At the beginning of the twentieth century, France had the world’s largest motion picture industry, but it was soon overtaken by the USA, which had a larger population that was particularly enthusiastic about the new medium.
By the Roaring Twenties, 80% of the world’s films were being produced in the United States. The industry grew and film stars became rich and celebrated. But there was a backlash from those who believed the film industry was weakening the nation’s moral fiber.
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Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening Theme
“Spanish Music” and “Hurry Music” from Sam Fox Moving Picture Music, Volume 1
Composed in 1913 by J.S. Zamecnik. Public domain.
Performed by Richard Frohlich and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 license.
Source and Source.
Closing Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
When it comes to thematic episodes (focused on a particular topic rather than on a region/country) I especially look forward to those focused on science and technology. The early part of the XX century saw enormous progress in various fields including but not limited to medicine, biology, archaeology, physics, geography, and chemistry. Some of these have been covered, but some have not.
Not to detract from the importance of popular culture, but I do wonder whether all the parts of this and some of the other recent episodes really belong to the podcast covering the history of the XX century from a global perspective.
With the American movie industry the powerhouse that it was through the 20th century to today I’d say that it’s a fair topic. The 1920s were such a rich cultural period that it would be a disservice to focus mostly on global politics and economics, though there’s plenty to speak of on that matter too.
And the last episode was on German culture, so the podcast isn’t being too myopic for it’s being an American produced, English language podcast.
I was surprised that you didn’t cover the details of Valentino’s funeral, they were saucy! There was the “Black shirt honor guard” claimed to have been sent by Mussolini, in actuality a set of actors hired by the funeral home. Pola Negri, Valentino’s lover, fainted over the coffin. About a hundred thousand people gathered around the funeral home to mourn, reminiscent of the public funeral of Lenin.