TWENTIET HCESTUltyA.\lUllCAN\
Themovies
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rhi'19!Ol.Inth e1920sAmericanmoviesfilled the cinema
screensofth e worl d .MostweremadeIIII lolly-
wood, asuburbofthecityofLos Ang elesIII
California.Holl y w ood 's bigattractionfor film-
m ak ersw as itscleanair and plentifulsunshine.
T he moviesmadetherewerebrigh tan dclear.Uy
the 192 0sit had beco m ethefilm-makin gcapitalof
th e world.
H o lly w oo dm ovi esweremadebylarg ecompanies
called stu dios. Them en who ran these studios
werebusinessm en andtheirmainaimwastomak e
asmuchmOlley as possible.T heysoo nfoundthat
onew aytodo thiswasto stand ardizetheirfilms.
When aud iences had shown that they liked a
cert ain kin doffilm,thestudiosm ademan ymore
ofexac tlythesamekind.
An o th ersurewayfor a studiotom ak emon eywas
to run }its actorsinto"stars."Starsw ereactors
whoweresopopularthatpeoplewentincrowds
to see any filmtheyappearedin, no m arrerho wgoodo r bad it was. Afamousstarcouldmakeany
m o viea certai nsuccess. So the studiosw entto
g reat lengthstomaketheiractorsintostars .T hey
encouraged fan magazines. They set up sp ecial
p ublicityd epartm ent s to get sto riesabout their
actors in t o thenewspapers.
T he movies of r hc 192 0sweresilen t.Theyspoke
IIIp ictu res, not words,andsotheirlanguage was
int ernatio nal.Alloverthe wo rld ,fromBerlinco
Tokyo, from Lon do n to Buenos Air es,te nsof
m illions o f people lined up ever y night ofthe
week toseeth eirfavo riteHo llywoodstars-and,
without realizin g it.tobeAmeric aniz ed.
H o llywo o d moviesshowedpeo p lea wo rld that
w as m or eexciting,morefree. m or e equal,than
th eir own. Tomost peo ple this world ofthe
m ovi esrem ain ed a d reamworld, sepa rate from
reallife. Hut to someit becamemore. Itm ade
t hem realize .howeverdimly. thatperha psth eir
ownconditionsoflifeco uld be improved.