Film Historian Answers Old Hollywood Questions - Tech Support - WIRED
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Date: 2025-06-18
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Comments and reviews: 20
kijekuyo9494
I like the First Films in their Genre questions. I would add four more.
Though it wasn't the first, I'd say the film noir example that was most influential on the fashion in Hollywood was The Maltese Falcon (1941.
I know that buddy films have been popular throughout cinema history, but I think the one that started the major '70s-'80s fad was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kind (1969.
There was a major wave of science fiction films that were a reaction to the Atomic Age and flying saucer sightings, and I'd have to claim The Day the Earth Stood Still (1950) as the one that really got that era of sci-fi off the ground, so to speak, even if it was not typical of the B movies that followed it.
Star Wars (1977) began another wave for its era, a return to the '30s space opera.
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I like the First Films in their Genre questions. I would add four more.
Though it wasn't the first, I'd say the film noir example that was most influential on the fashion in Hollywood was The Maltese Falcon (1941.
I know that buddy films have been popular throughout cinema history, but I think the one that started the major '70s-'80s fad was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kind (1969.
There was a major wave of science fiction films that were a reaction to the Atomic Age and flying saucer sightings, and I'd have to claim The Day the Earth Stood Still (1950) as the one that really got that era of sci-fi off the ground, so to speak, even if it was not typical of the B movies that followed it.
Star Wars (1977) began another wave for its era, a return to the '30s space opera.
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cairn_projections
man, this is one of my favorite ones i've seen in a long long time. despite everything going on in the world in the Year of Our Lord 2025, i moved to los angeles when i was teen in 2007 with the /everything/ of it. listening to this brought back so many memories of what guided my life to what it is, the types of compatriots i've had over the years, being raised on novices & in theater,
but mostly just made me appreciate something im a genuine die hard fan of, despite the banality [of film] being ubiquitous. the ultimate escapism, educator, & proliferator. what a beautiful thing done beautifully by this fella
(insert standing ovation)
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man, this is one of my favorite ones i've seen in a long long time. despite everything going on in the world in the Year of Our Lord 2025, i moved to los angeles when i was teen in 2007 with the /everything/ of it. listening to this brought back so many memories of what guided my life to what it is, the types of compatriots i've had over the years, being raised on novices & in theater,
but mostly just made me appreciate something im a genuine die hard fan of, despite the banality [of film] being ubiquitous. the ultimate escapism, educator, & proliferator. what a beautiful thing done beautifully by this fella
(insert standing ovation)
reply
CameraNewsDeals
As someone who would basically have to explain all this to new friends when asked, thank you for the great video that stuck to the facts, I'll send them this as a quick overview instead! Very surprising how the new generations are a bit ignorant to these facts and instead classify films in to black and white boring etc, they just haven't given themselves the chance to enjoy true cinema yet, once they do they'll probably find the new movies out there hard to watch. (side topic, if you are a film student and still have that former opinion, it might be best to switch majors)
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As someone who would basically have to explain all this to new friends when asked, thank you for the great video that stuck to the facts, I'll send them this as a quick overview instead! Very surprising how the new generations are a bit ignorant to these facts and instead classify films in to black and white boring etc, they just haven't given themselves the chance to enjoy true cinema yet, once they do they'll probably find the new movies out there hard to watch. (side topic, if you are a film student and still have that former opinion, it might be best to switch majors)
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thatguy6054
Doesn't know who Elizabeth Taylor was. Sigh. so sad.
I mean, yeah, I understand. Most people only know what they see in their present time. And now there's like two and a half generations of people who didn't have any experience of Liz in their present time. Even back in the 90's most young people only saw her as the lady in the perfume commercial who used to hang out with Michael Jackson.
So few of today's actors have even the slightest fraction of the screen presence Liz had. Even as a child in her brief, uncredited role in Jane Eyre she absolutely stole the show.
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Doesn't know who Elizabeth Taylor was. Sigh. so sad.
I mean, yeah, I understand. Most people only know what they see in their present time. And now there's like two and a half generations of people who didn't have any experience of Liz in their present time. Even back in the 90's most young people only saw her as the lady in the perfume commercial who used to hang out with Michael Jackson.
So few of today's actors have even the slightest fraction of the screen presence Liz had. Even as a child in her brief, uncredited role in Jane Eyre she absolutely stole the show.
