Thames looks at Hollywood
The silent' cinema is the lost age of entertainment in this century. When
talking pictures finally arrived with “The Jazz Singer,” many people regarded the event as .the death of a great art. But they were not mourning what passes for silent films today —jerky little melodramas with matchstick figures, virtually impossible to see in a blizzard of soot and whitewash. They had grown up with an industry which produced, in a few short
years, a huge range of spectacular, inventive and exciting films.
These productions w’ere presented in great style, in glittering picture palaces, with carefully constructed musical scores for full orchestral accompaniment. “Hollywood,” a 13-part British Thames series which begins on TV2 tonight, is devoted to the rise and fall of the silent film and presents a com-
plete picture of American film production frbm 1895 to 1930.
From a penny-arcade curiosity, the silent film rapidly developed into a universal language, distributed across the globe. America lagged far behind in the early years of the industry, but, by the end of World War I, Hollywood had become sy-
nonymous with the most popular entertainment the world has ever known.
Excerpts from hundreds of features and short subjects are shown in the series, along with more than 70 interviews with the great stars and directors.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19800228.2.80.5
Bibliographic details
Press, 28 February 1980, Page 17
Word Count
220Thames looks at Hollywood Press, 28 February 1980, Page 17
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.