Hollywood

- Season 1

(1980)

Contrary to popular belief, the silent film in general had reached a high state of sophistication by the late 1920s.

Some of the less affluent studios escape bad weather and legal entanglements in New Jersey and make Hollywood the world film capitol.

Mounting scandals including drug addiction and murder force the studios to appoint Will Hays as a morals czar to oversee production.

Hollywood and its stars support the War effort with propaganda and patriotic films and war bond tours.

A tribute to the death-defying and sometimes deadly art of the silent movie stuntman is featured in this episode.

Two great careers are profiled: ambitious and beautiful Gloria Swanson and the tragic Latin lover, Rudolph Valentino.

Autocratic directors like the martinet Cecil B. DeMille and the idiosyncratic Eric Von Stroheim are highlighted in this episode.

The art of silent comedy is highlighted with a focus on the work of the four great clowns of the era: Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Harry Langdon.

The development of the uniquely American film genre, the Western, is shown from its inception with archival footage and interviews with surviving artists.

Early Hollywood directors were self-taught and generally became directors by accident.

The development of cinematography from its primitive beginnings through emergence as a serious art form in the late 1920s. Film clips and interviews with veterans of the period like Karl Brown and George Folsey are highlighted.

The glorious, tragic, and truncated careers of American silent stars like John Gilbert, Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, and Greta Garbo are highlighted.

The rise of practical synchronized sound film technology spells the end of the silent era of Hollywood with its casualties and the struggle to redefine cinema with sound in mind.