The filmmaking industry was cutthroat. The men who succeeded were tough. Many of them were immigrants, who were willing to work hard and to take risks. They also made the geographic shift from starting out in cities on the East Coast to building major studios in California.
Driving Ambition
Carl Laemmle immigrated to the United States from Germany as a teenager. In 1906, he started a company that rented films to theater owners. Later, he began creating his own movies. In 1912, his filmmaking company merged with several others to form Universal Pictures. Ambitious and driven, Laemmle forced out Universal's other partners until he had sole control. In 1913, he built a stateof-the-art studio in Southern California. He called it Universal City. In the 1920s and 1930s, Universal made low-cost genre pictures, such as horror films, westerns, and musicals.
The Shark
Adolph Zukor was a 16-year-old orphan when he arrived in the United States from Hungary in 1889. He worked as a furrier until he purchased a nickelodeon parlor. Zukor saw the excitement that surrounded nickelodeons among America's growing immigrant population. In 1912, he bought the U.S. distribution rights to Queen Elizabeth, a four-reel French film. It starred the famous stage actress Sarah Bernhardt. The film's success proved there was a market for feature-length films.
To produce and distribute his own films, Zukor established the Famous Players Film Company. It later became a distribution company called Paramount. Zukor's business tactics earned him the nicknames "Shark" and "Killer." One of the people he forced out of business was Sam Goldfish, who later partnered with Edgar and Archibald Selwyn to form Goldwyn Pictures.
The Making of MGM
Denne historien er fra July/August 2023-utgaven av Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids.
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Denne historien er fra July/August 2023-utgaven av Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids.
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Putting the Pieces Together
Americans needed to begin to put the past behind them, come together, and plan for the future in the spring of 1865. But Abraham Lincoln, the man best equipped to lead them and who had hoped to restore the country as smoothly and peacefully as possible, had been assassinated.
LAST SHOTS
The last Confederate forces in the Civil War didn’t surrender in the spring of 1865 or on a battlefield.
AND IN OTHER 1865 NEWS
A group of African Americans stop at the White House’s annual public reception on January 1, where they shake hands with President Abraham Lincoln.
A Plot to Kill President the
For several months, actor John Wilkes Booth’s band of conspirators had plotted to capture President Abraham Lincoln and hold him hostage in exchange for Confederate prisoners.
Let the Thing Be Pressed
In June 1864, Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant began a nearly 10-month campaign in Virginia.
HEALING THE NATION
President Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office for the second time on March 4, 1865.
A Helping Hand
The spring season is hard in any agricultural society. Plants and animals are too small to eat.
WAR SHERMAN-STYLE
As far as Union Major General William T. Sherman was concerned, the Civil War had gone on long enough.
PEACE TALKS
The fall of Fort Fisher made clear that the Confederacy’s days were numbered. Southerners were tired and hungry.
FORT FISHER'S FALL
Outnumbered Confederate soldiers inside Fort Fisher were unable to withstand the approach of Union troops by land and the constant Union naval bombardment from the sea.
