evils of intolerance were depicted in four parallel stories–a framework
that required a scope of vision and production never before approached.
Although Griffith made numerous other films up to 1931, none ranked with
his first two classics. Among the best of these later efforts were Hearts
of the World (1918); Broken Blossoms (1919), released by his own newly
formed corporation, United Artists; Way Down East (1920); Orphans of the
Storm (1922); America (1924); Isn’t Life Wonderful? (1924); and Abraham
Lincoln (1930). Of the many actors trained by Griffith and associated with
his name, Mary PICKFORD, Dorothy and Lillian GISH, and Lionel Barrymore
(see BARRYMORE family) are the most famous. In 1935, Griffith was honored
by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with a special award.
Bibliography: Barry, Iris, D. W. Griffith, American Film Master (1940);
Brown, Karl, Adventures with D. W. Griffith (1976); Geduld, Harry M.,
ed., Focus on D. W. Griffith (1971); Gish, Lillian, Lillian Gish: The
Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me (1969); Henderson, Robert M., D. W. Griffith:
His Life and Work (1972) and D. W. Griffith: The Years at Biograph
(1970); O’Dell, Paul, Griffith and the Rise of Hollywood (1970);
Wagenknecht, Edward C., The Films of D. W. Griffith (1975).
film industry
——————————–
The first four decades of the film age (roughly 1908-48) saw the increasing
concentration of control in the hands of a few giant Hollywood concerns.
Since the late 1940s, however, that trend has been reversed; the monolithic
studio system has given way to independent production and diversification
at all levels of the industry.^Although in the silent era small,
independent producers were common, by the 1930s, in the so-called golden
age of Hollywood, the overwhelming majority of films were produced,
distributed, and exhibited by one of the large California studios. Led by
M-G-M, Paramount, RKO, 20th-Century-Fox, Warner Brothers, Columbia, and
Universal, the industry enjoyed the benefits of total vertical integration:
because the studios owned their own theater chains, they could require
theater managers to charge fixed minimum admission rates, to purchase
groups of pictures rather than single releases (”block booking”), and to
accept films without first previewing them (”blind buying”). For more than
two decades the major studios completely controlled their contracted stars,
managed vast indoor and outdoor studio sets, and in general profited from
what amounted to a virtual monopoly of the industry.^Shortly after World
War II, three factors contributed to the loss of the majors’ hegemony.
First, a number of federal court decisions forced the studios to end
discriminatory distribution practices, including block booking, blind
selling, and the setting of fixed admission prices; in 1948 the Supreme
Court ordered divestiture of their theater chains. Second, the House
Committee on Un-American Activities investigated the industry, which
responded by blacklisting several prominent screenwriters and directors–an
action that called into question the industry’s reliability as a promoter
of unfettered creative talent. Third, television began to deprive
Hollywood of large segments of its audience, and the industry reacted
timidly and late to the possibilities for diversification presented by the
new medium.^The effects of these developments were immediate and long
lasting. Weekly attendance figures fell from 80 million in 1946 to just
over 12 million by 1972. Box-ofice revenues in the same period dropped
from $1.75 billion to $1.4 billion–and this despite constant inflation and
admission prices that were often 10 times the prewar average. The movie
colony experienced unprecedented unemployment. The number of films made
yearly declined from an average of 445 in the 1940s to under 150 in the
1970s, as the industry sought solvency in “blockbusters” rather than in the
solid but unspectacular products that had brought it a mass audience before
the age of television. Between 1948 and 1956 the number of U.S. theaters
fell from 20,000 to 10,000, and although 4,000 new drive-in theaters
somewhat offset this attrition, by the mid-1970s less than half of the
American spectator’s amusement dollar was being spent on movies; in the
1940s the yearly average had been over 80 cents.^By the late 1960s the
major studios had entered a grave economic slump, for many of their “big
picture” gambles fell through. In 1970, 20th-Century-Fox lost $36 million,
and United Artists, which as the industry leader had more to lose, ended up
more than $50 million in the red. In response to this devastation of its
profits, the industry underwent a profound reorganization. Following the
1951 lead of United Artists, the majors backed away from production (since
its cost had contributed heavily to their decline) and restructured
themselves as loan guarantors and distributors. At the same time, most of
them became subsidiaries of conglomerates such as Gulf and Western, Kinney
National Service, and Transamerica and began to look to television sales
and recording contracts for the revenues that previously had come from the
theater audience alone.^In setting up these new contractual relationships
the independent producer played a central role. Such a figure, who by now
has replaced the old studio mogul as the industry’s driving force, brings
together the various properties associated with a film (including actors, a
director, and book rights) to create a “package” often financed
independently but distributed by a film company in exchange for a share of
the rental receipts. Working with the conglomerates and accepting the
reality of a permanently reduced market, these private promoters have
partially succeeded in revitalizing the industry.^The rise of independent
production has been accompanied by diversification of subject matter, with
close attention to the interests of specialized audiences. This trend,
which began in the 1950s as an attempt to capture the “art house” audience
and the youth market, is evident today in the success of martial-arts,
rock-music, pornographic, documentary, and black-culture films.
