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Grauman's Chinese Theater
Built only a few months before the "Golden Age" would begin, The architecture of Grauman's Chinese Theater became instantly synonymous with Hollywood, overshadowing Grauman's previous Egyptian-styled theater. Even today the theater is still used for premiere events and was recreated by The Disney Company in their Florida park in an effort to capture the feeling of Hollywood's Golden Age. -
The Jazz Singer
Clip: "You ain't heard nothin' yet." The first major film to break into synchronized sound is considered by many to be the start of the "Golden Age" of Hollywood, even though it only had a few minutes of synchronized sound and still relied largely on caption cards like silent films. Still, the achievement was a huge game changer, shifting the art form beyond visuals into a dynamic form. -
First Academy Awards (Oscars)
The first handout of the iconic statues was quite different from today’s glamorous (and lengthy) presentation. Winners were announced in advance and the ceremony was a simple yet elegant party. The gold statues of today made their debut in with the first presentation, however, and the design has not changed since the first year. The smooth, simple, yet elegant art-deco style of the statue is instantly recognizable and evokes an emotional response annually as new artists receive the award. -
King Kong
The technical accomplishment of King Kong lies largely in the models of Kong and the other creatures of the film. The sculpt of the model had to appear realistic enough for audiences to suspend disbelief, which meant not only looking animalistic (using fur on top of foam rubber) but had to move like animals, requiring the aluminum armature as a base that could be posed and repositioned for Kong’s movement. -
Duck Soup
Clip: The Laws of Administration The fast-paced verbal sparring of the Marx Brothers is an expectation of any of their movies, but Duck Soup elevated their banter by moving it into song, as shown in the clip above. The result is a still-relevant satire that marked an artistic highlight for the comedic troupe, combining song, dance, and political commentary. -
It Happened One Night
So far this exhibit has focused on specific artistic aspects of art, but this is representative of a cohesive work of art. There’s a reason Frank Capra is in this display several times and Clark Gable is considered a golden age icon, and this picture is a large part of that reason. The result is a film that swept the Academy Awards’ major categories – an achievement that wouldn’t happen again for forty years. -
Swing Time
Clip: Swing Time Dancing in the cinematic world doesn’t get more iconic than Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, and Swing Time shows why. The film industry simply doesn’t make movies like this anymore, showcasing Rogers and Astaire’s skill and natural talent without excessive (and interfering) editing choices. -
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Before Snow White, animation was a short form presentation style. Walt Disney set out to elevate the format by creating a feature-length film. The depiction of the various characters is particularly noteworthy, from the more realistic style of Snow White, the Evil Queen, and Prince Charming, to the stylized presentation of the seven dwarves, whose personalities were created more through the animation design than the appending of names to the characters. -
The Wizard of Oz
Clip: Dorothy Enters Oz There’s no arguing the value of color usage in MGM’s adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s novel. Baum’s original language painted Kansas as drab and plain while his fantasy world of Oz was full of color. Director Victor Fleming made that contrast much more apparent as the film switches from monochrome to full color in front of the audience’s eyes -- a transition that is still amazing to watch today. -
Gone with the Wind
Clip: Movie Matte Paintings Of the many things that make Gone With the Wind one of the most successful movies of all time, one of the most important is practically invisible: the matte paintings that make up the backdrops of the film. Hand-painted, the mattes become the scenery for Scarlett O’Hara’s story, providing a variety of locations without drawing attention to the fact that they aren't real. -
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is another picture that could be praised as a cohesive whole, but it would be a disservice not to focus on Orson Welles’ innovative cinematography style, which laid a foundation for the future. Between his unique approach to focus (maintaining solid focus instead of racking between far and near) and utilizing shots angled from different positions than other films of the time, Welles’ first film is a cinematic masterpiece. -
Casablanca
