For more information
Call 1-800-351-0222
Call 1-800-351-0222
WARNER BROTHERS.
Term Paper ID:30870
Get This Paper Free! or
Essay Subject:
History of the motion picture studio from 1949 to 1970.... More...
7 Pages / 1575 Words
4 sources, 10 Citations,
MLA Format
$28.00
More Papers on This Topic
Paper Abstract:
History of the motion picture studio from 1949 to 1970. Changes in studio operations due to shifts in the business climate. Early structure of the American film industry. Warner Bros. Studio as an industry innovator. The Hollywood Studio era and its end. Warner Bros. Switching part of its operation to television. Technical and content innovations in film.
Paper Introduction:
Warner Brothers Studio, built in 1927, is responsible for bringing sound to the motion picture industry with the 1929 The Jazz Singer. The company has received more than 100 Academy Awards, and keeping up with the times, it became the first major studio to switch part of its operation to television (Studio History). This paper will examine many of the other instances in which Warner Brothers Studio was on the cutting edge.
Warner Brothers experienced a number of changes in its operation between 1949 and 1970. It was an era that affected all Hollywood studios, testing their ability to continue producing films, forcing them to face the challenge of television, and leading to mergers and acquisitions which made many studios subsidiaries of much larger entities. Warner Brothers was subject to these same shifts in the business climate, beginning with
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
Television was a new way of making money, and programming wasneeded for the three major networks. Artificial restraints looked everywhere.Giant companies colluded to keep out the competition" (Gomery 6). By 1929, the basic structure of the American film industry was clearlydelineated. The studios coulduse these funds to finance films made in Europe. Thus, "gone were the days of easyentry into the movie business. Works CitedBalio, Tino. The firstway of answering this question was to introduce something that could not beseen on the small screen at all--new aspect ratios and so a much largerimage. By then,the only studio under the management of a group with interests solely infilmmaking was 2 th Century-Fox (Hirschhorn 344). Warner Brothers began providing suchprogramming in the mid-195 s and would have a large number of shows on theABC network by 196 . There were other forces at work which also caused changes inHollywood, including heavy U.S. The film that tested the code most clearlywas Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Warner Brothers Studio, built in 1927, is responsible for bringingsound to the motion picture industry with the 1929 The Jazz Singer. This led to a major exodus of film talent fromHollywood. In 1951,Congress had passed a new tax law which stated that American citizens whospent seventeen out of eighteen months abroad would be exempt from payingtax during that time. A second answer was the production of epics whose scale and costwere far beyond what television could achieve. A third answer was a newsophistication in terms of subject matter so as to offer material thatwould not be seen as suitable for family viewing (Hirschhorn 28 ). Films of this sort for Warner Brothersincluded The Silver Chalice and King Richard and the Crusaders. Thesefew giants essentially were the film industry; "a few firms whose conductonly served to remind all who looked closely that they were quite willingto take full advantage of their oligopolistic, vertically integrated power(Gomery 6). Warner Brothers and 2 th Century-Fox each had large theater chains andwere forced to divest themselves of these chains in 1949. (Warner Brothers would make use of the gimmick of 3-D more thanother studios and helped introduce it with Bwana Devil in 1952, notablyfollowed by House of Wax and Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder, thoughat the time the latter was released without 3-D because the fad hadpeaked). Bonnie and Clyde in 1968would achieve a new level of violence, and that level would be bested in1969 with The Wild Bunch. Other film unions followed suit withvarying success, and the actors were the most successful of all. because of an associationwith a Canadian-backed enterprise, and by the end of the decade, thischanged once more as the company was acquired by Kinney International, acompany with interests ranging from publishing to parking lots. Lavishcostume dramas, though, were expensive to produce and did not always makeback the money spent on them. This sort of stable of actors began to disappear inthe economics of the 195 s, but Warner Brothers found a way to continue itthrough television and maintained a large number of actors and actressesunder contact to appear in a series of television programs. Retrieved online at: http://wbsf.warnerbros.com/generalinfo/studio_history.html on September 5, 2 3. There were five dominant firms--Paramount, Loew's (MGM),Warner Brothers, Fox, and RKO. All eight indeed cooperated for thecommon good so that there was no competition as such because the majordifferences among the studios were in theater style, given that thecorporations dominated different parts of the country (Gomery 24). The Warner Brothers Story. For allintents and purposes, this came to an end with the Paramount consent decreein 1949 when the Supreme Court decision forced the studios to divestthemselves of their theaters (Gomery 49). among the Westerns which wereproduced from the late 195 s through the early 196 s, nearly all on ABC,were, in addition to those already noted, Maverick, Lawman, The Dakotas,The Alaskans, and Colt 45. These shows were not successful, and Warners cut backon series production without ever abandoning it altogether. These were the Big Five, and each ownedsubstantial production facilities in Southern California. Theseproducers rented space at the major studios and in return gave the studiosdistribution rights for their films. tax laws, the loss of theater circuits, therestrictive conditions of the unions then fighting for and winning a 44hour and five-day work week, and higher production costs. This paper will examine many of the otherinstances in which Warner Brothers Studio was on the cutting edge. The studio era lasted for twenty years and was