The Birth of Hollywood - 1907-1920 (8 Nov. 2010)

California was quickly recognized as the ideal setting for the American film industry, with its relative freedom from patent problems, constant sunshine and varied geography. As early as ... See full summary »

Writer:

Jon Wilkman

Stars:

Christopher Plummer, Bob Balaban, Jeanine Basinger

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Christopher Plummer	...	Narrator (voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bob Balaban	...	Himself - Actor / Director
Jeanine Basinger	...	Herself - Interviewee
Cari Beauchamp	...	Herself - Interviewee
A. Scott Berg	...	Himself - Interviewee
Robert S. Birchard	...	Himself - Interviewee
Donald Bogle	...	Himself - Film Historian
Charlotte Chanler	...	Viola Dana
Scott Eyman	...	Himself - Film Historian
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.	...	Himself - Interviewee
Mollie Gregory	...	Herself - Novelist / Film Historian
Molly Haskell	...	Herself - Critic / Film Historian
Richard Koszarski	...	Himself - Film Historian
Carla Laemmle	...	Herself - Niece of Carl Laemmle
Betty Lasky	...	Herself - Daughter of Jesse Lasky

Storyline

California was quickly recognized as the ideal setting for the American film industry, with its relative freedom from patent problems, constant sunshine and varied geography. As early as 1909, movie makers were hard at work in Hollywood, including William Selig, who had founded one of the country's first movie studios in Chicago. In California, he would develop such performing talent as Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Tom Mix. In 1913 Jesse Lasky, Samuel Goldwyn and Cecil B. DeMille formed a filmmaking company and established themselves among the first generation of Hollywood moguls, producing one of the first feature-length films in the U.S., The Squaw Man (1914). Mack Sennett had his Keystone Kops careening all over the cityscape of Los Angeles and discovered one of the cinema world's towering talents, Charlie Chaplin, who become the best-loved clown of the American silent screen. Other players who quickly became world famous included comedienne Mabel Normand, cowboy star William S. ...

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Genres:

Documentary | History

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Details

Release Date:

8 November 2010 (USA)

Company Credits

User Reviews

Immigrants Strike It Rich With The New Movie Industry

This is the birth of Hollywood and covers the years 1907 to 1920 and mainly discusses the early "moguls" and screen "stars."

The people who first made in big in the movie industry were generally immigrants, Jews from Russia, Poland and other Eastern European countries. They had come to America for a better life, settled into a profession and then discovered the wonders of Nickelodeons (a nickel to see short films). They were smart enough and lucky enough to gamble it all that this new industry (movies) would succeed and makes lot of money for them....which, of course, it did. It turned out to be a great investment for these folks!

Men like Adolph Zukor, Carl Laemmle, William Fox (Fuchs), the Warner brothers, William Selig, Cecille B. DeMille and Louis B. Mayer were among those and others who really got the business up-and-moving to big-time proportions. Some of their relatives speak in this TCM documentary, and tell what their grandparents were like.

This second episode of the 7-part series mentions a lot of names, including a bunch of famous actors and/or directors like Charlie Chaplin, Max Sennett, Mabel Normand, Fatty Arbuckle, Bronco Billy Anderson, William S. Hart, Tom Mix, Thomas Ince, Lois Weber, Frances Marion and a bunch more including a fascinating look at D.W. Griffith's "Birth Of A Nation."

All in all: good stuff!