Hollywood SnapshotS 1922

Описание: In early 1922, amid growing calls for national censorship, Hollywood recruited Will Hayes, the Postmaster General of the United States, to head the new Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. His mission was to encourage the movie industry to police itself and turn around public opinion.

This unidentified reel, titled “Hollywood Snapshots” dates from shortly after Hayes’s arrival. It follows Hezekiah, a visitor from the sticks, who searches through Screenland for scandal. But instead of wine, women, and song, the country rube encounters denizens reading books, playing with pets, pampering children, and attending church.

Over the course of his trek across Beverly Hills and Hollywood he meets several dozen lesser-known celebrities—Carter De Haven, Katherine McGuire, Viola Dana, Jack Kerrigan, Owen Moore—visits landmarks, and enjoys scenes from The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and the now-lost Trifling Women (1922). Finding that movie stars are a wholesome lot—and at bottom remarkably like the folks back home—Hezekiah leaves town, a wiser man.

“Hollywood Snapshots” makes its point by grafting a simple storyline onto the format of the popular film-fan newsreel showing screen celebrities at work and at play.