Silent Film Essay

On January 31st, 1950. President Harry S. Truman announces his decision for the development of the hydrogen bomb. The hydrogen bomb was theorized to be way more powerful then the atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan during World War II. Five months earlier, America lost their powerful nuclear supremacy to the Soviet Union, due to the country successfully detonating an atomic bomb at their test site in Kazakhstan. Several weeks later, Britain and the U.S. intelligence came to the conclusion that German-born Klaus Fuchs, a top ranking scientists in the U.S. nuclear program, was a spy for the Soviet Union. With the collection of these events, Truman approved the massive funding for the superpower race to complete the world’s first “superbomb”.

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, and no spoken dialogue. The silent film era was from 1894 to 1929. Even though silent films seemed boring, they were actually quite the popular hit. In the films the actors would use gestures, mime, or title cards to convey to the audience what the plot was about. “The term silent film is therefore a retronym – that is a term created to distinguish something retroactively”, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_film). Since September 2013, it has been announced by the United States Library of Congress that a total of 70% of American silent films are to believed to be lost forever. Some thought out reasons are 1.) The film companies decided to destroy the films once the silent film era ended, 2.) Natural environmental causes that caused the films to degrade over time, and 3.) there could had been fires in the vaults where they kept all the films in. Since actors couldn’t talk during the films they used body language and facial expressions so the audience could better understand what the plot was and how the character felt and portrayed on the screen. Silent films were suppose to attract audiences that were simplistic. Melodramatic acting was common in most films. Vaudeville was a very popular origin in silent films. In mid-1910s though, the vaudeville style soon dies out due to differences

The car was a Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A. Norma bought the luxurious car for twenty-eight thousand dollars. Assuming that Norma bought the car in 1929, twenty-eight thousand dollars would be equivalent to $385,868 dollars in 2015. The “Sunset car” is back in Italy on display at Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile since 1972. Gloria Swanson’s character Norma Desmond’s initials are on the rear doors of the car. The Isotta Fraschini 8A was manufactured by Isotta Fraschini. The car was made during 1924-1931. This luxury car was offered only with bare chassis and engine for the coachbuilders. The I.F. car company promised that every car will be able to do 150 km/h (93 mph). The luxury car cost more than a Model J. Duesenberg. The United States sold around one third of these