Hollywood's Golden Age

Many film historians and critics consider the 1930s to be Hollywood's golden age. Though much of the world, including the United States, was suffering from economic depression and high unemployment, the movie industry flourished both technically and artistically. In fact, 1939 saw the release of two of the American Film Institute's ten most popular movies: Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz.

By 1932 technicians had solved most of the early problems associated with adding sound to film, and nearly all Hollywood films included voice and music. The thirties also saw the use of color in

filming, and by 1939 the Technicolor Corporation had dramatically improved the industry's techniques such that colorized film no longer looked so artificial. This decade saw the birth of improved special effects, as well, with the release of King Kong. In the movie, the giant ape was actually a tiny metal...