During the Golden Age of Hollywood, director Cecil B. DeMille had a reputation for large-scale film productions with grand sets, elaborate costumes, impressive visual effects, and massive casts. For his 1952 film, The Greatest Show on Earth, DeMille pulled out all the stops to bring the dazzling and eye-popping spectacle of the traveling circus to…
Category: Golden Hollywood
Brains and Beauty Battle It Out in 1957’s “Funny Face”
Funny Face, the 1957 romantic musical comedy written by Leonard Gershe and Stanley Donen, stars the unlikely couple of Audrey Hepburn, a 28-year-old fresh-faced beauty, opposite Fred Astaire, a 58-year-old former Vaudeville dancer. An age gap like this might seem creepy today, but in the Golden Age of Hollywood, moviegoers were used to seeing on-screen…
The Innovative Special Effects of “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad”
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, a fantasy adventure film, was produced by Charles H. Schneer and directed by Nathan H. Juran. It was made by Columbia Pictures, released in 1958, and starred Kerwin Mathews, Kathryn Grant, and Richard Eyer. But it wasn’t the actors, the director, or the studio that made the fantasy adventure movie…
The Most Prominent Fashion Designer of the Golden Age of Hollywood
Gilbert Adrian – or just Adrian, if you want – was one of the most influential fashion designers of the 1930s and 1940s. His career was notable because the costumes he designed for the film industry also inspired fashion trends among celebrities and socialites. Sure, he famously designed the costumes for The Wizard and Oz,…
What Were the Reasons for Hollywood Implementing the Hays Code?
During the early 1900s, Hollywood was rapidly becoming the center of the film industry. However, as the popularity of movies grew, so did the concerns of critics and religious groups about the morality of the films being produced. In response to this, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) implemented the Hays Code,…