World War II And Hollywood's Impact On The Film Industry

The spread of television in the years following World War II dramatically affected filmmaking in America by providing filmmakers with their first real commercial competition outside of their own industry. Hollywood responded by giving audiences what TV could not; sex, violence and realism.
World War II gave the movies a bit of breathing room from the commercial spread of television. While technological innovations were accelerated for the budding TV industry, these technologies were focused almost exclusively toward the war effort, retarding the commercialization of the industry by at least five years. When TV did become a legitimate threat, around 1950, it was mature technology that featured far better quality and price points than the earliest models. This and the free nature of the programing allowed the rapid proliferation of TV’s and made the industry a full-blown threat the movies.
The answer for Hollywood was already in the works long before TV became relevant. In the early forties, movies like Rebecca, the Maltese Falcon and Citizen Kane were redefining the Hollywood depiction of reality. It may have been a wartime shift in perceptions that allowed these more realistic and darker themes to be successful.
The 1948 “Paramount decision” began the actual 30-year process of breaking up the “studio system”; the
Urged by a large right wing Catholic group, the nine movie studios conclude what started as Essentially a gentleman’s agreement to disallow certain themes and activities. Homosexuality, drug use, extreme violence and all human sexuality including kissing was either regulated or deemed completely unacceptable. Movies could be and were released without the codes seal of approval but with the studio system in place such movies were very difficult to