Current Events > What if the motion picture boom had come from New York instead of L.A.?

(+) Yeah! (+)

We would've seen far more detective stories than westerns and cynicism would've probably been a thing a lot sooner than it was. On the plus side, had the industry originated from New York, I feel like we would have been decades ahead of where we are now in terms of representation and opportunities for actors who aren't white.

Say what you will, the first half-century of American cinema was in the hands of producers waxing nostalgic for the Old South and I think that's the primary reason why cinema remains decades behind the times.

What?

From the 1910s to the 1960s, we saw a number of westerns and period pieces which heralded Confederates as heroes and treated the pre-Civil War South as a golden era of civility and prosperity. It's one of the few times that history was written by the losers. And the roles of black actors were limited to jungle men, musicians, slaves, servants, cooks, and musicians.

I don't wish to pretend that the South was super-racist and the North was a world of enlightenment, but I think the struggles which black actors went through to get their films produced in the late 1960s and 1970s would have taken place decades earlier if the industry had originated from the North instead.

Even if the mindsets of producers of the past no longer affect the way that films are made today, it still has an impact with regards to the starting point for minority representation and inclusion. It also allowed the notion that white audiences don't want minority actors for their leads to go on decade after decade and continue to this day.


I can't say that a film like Ghost in a Shell would have been any better if New York had been the motion picture capital of the world, but I do believe the film would have gotten the protagonist's ethnicity right.

I could sleep for a thousand years
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Skye Reynolds posted...

From the 1910s to the 1960s, we saw a number of westerns and period pieces which heralded Confederates as heroes and treated the pre-Civil War South as a golden era of civility and prosperity. It's one of the few times that history was written by the losers. And the roles of black actors were limited to jungle men, musicians, slaves, servants, cooks, and musicians.

I don't wish to pretend that the South was super-racist and the North was a world of enlightenment, but I think the struggles which black actors went through to get their films produced in the late 1960s and 1970s would have taken place decades earlier if the industry had originated from the North instead.

LA is uh, not the south.
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Antifar posted...

Skye Reynolds posted...

From the 1910s to the 1960s, we saw a number of westerns and period pieces which heralded Confederates as heroes and treated the pre-Civil War South as a golden era of civility and prosperity. It's one of the few times that history was written by the losers. And the roles of black actors were limited to jungle men, musicians, slaves, servants, cooks, and musicians.

I don't wish to pretend that the South was super-racist and the North was a world of enlightenment, but I think the struggles which black actors went through to get their films produced in the late 1960s and 1970s would have taken place decades earlier if the industry had originated from the North instead.

LA is uh, not the south.

I think he got confused because it's in southern California
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Antifar posted...

LA is uh, not the south.

California was on the Confederate side of the war and was a major point of traffic for slave ships if you go back further than that. Also, it may be a bustling city of diversity today, but that doesn't mean that producers from 50, 80, or 100 years ago didn't hold views that were in accordance with some of the regressive or revisionist mindsets of the time period and location.

I don't think TC has any idea what he's talking about
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Anyways, this topic got me curious: why was it that LA became the home for the film industry? And as it turns out, New York was first. But Thomas Edison's NJ film company was aggressive in protecting its patents, and filmmakers who wished to avoid his control went basically as far away as possible from him. It helped that LA's climate makes it easier to film year-round, and the landscape is varied, and they could cross the border if Edison's folks still got on their case.
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weapon_d00d816 posted...

I don't think TC has any idea what he's talking about

On the contrary. I'm speaking of things as they were rather than as they are now. The present is built upon the past, so the actions and influences of yesterday have lasting consequences for today.

I'm not accusing people of L.A. of bigotry. I'm saying that the motion picture industry blossomed in a time and place that was very regressive it its views.

Antifar posted...

Anyways, this topic got me curious: why was it that LA became the home for the film industry? And as it turns out, New York was first. But Thomas Edison's NJ film company was aggressive in protecting its patents, and filmmakers who wished to avoid his control went basically as far away as possible from him. It helped that LA's climate makes it easier to film year-round, and the landscape is varied, and they could cross the border if Edison's folks still got on their case.

You're absolute right.

Edison tried to trademark film itself.

Skye Reynolds posted...

California was on the Confederate side of the war

It was not.
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Antifar posted...

Skye Reynolds posted...

California was on the Confederate side of the war

It was not.

Oh, shit. You're right.

I actually had to look that one up. I just assumed from the way that 60% of westerns featured the Confederacy as noble heroes fighting a losing battle that California was on that side of the conflict.

I guess I need to repeat middle school history.

ScottSweatshirt posted...

I could sleep for a thousand years

Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
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what drugs are you on right now
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Skye Reynolds posted...

And the roles of black actors were limited to jungle men, musicians, slaves, servants, cooks, and musicians.

As I walk the streets of Hollywood Boulevard
Thinking how hard it was to those that starred
In the movies portraying the roles
Of butlers and maids, slaves and hoes
Many intelligent Black men seemed to look uncivilized
When on the screen
Like, I guess I figure you to play some jigaboo
On the plantation, what else can a n* do
And Black women in this profession
As for playing a lawyer, out of the question

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhQGH6CbKhw
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