Celebrating the History of Motion Pictures from 1890 to 1960

1950

During a reception in his honor, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the president of the Screen Director’s Guild, violently denounces the current policy of “blacklisting”, as well as Cecil B. DeMille’s demand that members of the Screen Directors’ Guild swear an oath of loyalty.   Both Gene Autry and Groucho Marx have…

Read More

1949

Harry Warner declares that Warner Bros. will introduce television production at its Burbank studios as soon as the FCC approves the studio’s purchase of the Thackery television stations in Los Angeles. The government, however, puts a moratorium on the licensing of TV stations that is not lifted until 1952, and…

Read More

1948

The great Russian film director, Sergei Eisenstein, dies of a heart attack at the age of 50.   Under the terms of an agreement with the United Kingdom, American film companies will reinvest the $60 million profit, recently made in England, in various “permitted uses” such as hiring British talent,…

Read More

1947

At a meeting in New York City, the 50 most influential studio chiefs and producers have decided to dismiss any employee who refuses to cooperate with the House Un–American Activities Committee (HUAC), or who they suspect harbor Communist sympathies.   The Production Code has been amended to ban all scenarios…

Read More

1946

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revises its rules for Academy Awards voting. Instead of allowing members of the entire film community to select nominees and winners, only members of the Academy will be allowed to vote. The Academy’s rolls immediately increase from 700 to over 1,600.  …

Read More

1945

Olivia de Havilland wins a landmark decision in her contract dispute with Warner Bros. The Supreme Court has now set the outside limit of a studio–player contract at seven years, including periods of suspension.   7,000 members of the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU), made up of studio set designers,…

Read More

1944

The Hollywood Victory Committee now has 80 entertainment units touring overseas, with 38 of these being in the British Isles.   The U.S. Supreme Court rules against the Crescent theater circuit for antitrust violations. Crescent had been accused of monopolizing a five–state area in the Southeast and of colluding with…

Read More

1943

An opinion poll carried out by the Motion Picture Herald has shown that the American public is saturated with war films and is demanding movies that distract and entertain.   As the motion picture exhibition industry loses more and more of its male employees to the armed services, women begin…

Read More

1942

The Hollywood actress and wife of Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, dies at the age of 34 in an airplane crash.   Because of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor just two months before, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decides to label its annual awards ceremony a “dinner”…

Read More

1941

William Randolph Hearst forbids any mention of the film “Citizen Kane” in his newspapers. He considers the film to be defamatory.   The government makes public the salaries earned by the heads of well–known companies. Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM, is the highest paid executive in the country…

Read More

error: Content is Copyright Protected!