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mayzface
i wanna give flowers to william haines, who i believe was the first out actor. he was signed to mgm but because of his refusal to stay in the closet, his contract was terminated and he was basically blacklisted. he and joan crawford became bff when they were both working in silent films, and she stood by his side for the rest of his life. after being forced to leave acting he became an interior decorator and did all of joan's homes. if you cant say anything nice about her, the least you can say is that her house always looked fabulous
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i wanna give flowers to william haines, who i believe was the first out actor. he was signed to mgm but because of his refusal to stay in the closet, his contract was terminated and he was basically blacklisted. he and joan crawford became bff when they were both working in silent films, and she stood by his side for the rest of his life. after being forced to leave acting he became an interior decorator and did all of joan's homes. if you cant say anything nice about her, the least you can say is that her house always looked fabulous
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a35362
I think Gone With the Wind isn't really ABOUT slavery or the Civil War. It's really a story about one woman's expectations for her own life (marry a wealthy plantation owner and live happily ever after. and then the war comes along and destroys everything she knows and she has to re-calibrate, hard. And there are other people counting on her, too. And she only ever had to be the belle of the ball before, this saucy little minx who steals your beau just to prove that she can. What is she supposed to do now Outstanding film.
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I think Gone With the Wind isn't really ABOUT slavery or the Civil War. It's really a story about one woman's expectations for her own life (marry a wealthy plantation owner and live happily ever after. and then the war comes along and destroys everything she knows and she has to re-calibrate, hard. And there are other people counting on her, too. And she only ever had to be the belle of the ball before, this saucy little minx who steals your beau just to prove that she can. What is she supposed to do now Outstanding film.
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sharpphilip
It'd be fun to do a series where you get three or four previous Tech Support hosts drunk in each episode, and get them talking about stuff outside their expertiseor, maybe unlikely confluences of each of their areas of expertise. Like, for example: Tony, here, but with Victor M. Sweeney (the mortician, Erika Thompson (the beekeeper, and Dr. Andrea Love (the biomedical scientist. I wonder whether the four of them would even agree to have a few drinks together
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It'd be fun to do a series where you get three or four previous Tech Support hosts drunk in each episode, and get them talking about stuff outside their expertiseor, maybe unlikely confluences of each of their areas of expertise. Like, for example: Tony, here, but with Victor M. Sweeney (the mortician, Erika Thompson (the beekeeper, and Dr. Andrea Love (the biomedical scientist. I wonder whether the four of them would even agree to have a few drinks together
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12thDecember
This episode fascinated me a lot more than I thought it would, with its insights into an industry that most of us never become part of. As an aside, I think Marilyn Monroe fascinates so many people because she seemed to have everything, when deep down what she really wanted was respect as a person, she wanted to be understood and accepted as Norma Jean and not just as Marilyn. Her inner battles are totally relatable.
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This episode fascinated me a lot more than I thought it would, with its insights into an industry that most of us never become part of. As an aside, I think Marilyn Monroe fascinates so many people because she seemed to have everything, when deep down what she really wanted was respect as a person, she wanted to be understood and accepted as Norma Jean and not just as Marilyn. Her inner battles are totally relatable.
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Yesnomu
If you haven't seen it, Citizen Kane feels shockingly modern, in part because it has been so studied and imitated. Two innovative things that it did were having a soundtrack that the movie was shot to, so it fits perfectly, and also having ceilings on its sets, helping them to feel like real places and not stages. It wasn't the first movie to do any of this, but it put everything together so brilliantly.
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If you haven't seen it, Citizen Kane feels shockingly modern, in part because it has been so studied and imitated. Two innovative things that it did were having a soundtrack that the movie was shot to, so it fits perfectly, and also having ceilings on its sets, helping them to feel like real places and not stages. It wasn't the first movie to do any of this, but it put everything together so brilliantly.
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WilliamCarterII
I mean Monroe died the year my dad was born and Elizabeth Taylor seemed to be hella famous in the 50s lol idk why we would know who they are unless 1) ur really into old movies or 2) you were a kid then lol My parents dont know who Brad Pitt is (I mean I dont either. lmao but that's different) Its not shocking that someone wouldn't know who that is.
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I mean Monroe died the year my dad was born and Elizabeth Taylor seemed to be hella famous in the 50s lol idk why we would know who they are unless 1) ur really into old movies or 2) you were a kid then lol My parents dont know who Brad Pitt is (I mean I dont either. lmao but that's different) Its not shocking that someone wouldn't know who that is.
