HOLLYWOOD BACK IN THE DAY AND HOLLYWOOD TODAY – OLD HOLLYWOOD AND NEW HOLLYWOOD

As has already been made quite clear, films go through production, distribution and exhibition phases; they have to be made, brought to the attention of the public and then shown. However, the relative importance of each of these three areas for Hollywood has been subject to change over time. Under the studio system a few major companies tried as much as possible to make, distribute and show their own films, thereby effectively exerting direct control over all three stages of the process. But this system, also known as Old Hollywood, began to break up in the 1950s as the film business began to evolve different industrial strategies to try to meet new challenges, particularly those offered by the advent of TV as a competitive medium and the movement of people out of town into newly developed suburbs and away from the old This chapter deals with: ■ production under Old Hollywood and New Hollywood; ■ distribution under Old Hollywood and New Hollywood; ■ exhibition under Old Hollywood and New Hollywood; ■ continuity between Old Hollywood and New Hollywood; ■ a wider historical perspective on Hollywood.