Simultaneously, production has moved away from the Hollywood sets and
toward location filming. For many producers, New York City has become the
New filmmakers’ mecca, while shooting in foreign countries, where cheap
labor is often plentiful, has given the modern film a new international
texture; foreign markets have also become increasingly important. Both
geographically and financially, therefore, the film industry has begun to
recapture some of the variety and independence that were common in the days
before studio control. THADDEUS F. TULEJA
Bibliography: Balio, Tino, ed., The American Film Industry (1976); Brownlow,
Kevin, Hollywood: The Pioneers (1980); David, Saul, The Industry: Life in the
Hollywood Fast Lane (1981); Phillips, Gene D., The Movie Makers: Artists in an
Industry (1973); Stanley, Robert H., The Celluloid Empire (1978).
Table: TEN TOP-GROSSING FILMS
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TEN TOP-GROSSING FILMS (as of Jan. 1, 1984)
———————————————————
Film Year Gross Earnings*
———————————————————
1. E.T. The ExtraTerrestrial 1982 $209,567,000
2. Star Wars 1977 193,500,000
3. Return of the Jedi 1983 165,500,000
4. The Empire Strikes Back 1980 141,600,000
5. Jaws 1975 133,435,000
6. Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 115,598,000
7. Grease 1978 96,300,000
8. Tootsie 1982 94,571,613
9. The Exorcist 1973 89,000,000
10. The Godfather 1972 86,275,000
———————————————————
SOURCE: Variety (1984). *Distributors’ percentage has been subtracted.
Sennett, Mack
——————————–
(sen’-et)
A pioneer of slapstick film comedy, Mack Sennett, b. Michael Sinnott,
Richmond, Quebec, Jan. 17, 1880, d. Nov. 5, 1960, was an uneducated
Irish-Canadian who drifted into films as D. W. Griffith’s apprentice. In
1912 he started his own comedy studio, called Keystone, where he developed
the Keystone Kops and discovered such major talents as Charlie Chaplin and
Frank Capra. With the advent of sound films, comedy shorts became less
popular, and in the 1930s Sennett, who failed to change with the times,
lost his entire fortune. Sennett is, however, still remembered as
Hollywood’s “King of Comedy” and received a special Academy Award in 1937
for his contribution to cinema comedy. LEONARD MALTIN
Bibliography: Fowler, Gene, Father Goose (1934; repr. 1974); Lahue, Kalton
C., and Brewer, Terry, Kops and Custards: The Legend of Keystone Films
(1968); Sennett, Mack, King of Comedy (1954; repr. 1975).
Chaplin, Charlie
——————————–
Charles Spencer Chaplin, b. Apr. 16, 1889, d. Dec. 25, 1977, cinema’s
most celebrated comedian-director, achieved international fame with his
portrayals of the mustachioed Little Tramp. As the director, producer,
writer, and interpreter of his many movies, he made a major contribution to