CIN201Y1 Lecture 21: lecture 21 (2.10)
Lecture 21 (2.10): The End of the Studio Era
Challenges and Adjustments
Lecture Structure:
1) Introduction: American Cinema of the 1950s from Four Perspectives
2) Economic/Industrial: The Studio System Unravels
3) Social: Watching the Tube in Suburbia
4) Technological: Wider, Bigger, Louder
5) Aesthetic: Enter the Auteur
Introduction: American Cinema of the 1950s from Four Perspectives
Each historical perspective, be it aesthetic, economic/industrial, social/ideological, or technological, can
illuminate different facets of the American cinema of the 1950s.
Though the studio system experienced particular stress and change during this decade, we need not restrict
ourselves to an industrial perspective to understand the nature of the changes involved.
What does each type of approach entail?
Economic/Industrial: the aftermath of the Paramount Decrees; television as a competing industry
Social: two pertinent trends: suburbanization and youth culture
Technological: widespread availability of television; technological innovation, especially widescreen
Aesthetic: celebration of the auteur
Economic/Industrial: The Studio System Unravels
The process of divorcement of the affiliated chains that the Paramount Decrees initiated led to the gradual
breakdown of the studio system, previously supported by vertical integration; the aftermath of the Decrees
affected every sector.
Production: The breakdown of the studio system led to a contraction of the labour force, reduced by 50% in a
ten-year period.
The Production Code Administration lost its enforcement credibility, and its effectiveness was further eroded
by a Supreme Court decision in 1952, affording movies First Amendment rights.
The Code was revised in 1956 after a number of productions had challenged its prohibitions.
Distribution: The same companies remained dominant (except RKO, which went out of business in 1957),
though the minors gained more power. Even so, the number of productions declined by about 50% over the ten-
year span.
Exhibition: Ticket prices rose during the decade, while attendance dropped.
Theatre circuits managed to weather the downturn better than independent theatres. (Box office ticket prices
increased from 35 cents to 50 cents, and attendance dropped).
The number of drive-ins proliferated during the decade, tied to the growth of car culture.
Drive-ins offered many service features while still being a bargain.
- Originated during the depression
- Had been a decrease after WW2
- Now there were over 4000 by 1956
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