Modern Times: The Industry Changes

The dismantling of the Studio System is often credited to the brash young Turks who were unwilling to follow the old rules and wanted to shake up Hollywood. The truth was a bit more complicated than that.

Then as now, the road to stardom is littered with the memories of people who never quite made it. Despite the many shattered dreams of those who never gained the fame of the superstars, Hollywood's moguls were never wanting for new superstar wannabes. Bus loads of fame seeking dreamers streamed into town daily. If a young Turk tried to stir things up, he or she would often find him or herself back waiting tables at Chasen's. It was more than just new blood that took down the Studio System; in fact the biggest factor was rapidly entering American homes- television.

Television didn't just steal Hollywood's audiences; it also forced the movie studios to try to differentiate themselves from their younger rivals. The quieter B films that every major studio produced to keep their operations humming between the major releases were no longer attracting audiences because they could see those sorts of productions at home for free. To combat this, the bigger studios started to produce bigger, more lavish films in CinemaScope and other large formats not available to home audiences. With every movie needing to be a major event, the poverty row studios either had to embrace Sci-Fi gimmicks or try bigger productions. Columbia Pictures made the leap to the big leagues around this time. Other studios faded away. Cleopatra was the nadir of this bigger, better period. Hollywood realized that it couldn't produce only big epic films. It found its salvation in the young Turks and the new letter rating system.

While the movie rating system was supposed to be a valuable tool for parents, the studios saw it as a way to produce small films that were different from television. Content found in PG & R rated films was often banned on television. Hollywood would still rely on big epic filmmaking for part of its production slate; but now it could also produce smaller, less expensive 'today' pictures featuring nudity and adult language. Hollywood's total movie output would never equal what it was in its heyday, but at least it found a financially viable road forward paved by its new generation of auteurs.

Forbidden Planet: Trog

Towards the end of her career, Joan Crawford seemingly had two requirements for any role she took- the check had to clear and the studio had to let her promote Pepsi, on whose board she sat after the death of her husband. Trog satisfied both of these requirements.

The troglodyte of the title was not Ms. Crawford, but her co-star, a man in a Bigfoot suit who her character discovers in a cave. Joan plays an anthropologist who discovers "Trog" and gets the task of spouting the technobabble dialogue that pushes the story (such as it was) along. Along the way, we get shots of Ms. Crawford and Trog enjoying Pepsi and learning from each other.

The film was typical of the sci-fi movies of the 1950's. Too bad it was being released in 1970. With Joan's needs met, however, she cared little for the film's success or failure.

Subtle product placement!

A Star is Born: Sharon Tate

Hollywood likes to present the idea of the "overnight success"- the regular person who gets plucked out of the crowd to become an instant star. This was rarely the case, even in Hollywood's golden age. Studio chiefs often held back their biggest discoveries until they thought those finds were ready for the spotlight. This often meant background roles and disguises in smaller films. At the dawn of television, it meant paying your dues on the small screen, like Sharon Tate.

Martin Ransohoff signed Sharon to a film contract, but he wanted to test her out on some of his television shows. Her first few roles were on Mr. Ed, once as a telephone operator and another time as a young lady "entertaining" a sailor.

Her biggest television role was as Janet Trego in The Beverly Hillbillies. Since this was a higher profile role, Ransohoff placed her in a black wig.

By the time Sharon began making features, she would be sold as a bright new star- who was hiding in plain sight.

Hooray for Hollywood: Afterthought Toons

When most people think about the Warner Brothers, the Looney Tunes are probably the first thing that comes to mind. They most definitely don't think about the actual Warner Brothers who founded the company; as a matter of fact, they probably couldn't identify any of them in a line-up.

Is this Jack Warner? Maybe.

To the actual Warner Brothers, however, animation was an afterthought. With Walt Disney revolutionizing the field, the Warners felt they had to do something in the medium, so they hired Leon Schlesinger to produce some of these cartoon pictures out of a decrepit building on the studio lot affectionately called "Termite Terrace".

It was at Termite Terrace that the legendary Chuck Jones would hone his craft. The studio's first and biggest star would, of course, be Porky Pig. (Surprised?) Audiences couldn't seemingly get enough of Porky Pig whose cartoons would rival the popularity of Disney's shorts at the time.

That wouldn't be the end of the story, obviously, as Porky would eventually get shoved aside by the rascally rabbit Bugs Bunny, who would become the public face of Warner Brothers to many moviegoers around the world.

Would this success earn the admiration of the Warner Brothers? It wouldn't; at least, not from Jack Warner. When asked about his studio's animated output, Jack stated that all he knew about it was that Warner Brothers owned Mickey Mouse, which wasn't true. The final insult would come in the 1950's when Jack oversaw the sale of the entire animated catalog to AAP for just $3,000 per short. It would take 40 years for the cartoons to return home.

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