From One Golden Age to Another

            In the wake of World War II, the hegemony that Hollywood established over the American entertainment industry over the course of the first half of the 20^th century was compromised by the proliferation of a relatively new technology: the television. First introduced in the late 1920s, the television became a staple in the post-war American household; in the same way that film technology originally replicated the experience that was once unique to stages, the average American family could now emulate the experience of going to the movies in its own living room. This blog will focus on how the television represented an evolution in hedonic value – an evolution that continues to this day.

            As detailed in New York University’s comprehensive History of Television, the first T.V. was successfully developed by 21-year-old inventor Philo Taylor Farnsworth in San Francisco on September 7, 1927; the technology, though, was still crude and far from the perfected product we would expect today. Over the next couple of decades, prominent American investors poured money into scientific endeavors to further develop television technology, and by 1947, commercial television broadcasting in the United States began.

Philo Taylor Farnsworth, pictured here in 1935 with a primitive television. [Phil Farnsworth in 1935 with a television set he invented.]. (1935). SF History Center.

            The commencement of commercial broadcasting in the United States ushered in an era of television commonly referred to as the “Golden Age”, a period which lasted up through roughly 1960. Television’s Golden Age was characterized by the rise of the first critically acclaimed comedy and drama series, representing a deviation in the radio-esque, news-driven programming of television past. In a sense, television programmers in the Golden Age realized the hedonic-value potential of the medium and capitalized. Uncoincidentally, this era also precipitated the still-ongoing decline in movie theatre popularity: again, per Babin and Harris’s Value Equation on page 28 of CB, it makes sense that Americans would choose to conserve time and money by choosing to indulge in entertainment in the comfort of their own homes rather than going to the movies. (Babin & Harris, 2016)

        The turn of the 21^st century represented another evolutionary step in television, similar in magnitude to the transition to the Golden Age. Specifically, the hedonic-value potential of television has increased exponentially with the advent of both premium programming and recording devices. In the 1980s and ‘90s, networks like HBO, Showtime, and Starz were created as alternatives to network programming and introduced exclusive, commercial-free, and less regulated television to the Americans willing to subscribe for a fee. This renaissance in programming catalyzed a new Golden Age of television (which we are still in the midst of today) marked by massive, sometimes movie-like budgets for TV series and vastly improved visual aesthetics and storytelling. The salient programming in this second Golden Age is also made more readily available to consumers via technology. Cable companies began to offer both recording and On Demand services to subscribers in the 2000s to enhance consumers’ viewing experience; in relation to the Value Equation, television viewers now receive more hedonic value by not having to necessarily plan around a certain time to watch a program in the way they would have to in the past or they would if they were to go the movies.

James Gandolfini played Tony Soprano in HBO's The Sopranos from 1999 - 2007. The Sopranos is one of the most critically acclaimed shows of all time and is often regarded as a catalyst of the second Golden Age. Tony Soprano [Photograph]. (n.d.). HBO.

            The evolution of television over the years has nothing short of riveting and we, as consumers today, are lucky enough to be a part of the most recent renaissance that is responsible for cultural phenomenons like HBO’s Game of Thrones, AMC’s Breaking Bad, etc. The third and final blog in this series will focus on the future of this newfound Golden Age and how it is being shaped by online, subscription-based services like Netflix and Hulu, two titans who are also affecting the film industry. I hope you found this blog interesting and useful!

Citations:

Babin, B. J., & Harris, E. G. (2016). CB (Vol. 7), 28 – 29.
Stephens, M. (n.d.). History of Television. Retrieved from nyu.edu website: https://www.nyu.edu/classes/stephens/History%20of%20Television%20page.htm

The Film Industry and Hedonic Value

Since the eras of the culturally rich Greek and Roman empires, everyday citizens have valued theatrical productions as a means of recreation and as an escape from the monotony and struggle of real life, if only for a few hours at a time. The business of theatre has evolved greatly during the 2,000-plus years since, but perhaps has never undergone as rapid and immense a transformation as it has in the past 100-or-so years. Such developments are rooted in the supplementation and enhancing of the hedonic value offered by theatrical productions, which serve as the primary focus of this series of blogs. In this, the first of the three blogs, I will chronicle the changes and trends the film industry has undergone since the beginning of the 20^th century and how they relate to the concept of consumer value.