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robertlinke2666
18: 36 having the pressure of an entire studio to save can not be healthy for a child, jezus.
just look at the pressure someone like jennete mccurdy went trough keeping her family aloft, but now that with an entire company, where the excs have even more power then they have today.
can you imagine a 1930's dan schneider. nightmare fuel
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18: 36 having the pressure of an entire studio to save can not be healthy for a child, jezus.
just look at the pressure someone like jennete mccurdy went trough keeping her family aloft, but now that with an entire company, where the excs have even more power then they have today.
can you imagine a 1930's dan schneider. nightmare fuel
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prestonage
A film historian who peddles that dreck about the Mid-Atlantic accent only existing in film. Oh brother. Kenyon & Knott's pronouncing dictionary divided American speech of the time into three parts, one of them being North, which showcased all the features of this so-called made up dialect. People DID talk like that. Shame on this 'expert. '
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A film historian who peddles that dreck about the Mid-Atlantic accent only existing in film. Oh brother. Kenyon & Knott's pronouncing dictionary divided American speech of the time into three parts, one of them being North, which showcased all the features of this so-called made up dialect. People DID talk like that. Shame on this 'expert. '
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samanthaellis1816
This is great but there were a few instances where I out-historianed the historian. Specifically, I think it’s incredibly harmful to call what happened between Loretta Young and Clark Gable an affair. It was a case of assault and Loretta herself said so later in her life once the term date re was first introduced.
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This is great but there were a few instances where I out-historianed the historian. Specifically, I think it’s incredibly harmful to call what happened between Loretta Young and Clark Gable an affair. It was a case of assault and Loretta herself said so later in her life once the term date re was first introduced.
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tejaswoman
On the Mid-Atlantic accent: Shelley Winters said in her autobiography that after years of being coached on it, the only time in her career it ever seemed appropriate to use the Mid-Atlantic accent was when she co-starred in _The Poseidon Adventure_ on a doomed ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
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On the Mid-Atlantic accent: Shelley Winters said in her autobiography that after years of being coached on it, the only time in her career it ever seemed appropriate to use the Mid-Atlantic accent was when she co-starred in _The Poseidon Adventure_ on a doomed ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
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rickwrites2612
What we call mid-Atlantic accent, it was just universally good diction they trained in. If you watch films of the period they all have different American accents. There are midwest, Brooklyn, Boston Brahmin. Their accent was just not as pronounced, and they all had the same DICTION.
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What we call mid-Atlantic accent, it was just universally good diction they trained in. If you watch films of the period they all have different American accents. There are midwest, Brooklyn, Boston Brahmin. Their accent was just not as pronounced, and they all had the same DICTION.
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xmikerx666
More videos with him! On a Marilyn note, Burt Reynolds mentioned her in his autobiography. They went for dinner and she wasn't getting bothered at all. He asked her about it, expecting more. Oh you want her. turned on the star power and within minutes they needed a police escort.
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More videos with him! On a Marilyn note, Burt Reynolds mentioned her in his autobiography. They went for dinner and she wasn't getting bothered at all. He asked her about it, expecting more. Oh you want her. turned on the star power and within minutes they needed a police escort.
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cathe8282
I grew up late enough to hear of some of the classic greats but never know who they were. Modern archive files have let me listen to and see old classics I have only heard of and I have fallen in LOVE with Barbara Stanwyck, so I need to check out Babyface. She can play anything!
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I grew up late enough to hear of some of the classic greats but never know who they were. Modern archive files have let me listen to and see old classics I have only heard of and I have fallen in LOVE with Barbara Stanwyck, so I need to check out Babyface. She can play anything!
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GrognardPiper
Back in 1998 I worked at a Walmart near Louisville KY with an old guy named Richard Allan. He had that Mid-Atlantic accent. As it turns out, he was in a movie called Niagara with Marilyn Monroe. Richard was the first person to kiss her on the silver screen.
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Back in 1998 I worked at a Walmart near Louisville KY with an old guy named Richard Allan. He had that Mid-Atlantic accent. As it turns out, he was in a movie called Niagara with Marilyn Monroe. Richard was the first person to kiss her on the silver screen.
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KoopaMedia64
King Kong 33 deserves to be the greatest film of all time more than Citizen Kane, far more technically impressive and a complete blueprint for the blockbuster film in every way, in acting and special effects and music and sound design, mindblowimg film.
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King Kong 33 deserves to be the greatest film of all time more than Citizen Kane, far more technically impressive and a complete blueprint for the blockbuster film in every way, in acting and special effects and music and sound design, mindblowimg film.
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Commercial_Ease
What a pointless episode please get more actual educational guests such a medical professional, scientists, professors, and other experts that matter.
These episodes about movies or Star Wars or tv experts are just bottom of the barrel content.
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What a pointless episode please get more actual educational guests such a medical professional, scientists, professors, and other experts that matter.
These episodes about movies or Star Wars or tv experts are just bottom of the barrel content.
reply
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