S3E00 - A History of Early Hollywood with Peter Labuza

We’re back, and Ernst Lubitsch is now in Hollywood!

It’s been an exciting time for the podcast: we’ve traveled around the world or, more specifically, to Los Angeles and New York City, to record the next few seasons. We begin at the Margaret Herrick Library at Beverly Hills, in conversation with Peter Labuza as we discuss the history of early Hollywood, wherein Ernst Lubitsch is about to begin the second phase of his career.

In this episode, we cover the landscape and economics of the studio system circa the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s including studios such as MGM, 20th Century, Universal, Paramount, and RKO, the interplay between capital and labor in this industry, the impact of synchronized sound, the great depression, the Hays code, JEWEL ROBBERY, and much more!

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Anna Citak-Scott was our recording engineer for this episode.

Thanks to Matt Severson and the Margaret Herrick Library for letting us record in the Karl Malden room.

We have a Discord!

NEXT WEEK:

Critic and friend of the show Tim Brayton returns to discuss Lubitsch’s first American silent film, ROSITA. For details as to where to find this film, check out our resources page.

WORKS CITED:

Hard, Fast, and Brokerage: Irving H. Levin, the Filmmakers, and the Birth of Conglomerate in Hollywood by Peter Labuza
For The Maintenance of the System: Institutional and Cultural Change within the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, 1922-1945 by Paul MacLusky Moticone
The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960 by Bordwell, Thompson, and Staiger.
Making Cinelandia: American Films and Mexican Film Culture by Laura Isabel Serna
An Empire of Their Own by Niel Gabler
Film Rhythm after Sound by Lea Jacobs
Working in Hollywood by Ronnie Regev
YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS: KAY FRANCIS

OTHER RESOURCES:

J. J. DiUbaldi’s Timeline of American Studios and The Hollywood Production Code