The story of film from its beginnings to the end of the studio system.

Voices from Hollywood's Past

An anecdotal history of Hollywood including a selection of recordings of interviews with veterans of classic movies. These were taken from radio and TV documentaries I have enjoyed over the years. They are presented here for education and entertainment only, no copyright infringement is intended, the copyrights remain the property of the original holders.



The intersection between Highland Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard 1907, the moviemakers haven't moved in yet.

The Early Years

Mary Pickford recorded in 1946 recalls her first meeting with one of the major pioneer filmmakers :


Director Allan Dwan (Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood and The Iron Mask) 

(interviewed for the Hollywood series (Thames TV, 1980)) :

"When we put up buildings we called studios, they were simply posts stuck up in the air with wires stretched across them and canvas to shield us from the sun. They were called stages. As time advanced enterprising people came from the east and began to put buildings around these lots - always leaving the roofs open because otherwise we couldn't work. We had no electric light. They were all open air shots. Sometimes when it was raining there would be a rush of people to the lot to grab a piece of furniture and get it out of the rain until it had passed, then we'd put it out again and while the sun was up shoot a few scenes and then hide the furniture again from the elements. Sometimes it would be raining on one side of the street and we'd make rain shots and then walk across the street and do sunshine shots."


Director Alfred Newman said  "I think the people who worked in silent pictures really perfected the great techniques of motion pictures." 

Douglas  Fairbanks  Jnr agreed saying, "The best of the sound films are those that come closest to being silent. Otherwise we're just photographing stageplays."
 
Charlie Chaplin recorded in 1952 talks about the magic of the silent film :






Directors

Allan Dwan recalled D.W. Griffith :

"I liked his short gesture in films. By that I mean the girls. They never made broad gestures. They were little gestures. They didn't make the wide, sweeping old-fashioned theatrical movements such as we'd been getting from the old hams that came into the business. We all imitated him. We eagerly ran to the Griffith pictures to see what was new. His back lighting with the aid of Bitzer (his cameraman) was magnificent. Nobody dared shoot towards the light. The sun had to behind the camera, never in front. And his use of reflectors, throwing light back into the faces of people. The sunburst in the hair,the haloes on the girls, all those things were new and interesting to us,and all of us who had any sense copied him. So we regarded him as a leader, and I think the leader of our whole business. We've never had a leader since."
     
Lillian Gish in 1969 talks about Broken Blossoms (1919) :
Art Director A. Arnold Gillespie, niece Agnes DeMille and Gloria Swanson remember Cecil B. DeMille :



Director Allan Dwan recalls Douglas Fairbanks reaction to the huge sets for his version of Robin Hood (1922):

Virginia Mayo on Raoul Walsh :

"He got more guts and fire into a movie. His films lived because he gave them an earthy quality."

George Cukor :

"You've got to make a climate in which people can work and you've got to know how to get the best out of your actors. The main thing is the story. If the story is good, the director is halfway there and its easy."



Tippi Hedren on Alfred Hitchcock :

"He liked to take someone who was in control of her life and slowly break them down. Hitchcock was a difficult person with all kinds of frustrations and neuroses. He thought of himself as looking like Cary Grant. That's tough-to think of yourself one way and look another."

Contract director Vincent Sherman :

"I'd finish a picture on a Friday and many times I'd come on Monday morning and be handed another script." 








The Arrival of Sound

Mary Astor and producer Irving Asher remember reactions to the early talkies, the clip is preceded by a short section from Don Juan's Vitaphone score and followed by a short snatch of Jolson in The Jazz Singer (1927) :

Charles Buddy Rogers, Ralph Bellamy, Mae Clarke and Douglas Fairbanks Jnr recall the Talkie panic among the silent stars and the recruitment of theatrically trained actors from Broadway in the early years of sound :


MGM Story Editor Sam Marx recalls the influence of The Broadway Melody (1929) :


Director Lewis Milestone and star Lew Ayres remember All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) :








The Studios
 


Warner Brothers Studios 1920

Director John Huston recalls the different styles of the studios in the 30s :

Garson Kanin has a funny story concerning Harry Cohn head of Columbia Pictures :


Joan Fontaine recalls the power of Louis B.Mayer :


Anne Baxter on Darryl F. Zanuck :



Sam Marx remembers Irving Thalberg discovering Clark Gable :


Director George Sidney and Sam Marx remember MGM as a factory of dreams :


The Stars

Katharine Hepburn recalls her first film A Bill of Divorcement (1932) :



Producer Pandro S. Berman and choreographer Hermes Pan remember the Astaire-Rogers musicals :

Stan Laurel on why the team of Laurel and Hardy worked so well including a snatch of Trail of the Lonesome Pine from Way Out West (1937) at the beginning :




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Written content of the Golden Age of Hollywood Website (except where indicated) copyright Derek McLellan, 2007.