Hollywood: Before & After WWII

Leading up to the WWII and at the beginning of 1946, Hollywood reigned over the international movie industry and box office figures were the highest in history. But from the years 1946-1958, Hollywood was in a terror and was doomed.

In the formative years of the American film industry, it was controlled by refugees, mainly from Eastern Europe and all of them Jewish. These movie moguls set up so that they not only produced movies, but distributed them as well. They went on to establish an organization that controlled film producers and distributers, and this organization set up an international censorship office. But with all of this, creative talent was controlled by these rules and regulations, when all they wanted was freedom.

The Great Depression really put a damper on Hollywood, and it almost bankrupted the movie industry. To preserve through this time, the movie moguls had to share their power with the moneymen of Wall Street. America’s isolationist policies really heated up the problems that Hollywood faced in the years before WWII. The anti-trust division of the government tried to break Hollywood’s monopoly, but the film industry held it off.

The battles with the industry paused when America went to war at the end of 1941, and remained paused between 1942-1945. Once America won the war, many people found themselves ready to get back to life and create families, and started the move to the suburbs. This move really affected the way people attended the movies, it was becoming too expensive and inconvenient for them to go to indoor movies. Hollywood realized this and started creating drive-in theaters, which sky rocketed in popularity.

With all of the postwar issues, Hollywood was hit hard. Downsizing came about quickly and layoffs reduced not only the number of films but the types of films as well. This fear and insecurity become very apparent in the film style, film noir, which really grew after the last days of WWII. With this, blacklisting was also put into the American film industry and hundreds of lives, careers, and friendships were crushed.

By 1948, Hollywood faced not only blacklisting, the suburb move, the rebellious foreign markets, and the loss of control of the studio system; but the US Supreme Court also declared the 1948 Paramount Decision that Hollywood’s monolithic studio system had to end. This free market created lots of problems and by the end of the 50s, many movie houses went out of business.

The real winners in all of this were the minor studies, because movie moguls found themselves falling from power. This hectic time also brought out Hollywood’s best creative talent.