The Golden Era

1930-1940s in Hollywood

So far . . .

We have sound We have some color

– still MANY black and white films

The Depression

While the depression hit everyone hard, movie attendance was still between 60-75 million per week!

Special offers kept people in attendance – double features, contests . . .

None of the major studios folded but all lost money

Escapism

People went to the movies to get away from the drudger of daily life.

Musicals were a main means of escape

But, by 1932, studios were producing so many, a change was necessary to capture audiences.

New Genres Gangster films

– Public Enemy (1931) Comedies (screwball comedies)

– It Happened One Night (1934)– Bringing up Baby (1938)

Westerns– Cimarron (1931)

The STARS

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers– First pairing: Flying Down to Rio (1933)– RKO pictures– They danced and sang in musicals– Best known as dancers – 10 films together

More STARS: Katharine Hepburn

– A Bill of Divorcement (1932)– Alice Adams (1935)– Stage Door (1937)

Bette Davis– A star from Warner Bros– Of Human Bondage (1934)– Dangerous (1935)– Jezebel (1938)

More . . . Charlie Chaplin!

– Transitioned from silent films by remaining silent for his first two “sound” films in the 1930s.

– He did not speak in a film until the 1940s!– City Lights (1931)– Modern Times (1936)

Mae West– She Done Him Wrong (1933)– I’m No Angel (1933)– LUSTY, funny, suggestive . . .– “When I’m good, I’m very good, but when I’m

bad, I’m better”

Funny Guys . . .

BIG films:

Gone With The Wind (1939)– Based on Margaret Mitchell’s novel– Starred Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh– Victor Fleming directed– Civil War drama

Casablanca (1941)– Michael Curtiz directed– Starred Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman– World War II drama