Summary of Anne Helen Petersen's Scandals of Classic Hollywood

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The moving image first began to circulate in the late nineteenth century, and audiences were fascinated with the technological marvel they saw before them. The stars were the main attraction, and it was difficult to film anything other than a full-length shot.
#2 The 1920s were a period of scandal for Hollywood, but it did not sink the industry. Instead, it gave rise to better management techniques. The pattern of scandal and containment has persisted for the past century.
#3 Mary Pickford was the biggest star in the world by the end of the 1910s. She was sweet, joyous, and sometimes heartbreaking in her tender pathos. But her off-screen life was far from perfect. She was entrapped in an abusive marriage to fellow silent actor Owen Moore.
#4 Douglas Fairbanks was a Hollywood actor who was known for his energy and enthusiasm. He was the boy everyone loved to love, both on-screen and off. His image was rooted in authenticity, but that sense of realness was actually manipulation.

Sujets

• Popular culture

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 26 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669364641
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Anne Helen Petersen's Scandals of Classic Hollywood
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The moving image first began to circulate in the late nineteenth century, and audiences were fascinated with the technological marvel they saw before them. The stars were the main attraction, and it was difficult to film anything other than a full-length shot.

#2

The 1920s were a period of scandal for Hollywood, but it did not sink the industry. Instead, it gave rise to better management techniques. The pattern of scandal and containment has persisted for the past century.

#3

Mary Pickford was the biggest star in the world by the end of the 1910s. She was sweet, joyous, and sometimes heartbreaking in her tender pathos. But her off-screen life was far from perfect. She was entrapped in an abusive marriage to fellow silent actor Owen Moore.

#4

Douglas Fairbanks was a Hollywood actor who was known for his energy and enthusiasm. He was the boy everyone loved to love, both on-screen and off. His image was rooted in authenticity, but that sense of realness was actually manipulation.

#5

The public became accustomed to seeing Fairbanks and Pickford together during their war bond tours. They were portrayed as a couple, smiling, joking, and charismatically together for the good of the country.

#6

Pickford’s divorce from Fairbanks was finalized in March 1920. She denied that she would remarry, but rumors persisted that she had received a payoff. She insisted that her personal affairs were not of interest to the public.

#7

The press framed the marriage as a love story, and the public embraced it as such. The couple were mobbed wherever they appeared, and Doug was so excited to see his beloved home that he jumped out of the car to visit his horses and dogs.

#8

The scandal of their relationship never truly happened because they were just incredibly likable stars. They survived because fans wanted them together, and they would forgive all manner of rule bending in order for it to happen.

#9

The nation’s worst fears were confirmed when Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle was arrested for the assault of a young starlet at a so-called gin jollification party. He was the most hated man in America, but he was innocent.

#10

Arbuckle was a comedian and director who had a long-term contract with Paramount. He was also extremely fat, and the press constantly turned that into humor. But with one wild party, the public came to view his body with suspicion and disgust.

#11

The Arbuckle arrest, trial, and aftermath have been reported and rehashed by dozens of journalists, historians, media scholars, and gossipmongers over the years, but the details are still unclear.

#12

The day after the party, Arbuckle returned to Los Angeles. In the weeks following his arrest, the media focused on his excesses, which set the stage for his public indictment.

#13

The scandal that brought down Hollywood producer and director Fatty Arbuckle led to a wave of moral condemnations of the film industry. The public thought that the film industry was just as bad as the open saloon, and they were right.

#14

The studios came together and created an organization called the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, or MPPDA, to censor themselves. They elected Will H. Hays as head of the group, luring him with a $150,000 a year salary.

#15

The head of the MPPDA, Hays, banned all Arbuckle films in April 1922. This was a cost the industry was willing to pay if it meant avoiding government oversight.

#16

The fall of Fatty Arbuckle, though a simple tale of a man in the wrong place at the wrong time, was more about American anxieties about class and gender than any actual wrongdoing.

#17

Wallace Reid was a classic example of the lucky person in the early days of Hollywood. He died from severe symptoms of withdrawal, but was labeled a victim and a hero because of how his death was spun by the media.

#18

Reid was a matinee idol, and he was immune to the hordes of lovesick young girls who adored him.