Cinemas will be closed, filming will be postponed. It was 1918 when the Spanish flu hit the United States. Hollywood didn’t look like it did before. Can parallels to today be found?
By Katharina Wilhelm, ARD Studio Los Angeles
Fall 1918: The First World War came to an end, the film industry in Hollywood 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 that dangerous. But that changed quickly as the number of infections and deaths soared.” This is how the Hollywood historian William Mann tells it. “The city of Los Angeles initially banned filming of gatherings of people. The studios then quickly started to end all filming first.”
Familiar restrictions
Closed cinemas, people who only leave the house with masks – and no more filming. It all sounds familiar, and yet there are just over a hundred years between then and now.
“Some big stars refused to wear masks, so Douglas Fairbanks wanted to prove his masculinity. But some of the biggest stars got sick. Mary Pickford, then a huge star and the later wife of Fairbanks, got the flu and survived” he says.
Even the then young and unknown Walt Disney survived the flu – but not others. 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 of the effects of the flu.
Spanish flu caused a huge upheaval
The Spanish flu, cinemas, shops ran in three waves, and public life was shut down several times. The film industry suffered from the losses, especially small, family-run cinemas had to close. And that led to a huge upheaval in Hollywood, ushered in by Paramount Studio founder Adolph Zukor: “He bought up many of these small cinemas because he wanted film production, distribution and exhibition to be in one hand. So he used it Opportunity, which led to very efficient filmmaking, and that’s how the great American films of the 30s, 40s and 50s were made. “
The Hollywood studio system was created. There were also direct winners of the pandemic. Small, independent film productions were left behind.
What will follow the crisis this time?
Now, a hundred years later, the film industry is in crisis again. Hundreds of filmings have been paused due to the corona virus, cinemas have to remain closed, large studios like MGM have already announced that they will have to lay off staff, and cinema chains like AMC fear they will go bankrupt. How will Hollywood emerge from the crisis this time? Historian William Mann believes that a trend will continue, namely that the big cinema chains will disappear: “Even before the crisis people would go to the cinema less – also because interesting films and series were available via streaming. Who is not exactly the big ones If you want to see blockbusters with special effects, you can watch films on Netflix, Prime or Hulu. “
Some studios are already showing their films via streaming services instead of on the screen – in order to reach at least part of the audience. Apparently, this is going to be more successful than expected – an indicator possibly that instead of the cinema one could watch more and more at home, even after the coronavirus crisis.
By the way, it took almost two years for films to be made again regularly after the Spanish flu. Hollywood will also find its way out of this crisis, says William Mann, the key lies in the creativity of the industry.
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