Jan. 10, 2013
Period 6

The Silent Film Era

During the silent film era, industry statistics proved that everyone in the US was going to movie theatres to watch silent films. The films sometimes showed, not the bad guys but rather the heroes of the movie, drinking alcohol, perhaps to poke fun of the alcohol prohibition during the 1920s. This exemplified that drinking was more than okay to do and encouraged people to drink. A live orchestra or pianist would perform as the movie plays to make the film more interesting. Years after, about 28,000 theatres were built and used. Approximately 100 million tickets were sold every week as the population grew showing that people went to the movies more than once in 7 days. We’d assume that more tickets would be sold today due to a larger population, however, ticket sales actually decreased to 27 million by 2006. More movies were also released back then than today. The decrease of tickets sold might be affected by the price. Tickets were sold for only 20 to 50 cents in the 1920s and presently, it cost 7 to 15 dollars. Silent films were represented by actors such as Charlie Chaplin, Ruldolph Valentino, and Buster Keaton, who was knows for his unbelievable stunts and entertaining interpretations.

Buster Keaton earned his nickname “Buster” at the age of six when he fell from a flight of stairs and his parents’ friend Houdini, who is a magician, said something along the lines of “What a buster your kid took!” Keaton was born to Vaudeville performers so he began performing as early as the age of 3. He worked on acts with his parents and was tossed by his father frequently. He was often hurt when he was younger and was also said to escape train wrecks and fires. At few months ago, he had already experienced a near death experience by almost suffocating after being left in a trunk while his parents were performing. He didn’t only begin acting but also directed his own films. By 1923, Keaton began making his films such as The Three Ages (1923) and Sherlock Jr. (1924). In 1927 came his best creation, The General, which was unfortunately not very successful.