Studios located in and near Hollywood are now producing 84% of the films being made in the U.S.
The famous film comedian, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, is finally cleared of all charges in the death of a young actress. However, he is nearly bankrupt and Paramount Pictures pulls all of his films from circulation.
Will Hays, the Postmaster General of the United States leaves President Harding’s cabinet to “supervise the cleanup of Hollywood ”. Working from within the motion picture industry, he becomes head of the “Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America” (MPPDA). All studio story departments are requested to voluntarily submit their story material to the MPPDA for evaluation. The standards of decency and good taste established by the MPPDA became the basis for the 1930 “Production Code”.
Significant Films:
The cartoon, “Four Musicians of Bremen”, is released by Walt Disney. It introduces a new series of cartoons called, “Laugh–O–Grams”.
Famous Players–Lasky Corporation releases, “The Loves of Pharaoh”. Directed by the German filmmaker, Ernst Lubitsch, it used 126,000 extras and took 10 months to shoot.
The German Director, Friedrich Murnau, releases, “Nosferatu, the Vampire”, in Berlin.
“The Toll of the Sea”, is released by Metro. Based on Puccini’s opera, “Madame Butterfly”, it is the first feature to be filmed in Technicolor’s two–color subtractive process.