dominated by eightmajor corporations. WarnerBrothers became Warner Brothers-Seven Arts Ltd. MGM had a morecomplex business structure and managed to hold onto its theaters until1952, giving it an advantage over the others (Hirschhorn 274). The 195 swas a period of change for Warner Brothers as well. The studios could still use much of this talent because theyhad "frozen funds" abroad, meaning income from films shown in Europeancountries which had to be left in the country of origin. Martin's Press, 1986.Hirschhorn, Clive. Scripts were nowanalyzed on a new basis. Some of its old shows disappeared, some changedformat, and several comedies were introduced, among them one based on NoTime for Sergeants. In 196 , thestudio shifted its television emphasis and placed Jack Webb in charge oftelevision production. Each studio developed its own wide-screen process--CinemaScopefor 2 th Century-Fox in 1953, VistaVision for Paramount in 1953, andMichael Todd's 7 mm Todd-AO process in 1956. Film production in Europewas cheaper, and there were also no restrictive union practices. Youth was the subject in the wide-screen dramaRebel without a Cause (Hirschhorn 28 ). Epics became a staplebecause such a wide-screen projection system demanded big subjects. Between 195 and 196 , Warner Brothers produced and released 246feature films, compared with 274 in the 194 s and 572 in the 193 s.Competition was increasing in the 195 s with the rise of a number ofpowerful independent producers, a development taking place at the same timeas the decline of the studio system of the thirties and forties. The American film Industry. Feldman, Jack Webb, Judy Garland, Doris Day, and John Wayne.This was the beginning of a trend which today is the rule rather than theexception (Hirschhorn 281). Many of the new projection techniques used in the 195 s were gimmickswith limited application, such as Cinerama and 3-D, both introduced in1952. Theproduction of American films in Europe would reach a peak in the 196 s when3 percent of all films were made outside the United States (Hirschhorn28 ). Warner Brothers experienced a number of changes in its operationbetween 1949 and 197 . This came after Jack Valenti wasappointed head of the Motion Picture Producers Association, and he did awaywith the censorship code and instituted a ratings system. New York: St. in 1965. Among the detective shows were the highlypopular 77 Sunset Strip and a number of clones, including Hawaiian Eye,Surfside 6, and Bourbon Street Beat. It was an era that affected all Hollywood studios,testing their ability to continue producing films, forcing them to face thechallenge of television, and leading to mergers and acquisitions which mademany studios subsidiaries of much larger entities. The Hollywood Studio System. was an anthology show that was shown on anintermittent schedule in the mid-195 s, including a period when italternated with a Warner Brothers Western called Cheyenne, later supportedas well by two other alternating shows, Sugarfoot (based on a WarnerBrothers movie from earlier in the decade) and Bronco. The merger with Kinneycame in 1969 (Balio 329). The way thestructure had developed changed the way movies were made and what sorts ofcompanies could enter the marketplace. The studiomade primarily detective shows and Westerns. Competition also came from television, as noted, and as early as 195 ,admissions to theaters were down to 6 million per week from 8 million inthe 193 s. Warner Brothers had also been instrumental in testing the oldcensorship code to its limits. Warners was slow to enter this area but eventually did so.Warner Brothers would find a new way to attract people into theaters bychallenging the old censorship system. The Big Five owned some3, movie theaters, and while there were 15, non-affiliated theaters,they collectively took in less revenues than the Big Five. While there were clear corporate distinctions amongthe eight in terms of film production, which depended on the stars undercontract and the genres favored, there were few corporate differences interms of distribution and exhibition. A newspaper-crime show set in adifferent era was offered in The Roaring Twenties, a title from Warner'spast that had nothing to do with the original film. Producers no longer asked only if a script hadintrinsic worth but if it was sufficiently different from what was beingoffered for free on television to bring people to the theater. New York: Crown, 1979.Studio History. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin University Press, 1976.Gomery, Douglas. The 196 s began with a major writers' strike over the sharing ofrevenues from sales to television. The studios began to make some accommodation with television, andWarner Brothers was one of the first to go into television production in abig way. Thecompany has received more than 1 Academy Awards, and keeping up with thetimes, it became the first major studio to switch part of its operation totelevision (Studio History). Beneath themwere the Little Three--Universal, Columbia, and United Artists--whichmaintained only production and distribution units. Thestudios were already having economic problems and these changes only addedto that so that the studios sought help from larger corporations. In the 193 s and194 s, Warner Brothers, like other studios, had maintained a stable ofstars who were under contract and who could be assigned to differentprojects as needed. Television wasdraining away the audience, and so the studios determined that ways had tobe found to bring audiences back into the theaters. Warner Brothers wassubject to these same shifts in the business climate, beginning with theforced change in 1949 known as the Paramount Decree. Climax! Warner Brothers had several suchunits operating for filmmakers including Alfred Hitchcock, Burt Lancaster,Charles K. The studios would find another way to make money from televisionbeginning in 1964 when Universal Pictures made the first movie just fortelevision. Anotherstaple was developed in black-and-white dramas with a new adult approachthat brought back a realism and vitality long missing from filmmaking.Among the films fitting this mold for Warner Brothers were Baby Doll and AStreetcar Named Desire.
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
We can write a Custom Essay just for you.
Browse Essays by Subject