There are many opinions as to what officially constitutes the first motion picture, but consensuses holds that it was produced in the last few years before the 20^th century; the first feature film, meanwhile, was Cecil B. Demille’s The Squaw Man in 1914, per The Guardian’s fascinating 2010 historical analysis of Hollywood. (French, 2010) The motion picture represented a natural progression of the theatre industry, as dictated by technology: the stories typically reserved for plays, musicals, etc. for centuries upon centuries could now be permanently captured on film and distributed to masses of audiences in droves that live theatrical productions could never possibly reach.

What began as a modest business at the turn of the 1900s soon ballooned into one of the biggest hedonic-value-bestowing institutions in Western culture. Hedonic value, as defined on page 29 of CB, is the “value derived from the immediate gratification that comes from some activity” (Babin & Harris, 2016); ironically, going to the movies is the example CB uses as seeking hedonic value. The University of Houston’s Digital History department published an article in 2016 detailing the early days of Hollywood – which had become shorthand for the American film industry in general – and how it became a central cultural institution. “By the end of the [1920s], Hollywood claimed to be the nation’s fifth largest industry, attracting 83 cents out of every dollar Americans spent on amusement.” Additionally, by the middle of the 1920s, 50 million Americans – roughly half of the nation’s population at the time – went to a movie theatre at least once a week. (“The Rise of Hollywood and the Arrival of Sound”, 2016) During these early days of its robust growth, Hollywood concentrated on ways to augment the hedonic value it was capable of offering to consumers. At the time, this meant incorporating new technologies like sound and color into the films in attempts to grab even larger shares of the entertainment industry; eventually, this would manifest itself in animation, special effects, etc. Judging by the statistics cited by the University of Houston, this strategy of emphasizing building up hedonic value paid off handsomely for the industry during this era.

Ann Arbor's historic Michigan Theater on East Liberty, pictured here in 1938.
Stanger, E. (1938). Wheaties Children Program, Michigan Theater, 1938 [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://oldnews.aadl.org/N018_0063_001 

The unprecedented prosperity and popularity Hollywood enjoyed during the first half of the 1900s would prove unsustainable, though. The advent of television programming in the middle of the 20^th century (and the convenience it offered) precipitated a decline in per capita movie theatre attendance, a trend that persists today. Considering The Value Equation, this trend makes sense. According to this equation, found on page 28 of CB, consumer value is derived from what one “gets” from a good or service minus what one “gives” to receive this good or service. (Babin & Harris, 2016) A consumer gives up less time and money to watch a program, movie, event, etc. from the comfort of his/her own home than if he/she were to decide to go to the movies. Technology has replicated the experience once unique to movie theatres and has made it available in living rooms – and American consumers have responded predictably and rationally by choosing to stay home. In light of this phenomenon, the American film industry has been forced to look outside of movie theatres for revenue and has attempted to adapt to 21^st-century viewing habits.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog! I hope it provided insight into how the film industry has adapted over time in order to meet consumer demands. In the third blog, I will dig deeper into the implications these trends have on the future of the film industry, but in the next blog I will cover television’s parallel evolution up to modern day.

Citations:

Babin, B. J., & Harris, E. G. (2016). CB (Vol. 7), 28 – 29.

French, P. (2010, February 27). How 100 years of Hollywood have charted the history of America. Retrieved from The Guardian website: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/feb/28/philip-french-best-hollywood-films

The Rise of Hollywood and the Arrival of Sound. (2016). Retrieved from UH - Digital History website: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/topic_display.cfm?tcid=124