Clip: "Play it, Sam" There isn’t a song more iconic in the cinematic world than Casablanca’s “As Time Goes By.” The musical themes of the song flow through the score throughout the movie, but the moment when the song is performed (the iconic “Play it, Sam” moment) reveals everything the audience needs to know about these characters, from their reactions to the song to subtleties about Bogart’s character within the lyrics. -
To Have and Have Not
A continued representation of the studio system (reuniting Bogart and Bacall), To Have and To Have Not is more interesting due to the artistry in the writing, marking a collaboration of sorts between two diametrically opposed authors. Based on a Hemingway story (known for his brevity), the screenplay is adapted in part by William Faulkner (known for his lack of brevity). The result is a classic picture that illustrates what strange bedfellows Hollywood can create. -
It's a Wonderful Life
Director Frank Capra had a gift for capturing the feeling of the everyman in his works, and who better to portray that everyman than James Stewart? Focusing more on narrative and characters than glitzy special effects (which subsequent retellings have overused), Capra makes his art accessible to everyone with a moving story that reminds audiences of the value of life. “No man is a failure who has friends.” -
Sunset Boulevard
The ‘50s saw the golden age start to wane and Sunset Boulevard takes advantage of that by poking its finger back at the film industry. Unlike the Marx Brothers satire, Billy Wilder’s film avoids outlandish comedy with a definitive film noir style while still highlighting the faults of the exploitative Hollywood studio system -- a system that was about to come crashing down. -
A Streetcar Named Desire
Many of the entries in this gallery are based on short stories, but Streetcar has the honor of being adapted from the Tennessee Williams stage play. Both Williams and director Elia Kazan (who directed the stage debut of the play) were involved in adapting the play for the screen and the result is a solid picture that takes the best parts of Williams’ play and adapts them to make effective use of a different medium. -
Singin' in the Rain
Clip: Title Song While they aren’t Rogers and Astaire (Debbie Reynolds didn’t even know how to dance when production began), the titular moment of Singin’ in the Rain is an iconic dance moment that has been paid tribute to time and again. Most of the music wasn’t original, used in previous films, but this picture represents a solid revue of both music and dance. -
First Televised Oscar Presentation
Today’s annual Academy Awards are a blend of artistic achievement and parade of fashion, a trend that became more prevalent as the awards ceremony became an annual televised event with the eyes of the country (and now the world) upon the participants. Often, people spend more time discussing the fashion of the night than the films receiving awards, and actors not even acknowledged by the Academy can steal the spotlight with a particularly glamorous dress. -
Rear Window
A look at the Golden Age would be incomplete without including the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Rear Window serves as one of his greatest achievements, a voyeuristic tale made more suspenseful by limiting the audience’s awareness outside of the protagonist’s experiences. Just as James Stewart is confined to his wheelchair, the audience is confined too, heightening the tension -- an experience modern day films tend to steer away from in an effort to over-explain plots to their audiences. -
Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause could have just been another movie about teenage delinquents, but the chemistry from its leading man and his untimely passing less than a month before the movie opened caused the film to elevate James Dean into a legendary status. As a result, Dean himself is now considered an American Icon, with the most popular images of Dean being those from the film and its surrounding publicity. Dean himself is the artistic result of the film. -
Forbidden Planet
Soundtrack: Main Titles Science-fiction stories were largely created through alien landscapes and costumes, but Forbidden Planet brought the foreign feeling to its soundtrack to create something new. Using “electric tonalities,” the score uses a theremin to bring another level to the feeling of an alien world with notable results. -
Ben-Hur
The epic film is a category unto itself, unlike more standard narrative films. The attempt to capture such large-scale events might be written off by some philosophers as spectacle rather than drama, but Golden Age efforts in epics prove otherwise. Far from the popcorn flicks of today, epics like Ben-Hur managed to tell captivating stories while dazzling audiences with the scope of the story. -
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Fashion Influence Audrey Hepburn’s numerous costumes brilliantly capture the golden age fashion of both glamorous upscale attire and casual wear with a style that is still emulated by many today. Of course, Hepburn gets credit for looking so glamorous in everything from an evening gown to a bed sheet, but credit is also due to designer Hubert de Givenchy.
