as pirate
Errol Flynn was homosexual, but his persona was strong in control sexual
straight man
Needed to live in the closet for his career
Friends like the Fairbanks accepted him for who he was
U.S. not ready for this
Al Jolson first talking picture
o 1928 synchronized sound with cartoon
Expensive to make takes years because each picture is hand drawn
Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse not original name, Mortimer Mouse was original

Wife threw a fit and insisted he change it
You dont need a three syllable word for children, cant remember, has two rs
in it
R is last letter children say properly
Mickey Mouse was an instant hit
Doesnt include any words, hard to master if every cell is hand drawn
Repeats scenes to keep number of pictures low
All kinds of different synchronized sounds
People in films watch in the movie to see what is acceptable in the big city
Styles that people are wearing
Music of the day
Morals
Unintended consequences
Concern about homogenization of America
Tabloids and Movie Magazines
Art Deco coming from France in 1924 it gains popularity hugely
Not single focal point
o Jazz
Black America and White America, truly American creation
Ragtime, Black musicians use piano earliest form of jazz
Blues influenced by spirituals/jubilees, things that went wrong
Minstrels music involved indigenous instruments
Vaudeville shows black and white
Sentimental ballads
Band music, John Phillip Susa Stars and Stripes Forever
Mix all together makes Jazz
Dixieland Jazz traveled North to Chicago from nor leans then goes to drum set
Banjo gourd rattles tambourine
St. Louis had a lot of piano
Jazz like Blacks moved to NY to Harlem to establish music as a form with
organized bands by 1930
Jelly Roll Morton 1st great Jazz composer
As a jazz musician you need to know when to take lead and when to back off
Challenge is putting on paper with spontaneity
Base point to refer to
Dead mans blues traditional Nor leans funeral march celebration of life
instead of funeral service
Especially outfitted bus, places where he could eat and sleep were limited
Clean bed safe place to sleep and takeout food
Red Hot Chili Peppers named in honor of Red Hot Peppers
The place for music in NY for Jazz was the Cotton Club
Was a speakeasy, but unlike other speakeasies was not hidden away
Owned by whites all people and entertainers working there are black
Musicians are black and audience is wealthy white people