Tv_in_the_1950's

Ben Higley 10-26-09 Rough draft research paper Movies and T.V of the 50's The Moving Picture in the 1950's was a booming and highly profitable business and for the first time it had come into Americans households. The industry had evolved from radio to black and white T.V to color T.V all in a matter of a couple years. The movie industry was struck hard by the T.V and had to play catch-up while at the same time suffering through a period of reorganization and rearrangement of processes and Techniques. Movies first attempts were in 1895 years before the 1950's. Called moving pictures they were essentially that, over the years progressing to what became known as a movie. The movie went though many eras but the first is the fact that of the silent era of film, creating the image plus sound was not possible for inventors and producers, since no practical way was devised until the late 1920s. Therefor the first thirty years of their history, movies were silent, although accompanied by live musicians and sometimes sound effects and even commentary spoken by the showman or projectionist. In first eleven years of motion pictures is when the cinema moved from a novelty to an established large-scale industry. The films themselves demonstrate a movement from films consisting of one shot or one scene, completely made by one person with a few assistants, towards films several minutes long consisting of several scenes, which were made by large companies. By the year 1907 there were about 4,000 small cinemas (known as Nickelodeon cinemas) in the United States. Eventually venues changed from these small nickelodeon cinemas to larger cinemas charging higher prices. The films were also shown with the addition of music provided by musicians placed in front of the screen. There were very few larger cinemas but there were some in the biggest cities. Initially, the majority of films in the programs were Pathé (1863–1957 French movie pioneer. In 1896 he and his brothers founded a company that eventually dominated the production and distribution of movies) films, but this trend dwindled fairly quickly, as the American companies cranked up production. The years of the First World War were an extremely complex transitional period for the film industry. During this time the exhibition of films changed over from short programs of one-reel films (few scenes) to longer shows made up of a feature film of four reels or longer, though still supported by short films. These higher prices were partly justified by the new film stars who were now being created. In the United States, nearly all the original film companies which formed the Motion Picture Patents Company went out of business in this period because of their resistance to the changeover to long feature films. The one exception to this was the Vitagraph company, which was already moving over to long films by 1914. The move towards shooting more films on the West coast around Los Angeles continued during World War I, until the bulk of American production was carried out there. From then on movies created the star, introduced new technologies all the way up to the 50's. [history.com] Movies during the 1950's consisted of films ranging from Treasure Island, Cinderella to The Flying saucer. A great variety in the types of movies produced had arrived classics, animations but there was a new comer during this time Science Fiction. This was the nuclear age and because of that mans imagination was open to except many more bizarre things. The Movie industry developed such movies as 20,000 leagues under the sea, immersing the audiences with new thoughts and a burst of new thoughts and wonders. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_films_of_1950] Those new thoughts reached developers who introduced for a short time 3-D. The Teenage Market was another development in the 50s it went along with ushering in the age of Rock and Roll. This youth-oriented group was opposed to the older generation's choice of nostalgic films, such as director Anthony Mann's and Universals popular musical biopic The Glenn Miller Story (1954), starring James Stewart as the big band leader, duplicated in Universals follow-up musical biography The Benny Goodman Story (1956) with Steve Allen (his film debut in a serious dramatic role) as the talented clarinet player. They preferred Rock Around the Clock (1956) that featured disc jockey Alan Freed and the group Bill Haley and His Comets (singing the title song) and many others (such as the Platters, and Freddy Bell and The Bell Boys) - it was the first film entirely dedicated to rock 'n' roll. It was quickly followed by two more similar films featuring Alan Freed (as Himself) -- Don't Knock the Rock (1956) and Rock, Rock, Rock (1956). Both films argued that rock-and-roll was a new, fun, and wholesome type of music. However, the adult generation continued to regard the new youthful generation (and the rise of juvenile delinquency) with skepticism and fear, as illustrated in the film adaptation of Maxwell Anderson's stage play, The Bad Seed (1956). The thriller