Silent Movies In The 1920s

After World War I, the U.S. experienced tremendous economic and cultural growth. New masses of technology were invented, and the entertainment business rapidly started gaining popularity. Spotlights shined upon geniuses who brought lavish amounts of culture and found ways make the country better. It is very evident that many factors contributed to changing ways of daily life. During the 1920s, American culture and society has greatly expanded into what is known as “The Roaring Twenties”.

Before 1920, entertainment was not as widely popular in the United States. This would include the music, sporting events and theater. The radio was only just now created in the 1920’s and was becoming very popular instantly. The radio was a way for groups and families to gather and listen to their favorite music such as the upcoming hit music, Jazz. Music was a very popular type of entertainment.

The 1920s saw the growth of popular recreation, in part because of higher wages and increased leisure time. Just as automobiles were mass-produced, so was recreation during the 1920s. Mass-circulations magazines like Reader’s Digest and Time (established 1923) enjoyed enormous success. Radio also rose to prominence as a source of news and entertainment during the 1920s: NBC was founded in 1926 and CBS a year later.

Throughout the years, numerous talented artists of the modern period have left an indelible mark upon life through their achievements in: art, music, poetry and writing. The modern period was known for its ravishing fashion, a tremendous amount of new cultures, and in music and ethnicity. During this period, famous authors such as W.B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, and Dylan Thomas made an immense impact and maturation of literature. There have been several events that have taken place in the forming of the modern period. The Harlem Renaissance showed the pain and agony the African Americas faced through the years of the 1900s.

The 1920's should be remembered as a cynical but carefree time of jazz, gin, and socioeconomic prosperity. Modern cultural norms were drastically affected during this period. Numerous technological innovations evolved, and mass production of technology plagued the United States, ultimately benefiting, and negatively affecting economic, social, and political gestures. Whereas the telephone and radio had already been invented, they became of popular use during the early 20th century, both of which were used to positively alter the entertainment industry. Phonograph technology saw rise during this period, which allowed musicians (such as jazz instrumentalists, whose study is primarily based on improvisation techniques) to produce phonograph recordings

If you look skid row up in the dictionary, the definition is clear: a poor part of town or city where people who are homeless or who drink too much often go. The midnight mission first opens its door in 1914, this area has been plagued with the same issues for far too long. It’s amazing that these types of issues are ignored by the majority of society. The midnight mission has a wonderful program to give people that are on skid row a purpose again.

Silent films, jazz concerts, sports, dancing marathons, radio entertainment. Video games, cable TV, digital movies, apps, internet. Any of these sound familiar? The first characteristics belong to the Silent Majority, which is the generation that lived in the 1920s. The other ones pertain to the Millennials, this generation consists of people born in the late 1980s all the way to 2000s.

Jennifer Frost argues how famous Hollywood columnist, Hedda Hopper used her celebrity prestige to influence Americans into anticommunism and being “Red Scared.” Indeed, Hopper used her charisma to influence Hollywood internally and externally, as its culture moved against the Commies. Frost argues how Hopper, through her column, in the Los Angeles Times, along with her radio show, had a significant impact in generating intolerance against Communism. “Hopper and her readers used her column to share and exchange information about films they saw as communist propaganda and to redbait filmmakers they suspected of communist affiliations or .sympathies.”

Many films of the silent movie era are melodramas, which was a term used back then purely as a descriptive word to describe a movie and not a ‘negative’ term the way we use the term today. Chaplin’s film is a melodrama that invokes the emotions of his audience. Some elements of melodrama are present in Chaplin’s film The Gold Rush, the characteristics of a melodrama aid in analysing how melodramatic a silent movie is. An element of melodrama is, a situation - an occurring conflict in the film created by the screenwriter to evoke an intense emotional response from the viewers.

“Crack! back, back, gone!” Baseball, America 's debatable favorite pastime. Baseball officially became America 's pastime in the 1920s(PBS). Baseball is America 's pastime, the sport somehow stayed popular through many economic endeavors and national hardships.

The original motion picture just consisted of different pictures that were placed together to make them look as if they were actually moving. An example of this was a horse that was running. There was no sound or even a story line in these movies. These movies usually lasted no more than 10 minutes in length. There were many factors that lead to the development of the motion picture industry such as when people saw the hype that these first movies were getting, more and more people started going to the movies and in order to gain attention and keep peoples interest, the film industry evolved into what it is today.