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Theaters will be closed, filming will be postponed. It was 1918 when the Spanish flu hit the United States. Hollywood did not look like before. Can you find parallels with those of today?
By Katharina Wilhelm, ARD Studio Los Angeles
Fall 1918: World War I came to an end, the Hollywood film industry was getting bigger and more successful. Relief spread through the population, but then came the Spanish flu.
“When the Spanish flu hit Los Angeles, it wasn’t considered as dangerous. But that changed quickly as the number of infections and deaths skyrocketed.”
This is the story of Hollywood historian William Mann.
“The city of Los Angeles initially banned filming of gatherings of people. Then the studios quickly began to end all filming.”
Family restrictions
Closed cinemas, people who only leave the house with masks, and no more filming. It all sounds familiar, and yet there is little more than a hundred years between then and now.
“Some big stars refused to wear masks, so Douglas Fairbanks wanted to demonstrate his masculinity. But some of the big stars got sick. Mary Pickford, then a big star and then Fairbanks’ wife, got the flu and survived.”
Even the then-young and unknown Walt Disney survived the flu, but not others. The Spanish flu is said to have killed 15 to 50 million people. The most prominent victims include the painter Egon Schiele and the sociologist Max Weber. President Donald Trump’s grandfather, Frederick Trump, also died from the effects of the flu.
The Spanish flu caused great turmoil
The Spanish flu, the cinemas, the stores ran in three waves and public life was closed several times. The film industry suffered the losses, especially the small family cinemas had to close. And that’s exactly what led to a huge stir in Hollywood, introduced by Paramount Studio founder Adolph Zukor:
“He bought a lot of these little theaters. Because he wanted film production, distribution and exhibition to be on one hand. So he took the opportunity. This led to very efficient filming, and that’s how the great American movies of the 1930s came about.” 1940 and 1950 “.
The Hollywood studio system was created. There were also direct winners of the pandemic. Small independent film productions were left.
What will follow the crisis this time?
Now, one hundred years later, the film industry is in crisis again. Hundreds of films have been stopped due to the corona virus, theaters have to be closed, large studios like MGM have already announced that they will have to fire staff, and movie chains like AMC fear they will go bust. How is Hollywood going to get out of the crisis this time? Historian William Mann believes that the trend will continue, namely that the major cinema chains will disappear.
“Even before the crisis, people went to the movies less, also because interesting movies and series were available through the broadcast. If you don’t want to see the blockbuster with special effects, you can watch movies on Netflix, Prime or Hulu. “
Some studios are already showing their movies through streaming services rather than on screen, to reach at least a portion of the audience. Apparently, this is going to be more successful than expected, an indicator possibly that instead of the cinema one could see more and more at home, even after the coronavirus crisis.
Incidentally, it took almost two years for movies to be made regularly after the Spanish flu. Hollywood will also find its way out of this crisis, says William Mann, the key is in the creativity of the industry.
