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Publisher’s Corner


            A Hollywood History “Short”                                                                                journalofantiques.com

               n the first decade of the 20th century, it was obvious   in favor of actors and actresses that               Publisher
               to anyone who had seen a film or heard about moving   could not only act but sounded                     Maxine Carter-Lome
            Ipictures that this new form of entertainment was a   good on screen. Stars like Claudette               journalofantiques@gmail.com
            blockbuster invention!                              Colbert, Katharine Hepburn,      Maxine Carter-Lome      Business Manager
               The first commercially produced “movie” is cited as    Loretta Young, and Greta Garbo were now the marquee   Jeffrey Lome
            a public screening of ten short films by the Lumière   names driving ticket sales as Hollywood entered the   jeffrey@journalofantiques.com
            brothers in 1895 at the Grand Café in Paris; however,   1930s, known as The Golden Age of Hollywood.         Managing Editor
            movies didn’t become commercially available to         The next technology disruptor in Hollywood was         Judy Gonyeau
            American audiences until 1905, when John P. Harris and   based on the invention of the Technicolor Camera     editorial.journalofantiques@gmail.com
            Harry Davis opened a five-cents-admission movie theater   by Danish-American inventor August Plahn in 1932.
            in a Pittsburgh storefront they called the Nickelodeon,   In the black-and-white world of life on the big screen,    Art Director
            considered the first type of indoor exhibition space    the Technicolor camera added a whole new colorful    Lynn Cotterman
            dedicated to showing projected motion pictures in the   dimension to the movies.                          ads@journalofantiques.com
            United States and Canada. Usually set up in converted   According to the National Museum of American
            storefronts, these small, simple theaters flourished from   History, reproducing natural color on film had been     Production
            about 1905 to 1915. By 1908, there were thousands    an industry goal since the earliest days of motion      Lynn Cotterman
            of storefront Nickelodeons, Gems, and Bijous across   picture production, but it took several decades to perfect   Judy Gonyeau
            North America charging the public five cents to go to    technology for making movies in color. Plahn’s patented
            the movies.                                         invention was for a camera and projector that split   Jill Montague-Kaitbenski
               With new movie houses cropping up across the    motion picture images through three color lenses using
            country, the demand for a continuous stream of new   70mm film. While Plahn had little success marketing his   508-347-1960
            films turned an intriguing invention into a burgeoning   inventions, the Boston-based Technicolor Corporation   Toll free:
            industry. By the end of the first decade, American film-  effectively marketed their similar technology to become
            makers, who were mainly operating out of big east coast   the industry standard. With that, color became the norm,   888-698-0734
            and central U.S. cities, began a migration to southern   and black and white, an art form.                Fax: 508-347-0911
            California, drawn there by cheap land and labor, the   Today, Hollywood is an economic engine that, as an        Mailing:
            ready accessibility of varied scenery, and a climate ideal   industry, generated $95.45 billion in revenue in 2022   P. O. Box 950
            for year-round outdoor filming. By the early 1920s,   despite the impact of COVID on filmmaking, movie     Sturbridge, MA 01566
            Hollywood had become the world’s film capital,    theaters, and a shift in where and how the public gets
            producing virtually all films shown in the United States   their movie fix. Through our isolation, movies were one   info@journalofantiques.com
            and receiving 80 percent of the revenue from films shown   of our few escapes and pleasures, as they were during the
            abroad. By the middle of the decade, 50 million people a   Depression and war years.                          UPS and FedEx
            week went to the movies – the equivalent of half the   Our enduring love of the movies is also the catalyst   Shipping Address:
            nation’s population.                                behind a popular and escalating-in-value Hollywood         46 Hall Road
               While the earliest films were in black and white,   memorabilia market, which encompasses everything     Sturbridge, MA 01566

            under a minute long, without recorded sound, and    from movie posters to signed photos, costumes, props,       Journal of
            consisted of a single shot from a single set-in-place    sketches, film scripts, film reels, and advertising and     Antiques and Collectibles
            camera, it did not take long for new inventions to refine   marketing-related ephemera. Movie lovers are drawn to   is published monthly in digital
            and upgrade the motion picture experience with the    the prospect of owning or collecting items from their   and bi-monthly in print by
            addition of sound.                                  favorite films and Hollywood stars. In this era of “New   Weathervane Enterprises, Inc.
               For decades, engineers had searched for a practical   Hollywood,” our appreciation for the art of filmmaking
            technology to add synchronized recorded sound to the   and the glamour of Hollywood’s Golden Era only shines   46 Hall Road
            movies, but the film industry showed remarkably little   brighter at auction and keeps us going back to the   Sturbridge MA 01566.
            interest in filmmaking with sound, despite the growing   movies, and re-watching our favorites on video and TV.    Periodicals postage paid at
            popularity of radio. Hollywood feared the high cost     And since a picture is worth a thousand words,        Sturbridge MA.
            of converting its production and exhibition to sound   starting with this issue, our digital issues will now allow
            technology, yet Warner Brothers, a struggling industry   you to click through and watch YouTube videos where
            newcomer established in 1923, thought that sound    you can learn more about the feature stories we share.   POSTMASTER:
            might be just what they needed to compete with their   Also with this issue, we introduce two new monthly   Send address changes to
            larger rivals.                                      columns to our pages: “Collector’s Lane” by Ruby Lane,   The Journal of Antiques
               In 1926, Warner Brothers released the film  Don   which looks at items and collections of collectible
            Juan—the first film with a synchronized film score—  pieces, and “Toys From the Attic” by Doug Kelly, which   and Collectibles
            along with a program of talking shorts. The popularity of   provides the history and market perspective on collectible   ISSN: (1539-5618)
            The Jazz Singer, which was released the following year,   toys. We also welcome Wayne Tuiskula (MA License     P.O. Box 950
            erased any doubts about the popular appeal of sound, and   # 2591) of Central Mass Auctions to our pages, who has   Sturbridge, MA 01566
            within a year, 300 theaters were wired for sound. As a   taken over the “What’s Selling on eBay?” column from
                                                                                                                    The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles
            result, movie attendance jumped from 50 million a week   Mike McLeod.                                   reserves the right to reject any advertising that
            in the mid-20s to 110 million in 1929 when what is     See you at the movies!                           does not comply with our standards. The
                                                                                                                    Journal will not be liable for any errors or
            known as The Silent Era of Hollywood came to an end.                                                                       02/23
                                                                                                                    omissions but will print a correction in the
               Synchronized sound and then “talkies” were major                                                     following issue if notification of such error is
            disruptors in Hollywood. Silent film stars such as                                                      sent by the appropriate deadline. Original
                                                                                                                    manuscripts are welcomed by qualified
            Charlie Chaplin, Lillian Gish, Douglas Fairbanks,                                                       writers. We assume no responsibility for loss
            Gloria Swanson, and Mary Pickford that dominated    Maxine Carter-Lome, Publisher                       of unsolicited material.
            movie screens in the 1910s and 20s were soon displaced                                                        Copyright 2023
                                                                                                                          All rights reserved


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