Chapter 10
Monopoly
Postmodernism can be defined in many ways, one of which is a general and wide- ranging term applied to literature, art, philosophy, culture and literary criticism among others. Postmodern approaches are taken in many ways on of which in Hollywood even today is something that many people overlook. In the beginning of the twentieth century the film industry was very different than it is today. Hollywood is known for being the center of American film industry. Film producers began moving to California to take advantage of the cheap land and labor along with favorable weather. The West coast had everything land, water and mountains some of the main components that outdoor filmmakers would use in their scenes. In this sense they “escaped the control of the existing studio monopoly” (Sturken/Cartwright,334). Producers took over Hollywood and are turned it into the American film capital which we now associate with famous stars and large production studios.
Hollywood had no idea that one day bad things would come for them and make a turn in the film making industry. Recently the supreme court ruled in the United States vs. Paramount industries to five major studios and three smaller ones that were accused of breaking the Sherman Anti-Trust Act as well has having a monopoly over the movie business in the United States of America. Each studio had explicit contracts with different actors and directors who owned the specific theaters where their movies played. This system is known as “vertical integration” and was expensive to keep up and running and still be a secret to many people. The positive side to this was it was a very lucrative business when it was up and running correctly.
At this time President Franklin D. Roosevelt was in charge and claimed that “the movie business was in dire straits during the Depression, the studios asked President Roosevelt to stop the forced breakup of the monopolies” (Constitution Daily). After all the nation needed movies as a relief from troubled times. This is so interesting that film makers tried to not get caught in the monopoly of the industry in any way that they could. It is also interesting to look at the time periods of movie goers and the audience fluctuation. The audience for television grew as people stopped going to movie theaters. In 1948 about 90 million people were regular movie goers and ten years later that number fell to about 46 million people and the audience for television then rose again to 204 million in 1958.
At onetime Hollywood was dominated by the inventors and patent holders of the technology for making certain films. These inventors were some of the few who created monopolies within the film industry. Thomas Edison was a main connoisseur who created many of the materials and technology used in film makings and different items that were used to run movie theaters. He ran much of the film industry in New York and New Jersey, the good thing about that was there was an escape plan. ‘Independents’ or people that chose a third- party option in the film industry fled to California for many reasons. Although all of this was happening in on the East coast there was still a whole other side of the United States which started to boom out of desire to avoid Edison’s claims and quickly became one of the most popular industries in the world.
By the early twenty-first century, Hollywood dominated the film industry and was faced with many challenges by other film productions and independent filmmakers around the world. Although Hollywood was once “the spot” to produce films it later began to lose its appeal. It lost this appeal due to the high cost of many union- related industry’s along with the higher labor that was once a cheap attraction. Filmmakers found cheaper labor elsewhere and moved the part of the film industry all together out of California.
Bollywood is one of the main topics that is touched on when speaking about Hollywood and the film making industry. Bollywood is one of the most creative centers of film production in the world. It is important to understand that Bollywood is nor a name for the Indian filmmaking yet it is the name for the country’s Hindi film industry. Postmodernism in the American dance culture began in the 1960’s had many effects on the traditional forms of dancing in a commercial way. This is present in many productions of movies that are produced in India. Bollywood dance is based on a specific version of Indian culture both meaningful and meaningless.
Overall, the monopolies that went on in this time period along with the other historical events that had gone undiscussed have shaped the way we see not only Hollywood but other major cities and industries around the world today. Being able to run companies and industries by one person is not the overall goal of society. It is important to take down monopolies and show the world that everyone is capable of producing for themselves.
