Hollywood

Hollywood. Then Bollywood. Tollywood ( which earlier referred to Bengal film industry since the studios were located in Tollygunge district of the city, but now means Telugu films) and Kollywood, meaning films made out of Kolkata.

All very filmy terms. All related to cinema. But how did Hollywood happen?

The story of Hollywood is the story of American cinema. Money, glamour, show biz. Even grief.

When the initial process of grappling with the technology of film making had reached a point of comfort and the experimental levels of film making presented itself as a greater form of entertainment, it turned into big business. As in all businesses, the investors first worked out the convenient points of operation, and please keep in mind that the cinema business was spearheaded by the Jews, they chose a district in Los Angeles in California. What was a small municipality in 1903, went on to become the one point reference to anything related to English cinema.

Why Hollywood?

Remember, the early movers to this industry were Jews, and many of them were owners of show houses which hosted live shows similar to what is performed in melas in India: madari ka khel, banjara dances and similar naacha gaana packages. These halls were used for screening cinemas which were mostly watched by the urban working class, most of whom were migrants.The owners of these theatres found it more profitable to screen cinemas However, the production of films were limited and “supply” was slow. It eventually turned out to be a good reason to get in to the production business itself to cater to the demand of their own theatres and so was born Hollywood.

There were a number of reasons for the theatre owners to choose Hollywood. First was a very commercial reason. They stayed out of arm’s reach of Thomas Alva Edison, who held the patent of many technologies used in film making. Edison was located in New Jersey and so the distance made it difficult for him to keep suing film makers for alleged infringement of his patents.

The other reasons were the geographical properties of Hollywood. The clear skies above Hollywood were constantly blue with very little cloud which was perfect lighting for shooting and continuity of shots.And like our own Film City in Goregaon in Mumbai, it had everything from nature: mountain, forest, even sea shores. So, Hollywood offered a huge savings as far as production costs were concerned.

Let us see what was happening around the world during the first world war. The film “industry” in Britain and France were virtually shut due to the war and Russian films had a limited reach due to the war. Not to forget that the great Russian films actually hit the world post first world war. This gave the American film makers a great opportunity to develop a great business with virtually no competition.

Soon, Hollywood became the fifth largest industry in USA.

Five people alone made this possible: Adolf Zukor’s Paramount Pictures, Louis B Mayers MGM, The Warner brother’s Warner Brothers, Darryl F Zanuck’s 20th Century Fox and David Sarnoff’s RKO. Add to these some of the famous studios like Universal, Columbia and United Artists and cinema as business became Hollywood.

Courtesy : Artpickles