Post by telegonus on Nov 29, 2018 8:08:42 GMT
Truly, Doghouse, as regards "recognizing the studio without seeing the movie's credits" back then. I think that television is a major factor in this, though at the time moviegoers probably knew their studios, had their favorites,--and yes, even B western stronghold Republic.
Many of us who grew up on those old movies on the tube remember the local TV stations that owned the "libraries" of the various studios, and how some channels seemed to "favor" one over the other. Well, that's how it was done.
No Ted Turner back then, though Columbia's Screen Gems and Lew Wasserman's MCA owned the films of certain studios by "lot". They had "packages". One local channel I noticed, even as a child, showed Warners films from roughly 1930 through 1949, while another station, two notches up on the dial, had Warners post-1950.
The "Warners station" also had the MCA distributed pre-1950 Paramounts; while, as one might imagine, the RKO General stations had all the RKO pictures. They also had the (once again) pre-1950 pictures from MGM.
The studios seemed to in most cases refrain from showing post-1950 pictures, as many were sold to the major networks, such as most of the Fifties Fox and Paramount pictures, both of which were featured on NBC's Saturday and other prime time movie showcases, which eventually all the major networks had at least one of.
That so many much older films were shown on local stations caused an extreme familiarity of movie buff Boomers with the Depression and the World War II and immediate postwar period. I saw only an almost literal handful of more recent films on local stations. Steel Helmet (1951) here, Invaders From Mars (1953) there, and not much else. At times it felt like I was as familiar with the slang, social mores, music and car models from the Thirties-Forties era as I was with those of my own. I don't think I was alone in this.
Many of us who grew up on those old movies on the tube remember the local TV stations that owned the "libraries" of the various studios, and how some channels seemed to "favor" one over the other. Well, that's how it was done.
No Ted Turner back then, though Columbia's Screen Gems and Lew Wasserman's MCA owned the films of certain studios by "lot". They had "packages". One local channel I noticed, even as a child, showed Warners films from roughly 1930 through 1949, while another station, two notches up on the dial, had Warners post-1950.
The "Warners station" also had the MCA distributed pre-1950 Paramounts; while, as one might imagine, the RKO General stations had all the RKO pictures. They also had the (once again) pre-1950 pictures from MGM.
The studios seemed to in most cases refrain from showing post-1950 pictures, as many were sold to the major networks, such as most of the Fifties Fox and Paramount pictures, both of which were featured on NBC's Saturday and other prime time movie showcases, which eventually all the major networks had at least one of.
That so many much older films were shown on local stations caused an extreme familiarity of movie buff Boomers with the Depression and the World War II and immediate postwar period. I saw only an almost literal handful of more recent films on local stations. Steel Helmet (1951) here, Invaders From Mars (1953) there, and not much else. At times it felt like I was as familiar with the slang, social mores, music and car models from the Thirties-Forties era as I was with those of my own. I don't think I was alone in this.