Art of Film on Sky Arts - The Birth of the Moguls

 

This is the story of the guys who started the big studios in Hollywood. Ian Nathan tells us about the light of California, and these figureheads who had huge control over everything that went onto film. One after another, the presenters gave us their stories. Kim Newman says that so many were from Europe: Russia, Poland, Germany and were predominantly Jewish. They seemed to all start owning cinemas in New York. 

Ian Nathan talks about German born Carl Lemmaele who officially created the first studio called Universal in Los Angeles in 1916 in the San Fernando Valley. All because of the light. He built the studio on farmland. Next came the big producers, Cecil B DeMille and Samuel Goldwyn. They started in the theatre and set up a film making business as an offshoot. The first feature film was The Squaw Man in 1914 directed by DeMille. 

In 1912, Adolf Zukor founded The Players Film Company. After building up a chain of cinemas, they started in film production with Paramount Studios. Ian Nathan then tells us about Louis B Mayer "the most famous of them all". Born in Russia, he bought his first movie theatre and in a few years had the largest cinema chain on the East Coast. After getting into film distribution, he set up his studio in Hollywood. Neil Norman said he was a real bully, a loud brash hustler. With his partners he founded MGM, or Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Mayer's partner was Irving Thalberg, an opposite to Mayer. A quiet creative producer who wanted better pictures even if that meant less of them. He even shied away from having his name on the credits. A great shame he died at 37.

We then hear about the Warner Brothers story. The three brothers (see photo above) opened a studio in Hollywood, the first to get sound. The fourth younger brother was Jack, the best production chief in Hollywood. By the 1930's he was running the show. But he was the most ruthless of the moguls, tyrannical and ruthless. In the end he even stitched up his own family.

Neil Norman talks about another bully, Harry Cohn. He was instrumental in the setting up of Columbia Studios, making lots of cheap films on a low budget. He had microphones everywhere so he could listen in to all that was going on. His big success was It Happened One Night". Next came Daryl Zanuck who was writing scripts from a very young age. He left Warners to set up 20th Century Pictures which eventually merged with Fox to become 20th century Fox. Zanuck made some big independent films, he was more of a collaborator with his directors than any of the other producers. 

Finally we are told about Walt Disney, how he pioneered animation, set up his own studio and eventually went into theme parks. Walt actually started out as an artist but always insisted his name was stamped on the top of every picture. Christina talked about his family orientated movies, and how he set up a team of animators to make the first animated feature in 1937 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.