Hollywood is the world’s most famous neighbourhood...
Yep, you heard that right.
I said the word neighbourhood because Hollywood is not a city, it’s not even a village.
Hollywood is a district inside of the city of Los Angeles, with a population of less
than 90,000 people.
Nonetheless, here is where most of the movie industry is concentrated.
But wait a minute, because I know what you are going to say…
‘Come on Simon!
This isn’t true… the biggest movie production centre in the world is Bollywood!
in India!’
Well, my dear friends at VisualPolitik, you are sort of right.
But…
there is a but...
Despite the Indian movie industry making more movies than anyone, their income is tiny compared
to that of Hollywood.
Think about it…
How many Indian movies have you seen?
I bet the answer is none or close-to-none (unless you are Indian of course, in which
case, “hello Indian viewers!”).
Now, with a few exceptions, Bollywood movies are made to the domestic market.
And the same goes with Nigeria…
Yep, Nigeria is actually the second largest movie producer in the world, behind Bollywood,
but I’m sure hardly any of you have seen any film made in this country (unless you
are Nigerian of course, in which case, hello Nigerian viewers!).
So, when it comes to the raw economics of it all, Hollywood is, undoubtedly, the world’s
movie capital.
And now you might be wondering…
Simon, why are we talking about cinema here at VisualPolitik - isn’t this channel all
about politics and economics!?
What’s the connection here?
Well… actually there are a lot of connections.
First there is the fact that there is a political reason why so much of the movie world is centered
in Hollywood.
At the end of the day…
I mean why is Hollywood in Los Angeles and not New York or…
London, or somewhere else entirely?
Now, many of you might think California has always been an important state inside the
US, with innovative companies, prestigious universities, and celebrities walking down
the street.
But the truth is, that at the beginning of the 20th century, L.A. had less than 100,000
inhabitants.
In fact, the first movie producers were born on the other side of the country, in cities
like New York or Chicago.
So the question we have to ask here is: Why did they decided to move to Los Angeles?
What does Hollywood have that Manhattan doesn’t?
And most important of all…
What does immigration have to do with this?
Well, today we are going to answer all of those questions.
But before we do that, let’s take a look at the history.
ART BY, AND FOR, IMMIGRANTS
The first question has to be...
Who invented movies in the first place?
*CHOIR: THE LUMIERE BROTHERS!!!!* (Simon, leave some seconds of silence here, just like
I did on the original video) Well… not exactly!
What the Lumiere Brothers invented was the system to project films onto a big screen.
But years before that, the company of Thomas Edison had already discovered a system to
record and play short movies, this was called the KINETOSCOPE.
It was a device where you would put in a coin and watch a movies through a peephole.
Years later, this system would be improved so that these short films could be projected
onto a big screen as well...
But the big difference between Edison and the Lumiere brothers was that the American
businessman knew that these could be a big time money maker.
"Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent.
Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success."
–Thomas Edison
So while the Lumiere Brothers showed their invention off at scientific fairs, Edison
made a profit from it.
His business consisted of selling these machines, taking a royalty for their use, and supplying
movie theatres with lots and lots of films.
In just two decades, Edison made more than 1200 movies.
And you might wonder…
What kind of movies did he produce?
Well… as bizarre as it sounds, many of those first films in history where about women getting
undressed.
Yep.
But movies where a big opportunity and in just a few years, cities like New York and
Chicago became flooded with movie theaters.
These were the so-called NICKELODEONS.
Here you could find a great show at a lower price than in any theatre.
Plus, since movies were silent, you didn’t need to speak English to understand them.
This means movies became the perfect entertainment for all the immigrants arriving to the land
of opportunity.
All of this was happening in the first decade of the 20th century, and while France and,
interestingly, Denmark, already were producing their own movies, no other country had a bigger
audience than America.
However, Thomas Edison was unable to see all the opportunities behind his invention...
At the end of the day, he was the typical Wasp, and he despised those immigrants.
Of course, he was happy to make money from them.
But why would he invest more in increasing the quality of his films?
At the end of the day, his company had monopoly over the production and the distribution of
films.
All these nickelodeon's were paying their royalties to Edison’s company and buying
his films without even looking at the titles and plots.
At the end of the day, nobody thought these German, Italian or Hungarian immigrants would
appreciate the details.
Of course, this was until this man you are going to see on the screen.
I’m talking about Laemmle was one of those German immigrants who worked
at a nickelodeon in Chicago.
Business was great.
But he was sick of paying so much money for Edison’s movies.
So ha asked himself this question: ‘Couldn’t I make my own movies?’
And…
well, so it was done!
Laemmle also knew other nickelodeon owners.
All of them were immigrants too, and they knew the tastes and aspirations of their audiences.
They knew movies could become something more than just cheap jokes and girls with not-very-many
clothes.
They could create stars, like those seen on Broadway.
These cinema pioneers were the first ones to include the actors name on the posters
and in the credits.
This way, many more artists were willing to work for them.
Their films became famous among immigrants who came from all over the world.
And this is why they named their company…
UNIVERSAL.