demonstrated that evil could reside in a young, cute serial killer (played by Patty McCormack). [http://www.filmsite.org/50sintro.html] To Americans the movies (where they were available) was a common past time for many children it brings on fond memories. Movie ticket prices ranged from 1959 $0.51 1956 $0.50 1954 $0.45 1953 $0.60 1951 $0.53 [http://boxofficemojo.com/about/adjuster.htm] Most likely varying pending on theater and if you were seated in a balcony. At these relatively low prices all could enjoy the magic created. Along with these new movie genres and high number viewers, came success and with success comes major sales and buy outs of companies. Companies such as Universal bought out smaller companies as did Paramount. There management teams were also going through new alignment all this strengthened the industry. TV's history started when the radio industry reached maturity, inventors started working on the next innovation in this electronic revolution—television. The idea of broadcast television first surfaced in science fiction of the 1880s. In 1884 the German inventor Paul Gottlieb Nipkow developed a rotating-disk technology to transmit pictures over wire. This limited technology dominated the early years of television research but was ultimately abandoned as impractical. The basic elements of an all-electronic television system became available only after 1927, when the American Philo T. Farnsworth developed his image dissector. The corporate giants of the electronics field were less skeptical as they had been about a new mass media. In 1928 the first television drama, “The Queen's Messenger,” was broadcast on experimental equipment in Schenectady, N.Y. Throughout the 1930s Sarnoff, who had become president of RCA, spearheaded the drive to develop television technology. RCA hired scientists to continue research on improving the television camera, and the company also conducted experimental telecasts in New York City. RCA introduced television to a wide audience at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The first TV receivers offered black-and-white pictures on small screens—about 5' across, and sold for almost half the price of a new economy-model automobile. The technology was in place, and the audience was curious and willing, but after 1940 the industry moved into large-scale production of military related goods stalling TVs introduction. Only six TV transmitters continued to broadcast through the war years. After the war, television expanded rapidly until 1948, when around 70 stations were on the air. In that year the FCC, concerned about the limited space available for television transmission in the VHF band (or very high frequency, channels 2–13), implemented a 4-year freeze on all new licenses. In 1952 the FCC resumed licensing new stations, and it opened the UHF band (ultra high frequency, channels 14–83) for television transmission. Mass production of TVs lowered the price of sets to an affordable range so by 1955, around 67 percent of American households were equipped to receive black-and-white programs. This figure increased to 87 percent by 1960. Peter Carl Goldmark of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) demonstrated the first color television system in 1940. During the 1940s, RCA developed a color broadcasting technique that, unlike the CBS prototype, was compatible with existing black-and-white services; standards for a color system receivers gained FCC approval in 1953. Although the color TV was introduced in the 50's it did not boom until mid 60's. [history.com] TV of the 1950's was a staple in American life. The TV had gone from nothing to something in a matter of a couple years. I Love Lucy, Leave It to Beaver, Lassie and Oh! Susanna were common shows that were enjoyed by the whole family this was one type of the “Variety Show”, a Variety show is an act of , made up of different parts comedy musical skits this was their era. There were also many westerns John Wayne Created some of his later work during this time and with that came competition from others to create westerns to the caliber of his. There was also a burst in the Sci-Fi once the movie industry took a hold of the idea TV followed suit. They Brought this new genre to the home a first creating competition then eventually it evened out and TV Sci-Fi was considered different from the movies which regained there superiority. Many kids at this time were highly enveloped in the TV world Saturday mornings were TV day cartoons all morning long creating the first generation of TV watchers. Actors on TV became loved just like movie stars and they introduced the Emmy awards for them. At first when I started this project I believed that there was going to be a huge gap between movies and TV. In reality there were few differences, TV and movies shared ideas and developed new technologies. There seemed to be a competition between them but you can not replace the effect of the theater with a box in your living room. This will never change a TV in your house cannot replace a theater, this will be everlasting.