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The History of American Cinema: 1930

July-December

The Dawn Patrol, Howard Hawks’ first talking picture, is released.   It stars Richard Barthelmess and Douglas Fairbanks Jr, and features the debut of Frank McHugh. [ADD]

Betty Boop, created by future Disney animator Grim Natwick, makes her first appearance in Max Fleischer’s Dizzy Dishes.   At this stage, Betty is part human, part canine. [ADD]

Pluto makes his first appearance in Disney’s The Chain Gang. [ADD]

Abraham Lincoln, D. W. Griffith’s first talking picture is released. [ADD]

The Hollywood Reporter begins publication. [ADD]

Samuel Goldwyn’s adaptation of Florenz Ziegfeld’s stage hit Whoopee! is released.   Ziegfeld closed the Broadway show early in order to sell the movie rights to raise money after being wiped out in the crash of 1929. [ADD]

King Vidor’s Billy the Kid is released.   Starring Johnny Mack Brown as the Kid and Wallace Beery as Pat Garrett, the film is shot in 70mm Realife process, but fails to make an impression at the box office. [ADD]

Raoul Walsh’s epic western The Big Trail is released.   The film is shot in a 70mm widescreen process, and features John Wayne in his first major role following four years as an extra and bit part player.   The film is only a moderate success. [ADD]

Having just completed the silent City Lights, Charlie Chaplin gives an interview to Silver Screen magazine in which he states that "There is nothing that I could tell you about the talking pictures that would be more eloquent than my silence."   He then goes on to state (a little less eloquently), “The talkies! You can say that I detest them!" [ADD]

Marlene Dietrich makes her Hollywood debut opposite Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou in Josef von Sternberg’s Morocco.   The film is a smash, and Paramount begins to build Dietrich up as a rival to MGM’s Greta Garbo. [ADD]

Darryl F. Zanuck becomes head of production at Warner Brothers-First National. [ADD]

The State Department refuses to prolong the visas of Soviet trio Sergei Eisenstein, Grigori Kozintsev and Edouard Tisse following Eisenstein’s failure to find suitable projects in Hollywood. [ADD]

US Premiere of the English-language version of Der Blaue Engele (The Blue Angel).  Takings for the first week are a record $60,000. [ADD]

By the end of the year, America has 21,700 cinemas, 13,500 of which are fitted for sound.   Gross revenue is $730 million, and Hollywood studios’ combined net profit is $52 million. [ADD]

– Monogram Pictures is formed from two earlier companies: W. Ray Johnston’s Ray-Art Productions and Trem Carr’s SonoArt Pictures. [ADD]

– A total of 16 films are made in two-strip Technicolor: seven by Warner Brothers, four by First National, two from Paramount and one each from MGM, United Artists and Universal. [ADD]

– New York projectionists accept a 25% pay cut over two years due to falling cinema attendances because of the depression.   Cinemas lower their prices, begin matinee and midnight screenings, offer prizes, and begin including a second ‘B’ feature in their programme. [ADD]

– The Mitchell camera becomes the sound camera of choice in the profession because it is much quieter than the previous favourite, the Bell and Howell camera. [ADD]

– Paramount stops showing its films in RKO cinemas. [ADD]

– Ub Iwerk’s Flip the Frog animated character makes his first screen appearance. [ADD]

– The Worker’s Film and Photo League is founded. [ADD]

Other Key American Films of 1930

The Big House (George Hill) [ADD]

City Girl (F. W. Murnau) [ADD]

Liliom (Frank Borzage) [ADD]

The Pagan (W. S. Van Dyke) [ADD]