Hollywood’s Golden Age – Key People, Studios & Innovations

Vocabulary flashcards covering major stars, directors, studios, technical terms, and industry practices from Hollywood’s Golden Age through the early sound era.

Jack Lemmon

Versatile actor of the 1950s–70s; starred in Some Like It Hot, Days of Wine and Roses, The Apartment, Save the Tiger (Oscar win), The Odd Couple, Mr. Roberts, and The China Syndrome.

Alfred Hitchcock

British-born “Master of Suspense,” director and TV host famed for Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, The 39 Steps, and Psycho.

John Ford

American filmmaker celebrated for classic Westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Frank Capra

Director known for uplifting, idealistic films like It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Busby Berkeley

Choreographer/director famous for elaborate, kaleidoscopic musical numbers in 1930s Warner Bros productions.

William Wyler

Director with the most Best Director Oscar nominations in history; works include Ben-Hur, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Roman Holiday.

Orson Welles

Innovative writer-director-actor behind Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil, The Lady from Shanghai, and The Other Side of the Wind.

Citizen Kane

1941 Orson Welles masterpiece frequently cited as the greatest film of all time.

Marlon Brando

Influential method actor; major roles in Viva Zapata!, Julius Caesar, On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, Guys & Dolls, The Godfather, and Apocalypse Now.

Marilyn Monroe

Iconic 1950s star of The Seven Year Itch, Some Like It Hot, Bus Stop, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, and Niagara; never Oscar-nominated.

Charlton Heston

Actor and activist noted for civil-rights support, union leadership, and Second Amendment advocacy.

The Big Five

Major studios that dominated Hollywood: MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, and RKO Pictures.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Studio boasting “more stars than there are in heaven,” renowned for lavish musicals and prestige pictures.

Paramount Pictures

Big Five studio led early by Adolph Zukor; produced classics from DeMille, Wilder, and Hitchcock.

20th Century Fox

Big Five studio behind Movietone sound technology and epics like The Sound of Music and Cleopatra.

Warner Bros

Big Five studio that made The Jazz Singer and became synonymous with gritty gangster films and Vitaphone sound.

RKO Pictures

Big Five studio that released Citizen Kane and Astaire-Rogers musicals; later produced film noir classics.

The Little Three

Second-tier majors Columbia, Universal, and United Artists that lacked their own theater chains.

Columbia Pictures

Little Three studio run by Harry Cohn, known for low-budget comedies and later Frank Capra hits.

Universal Pictures

Little Three studio founded by Carl Laemmle; famed for 1930s-40s horror classics like Dracula and Frankenstein.

United Artists

Studio co-founded by Mary Pickford to give filmmakers creative control; distributor of independent productions.

Adolph Zukor

Paramount executive who pioneered blockbooking and popularized the B-movie program.

Blockbooking

Practice of forcing theaters to rent a package of lesser films to obtain a studio’s top releases.

Marcus Loew

Theater mogul who merged companies to create MGM.

Carl Laemmle

Founder of Universal Pictures and champion of the studio’s iconic monster movies.

Harry Cohn

Hard-driving head of Columbia Pictures known for tight budgets and tough management style.

Mary Pickford

“America’s Sweetheart” of the silent era and co-founder of United Artists.

Disney

Independent studio outside the Big Five, Little Three, and Poverty Row; specialized in animation and family features.

Poverty Row

Cluster of low-budget studios such as Republic, Monogram, and Grand National operating outside Hollywood’s majors.

Republic Pictures

Poverty Row studio noted for weekly serials and low-budget Westerns starring Gene Autry and Roy Rogers.

Monogram Pictures

Poverty Row company producing inexpensive genre fare, especially crime dramas and B-Western series.

Grand National Pictures

Short-lived Poverty Row studio of the 1930s that tried to compete with majors through low-budget features.

Serials

Multi-chapter theatrical cliffhangers released weekly, a Republic Pictures specialty.

First National

Consortium of theater owners who formed one of Hollywood’s earliest major studios before merging with Warner Bros.

Thomas Ince

Producer credited with developing Hollywood’s assembly-line studio system of specialized departments.

Katharine Hepburn

Actress holding the record of four acting Oscars, with roles in The Philadelphia Story and On Golden Pond.

James “Jimmy” Stewart

Beloved actor of Harvey, Rear Window, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It’s a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, and The Philadelphia Story.

Clark Gable

Leading man dubbed “The King of Hollywood,” famed for Gone with the Wind and It Happened One Night.

Cary Grant

Debonair star of Penny Serenade, None but the Lonely Heart, The Philadelphia Story, Arsenic and Old Lace, Bringing Up Baby, and North by Northwest.

John Wayne

Western icon who landed in the annual box-office top ten 25 different years.

Humphrey Bogart

AFI’s greatest male star of the Golden Age; lead of Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and The Big Sleep.

Shirley Temple

1930s child sensation known for song-and-dance charm in films like Bright Eyes and Curly Top.

Optical Sound

Technique that records audio as a visible waveform on the same strip of film, synchronizing picture and sound.

Movietone

Fox’s proprietary optical sound-on-film system introduced in the late 1920s.

Vitaphone

Warner Bros sound-on-disc system that synchronized phonograph records with film images.

Al Jolson

Entertainer who headlined The Jazz Singer, ushering in the talkie era.

The Jazz Singer

1927 Warner Bros film, first feature-length “talkie,” featuring Al Jolson and Vitaphone sound.