As you can imagine, the success of this new company inspired others to follow suit.
For instance, another Hungarian immigrant, named Adolph Zukor, made another partnership
with other nickelodeon owners and started another studio called PARAMOUNT PICTURES.
Suddenly, New York and, in general, the East Coast became sort of a primitive version of
Hollywood.
But hold on just a minute, because Thomas Edison was not willing to lose this battle!
Don’t forget he had the fame, the money and the patents.
So in less than 5 years, Laemmle and his partners faced over 200 lawsuits.
The same happened with the rest of the small studios and many of them went bankrupt.
Yes… it was bad times for movie studios… but it was a golden era for lawyers.
And if all of this was not enough, Edison had enough power to force all the nickelodeon’s
from New York and Chicago to sign exclusivity contracts.
If they wanted Edison’s technology, they couldn’t buy movies from his rivals.
And this is the moment when our friend, Carl Laemmle asked himself another question…
Why should I remain on the East coast?
Edison was a powerful man indeed, but his influence didn’t reach everywhere.
There was a place far out of his reach.
And that place was California.
THE BIRTH OF AN INDUSTRY
In the year 1915, California, it was the place to be.
Thousands of young immigrants, the perfect audience for movies, would arrive every year.
Houses and properties were cheaper than anywhere else in America, and as if this was not enough,
the weather was fantastic.
In New York it rains every other day so, if you wanted to make movies, you’d better
have a studio and spend thousands of dollars on lights.
In California there’s plenty of sunshine all year round so it’s easy to shoot outside.
And this is why all those big studios from New York and Chicago moved into a neighbourhood
on the outskirts of Los Angeles...
A small suburb with little more than 500 inhabitants.
And as you’ve probably guessed by now, that tiny place was Hollywood.
But the story doesn’t end here...
You might now be wondering: Well, how did California conquer audiences around the world?
Don’t forget that, back in that time, the United States was not the big powerhouse it
would become later.
Besides, countries like France and Denmark had already a well funded industry.
So…
Why did Hollywood achieve international success so quickly?
The answer lies in the so-called “network effect.”
If you’ve been subscribed to this channel for a while then the chances are you know
what that is...
Essentially, all those Hollywood studios attracted the best investors and professionals from
all around the world, and this explains why, in 1915, Hollywood was the location for the
first “super-production” in history.
This movie was called ‘The Birth of a Nation’, and it cost around $100,000 in 1915 dollars…
As an aside here: this movie was extremely controversial because, basically, the KKK
are portrayed as the good guys.
But that’s a story for another day…
The truth is, in less than 10 years, the population of Hollywood grew to more than 30,000 inhabitants.
Most of them were immigrants like FRANCISCO ELIAS.
This Spaniard came to Hollywood to work as a production assistant.
Soon he realized he could translate the titles of the movies into Spanish.
This way, he could export them to Spain and Latin America.
Other immigrants with other mother tongues did the same, and, all of a sudden, Hollywood
movies could be understood everywhere.
But hold on just a second, I can guess what you are thinking!
What happened when the movies had sound?
Well… actually this was a crucial turning point in the history of American movies.
Let’s look at an example: During the times of Nazi Germany, the government invested a
fortune in subsidizing German studios.
And, of course, those companies tried to export their films to other countries like Spain.
Spain, under the dictatorship of FRANCISCO FRANCO, was a close ally of the 3rd reich.
Nonetheless, almost no Spanish movie theatres projected a German movie.
Why?
Well, the reason is not as idealistic as you might expect, it was a pure technological
one...
German studios sent their movies in the German language and they didn’t have good systems
to dub them.
Hollywood studios, instead, had state of the art methods for dubbing.
Plus, since they had such a high immigrant population, it was easier for them to find
translators and voice actors.
Some companies even had their own offices in Spain so they sent the celluloid ready
to be replaced with the Spanish audio track.
In other words, American movies where cheaper to project than those from any other country.
Add to this the peerless talent of movie geniuses like John Ford, who came from Ireland, or
Ernst Lubitsch, who came from Germany.
These where the ultimate weapons that made America surpass any other country when it
came to the movie industry.
So, oh yes, Hollywood was born thanks to those who came from outside of America… and Hollywood
grew up thanks to selling their movies to people outside of America.
And here I have to make a aside.
In case you’ve never heard about John Ford…
do yourself a favour and watch ‘The Man who Shot Liberty Valance’.
It’s the wonderful film, and, despite its black and white, it hasn’t aged.
And now the question is…
What happened after all of this?
How did Hollywood survive censorship and piracy?
If you would like us to tell you that story, let us know in the comments below!
Meanwhile, in this other video, we tell you story of success… the story of how Ireland
became rich.
Be sure to check that out.
Also, please visit RECONSIDER MEDIA.COM, this is the podcast which provided the vocals in
this episode that are not mine.
And of course, don’t forget that we publish brand new videos every Monday and every Thursday
so subscribe to this channel and you won’t miss any post.
If you liked this video, give us a thumbs up and, as always, I’ll see you in the next
video!