0:00:07 > 0:00:11Britain in the 1920s and '30s was facing a cultural invasion.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17America was the new world power
0:00:17 > 0:00:20and its wild and wanton ways were threatening our shores.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28British restraint was under siege and fading fast.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31It was a tremendously energised period.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34The thing about the Twenties, whenever you look at the music
0:00:34 > 0:00:38and dancing, there is a tremendous pumping of energy
0:00:38 > 0:00:39going on all the time.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43On high streets throughout the country,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46Hollywood movies were showing ordinary people
0:00:46 > 0:00:49that life didn't have to be so British.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52Just think, Joe, what fun it is to be a newspaper woman
0:00:52 > 0:00:53like the ones in American movies.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56America's screen gods and goddesses
0:00:56 > 0:00:59were becoming British national heroes.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02All of a sudden perhaps you don't want to be a princess,
0:01:02 > 0:01:04perhaps what you want to be is a film star
0:01:04 > 0:01:06in a lovely slinky, satin dress.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10The young were falling for the American Dream,
0:01:10 > 0:01:13but for the old it was becoming a nightmare.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16I don't know what this generation is coming to!
0:01:17 > 0:01:20Over the top and over here,
0:01:20 > 0:01:24this is the story of how American glamour changed Britain for ever.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37Our 21st century fascination with American culture is nothing new.
0:01:37 > 0:01:42Since the early days of cinema, the British have been seduced
0:01:42 > 0:01:43by the allure of Hollywood.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48There is no other glamour like that of the '20s and '30s, is there?
0:01:48 > 0:01:50If you think of Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich,
0:01:50 > 0:01:53they are the most glamorous women that have ever lived.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02Glamorous isn't beauty, it is something which is...
0:02:02 > 0:02:06surrounded a bit with magic, it's powered with a bit of stardust
0:02:06 > 0:02:10and that, in a sense, fits in so obviously
0:02:10 > 0:02:13to the silver screen, to films.
0:02:13 > 0:02:15Going to the 'pictures' was more than a night out
0:02:15 > 0:02:20in the interwar years - it was a new, exciting mass entertainment
0:02:20 > 0:02:24that had a profound impact on the lives of ordinary Brits.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28It provided a window on the world which wasn't an accurate window,
0:02:28 > 0:02:31it wasn't a mirror, of course, but it was a fabulous,
0:02:31 > 0:02:35distorting and chanting mirror that people loved and accepted.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48When people come out of the First World War, the playing with drugs,
0:02:48 > 0:02:52the exotic dances, the tango, cocaine, you know, sky's the limit...
0:02:52 > 0:02:55silent movies was the right medium for that.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02The movie stars of the 1920s were larger-than-life characters.
0:03:04 > 0:03:09British exiles like Charlie Chaplin would become household names.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12Today the plots seem implausible
0:03:12 > 0:03:15and the acting forced, but in the silent era,
0:03:15 > 0:03:18British audiences had never seen anything like it -
0:03:18 > 0:03:2212-foot images of the mad, the bad,
0:03:22 > 0:03:25and the scandalous transported them to another world,
0:03:25 > 0:03:30especially if they were on a horse and called Rudolph Valentino.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33Women swooned when they saw him in The Sheikh,
0:03:33 > 0:03:36but we really only ever saw him
0:03:36 > 0:03:41dressed in his full kit and in more make-up than women were wearing.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44Over-powdered and over-dressed,
0:03:44 > 0:03:47Valentino hinted at sex and sensation.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57The silent era sirens like Theda Bara were a bit more obvious.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02The vamps were a male projection.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07Theda Bara was a male attraction film-star, geared to a male audience.
0:04:08 > 0:04:13I'm not saying she had no female fans but that wasn't what she was about.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16She was an expression of a kind of sexual creature who,
0:04:16 > 0:04:20in the recesses behind that curtain, was getting up to all sorts,
0:04:20 > 0:04:23and that was essentially a male fantasy.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28The early silent sex-bombs
0:04:28 > 0:04:30had little in common with good British girls
0:04:30 > 0:04:33who were expected to stay at home until they married.
0:04:33 > 0:04:38But in the 1920s, potential husbands were in short supply.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42I think it's quite important to remember that...
0:04:42 > 0:04:46in the 1920s...
0:04:46 > 0:04:48Britain and the world were emerging
0:04:48 > 0:04:52from an absolutely catastrophic, cataclysmic war.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59Britain had, in a way, become a sort of mutilated society.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04There was a pall of loss, a pall of grief hanging over the country.
0:05:04 > 0:05:09The Great War claimed the lives of 10,000 men a day in the trenches.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13For the women left behind, it would be a time of immense change.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16Many had stepped into men's jobs while they were away.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19Others had worked as nurses at the front.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21For the first time, young women were empowered.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24There would be no going back.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28'Throughout the country, women took on all kinds of jobs.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31'This film shows gas masks being made for the men in the trenches
0:05:31 > 0:05:36'and here, fighter pilots have their planes tended to by women.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39'Some of these jobs would have been inconceivable
0:05:39 > 0:05:40'for any respectable, pre-war girl.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43'Attitudes were changing, and new jobs meant more money,
0:05:43 > 0:05:46'new freedoms, greater self-confidence,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49'in short, a new emancipation.'
0:05:50 > 0:05:53One of the by products of the war was these women had been left
0:05:53 > 0:05:57on their tod, you know, husbands and brothers had gone away
0:05:57 > 0:06:01so they were making the decision, they were running the households.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06I think it was very difficult for women after both wars, when the men
0:06:06 > 0:06:10came back to suddenly find that in many cases, they were expected
0:06:10 > 0:06:14to suddenly get back in the kitchen and the rest of it. To a certain
0:06:14 > 0:06:18extent with the young that didn't happen, their confidence stayed.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26British life was changing, and it wasn't the men leading the way.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29The weaker sex was getting stronger.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32The women's suffragette movement had won the right to vote,
0:06:32 > 0:06:34but only for wealthier women.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37In the 1920s, their campaign was spreading
0:06:37 > 0:06:41to young working class women who also wanted a voice.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44The women at that time knew they were riding on the backs of giants,
0:06:44 > 0:06:46they weren't the originators.
0:06:46 > 0:06:51The giants were the new women of the 1890's, they were the suffragettes
0:06:51 > 0:06:55for goodness sake, who were the heroines of the cause.
0:06:55 > 0:07:01But 1920's young women came along and they rode along on it. They said,
0:07:01 > 0:07:04"OK, let's ride the crest of this wave.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07"The suffragettes, the new women have done the hard work,
0:07:07 > 0:07:11"broken down the barricades. Now let's get out there and rejoice,
0:07:11 > 0:07:16"let's lift our skirts, let's have a ball, let's have a party."
0:07:24 > 0:07:27This was a generation with little interest in the past.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30Women wanted their futures to be modern.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34It was in their local picture houses that they first saw glimpses
0:07:34 > 0:07:37of the lifestyles they would come to crave.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39Everybody started going to the movies
0:07:39 > 0:07:42and the movies that they saw were Hollywood movies.
0:07:42 > 0:07:48They were promoting some actresses who lived in ways that, you know,
0:07:48 > 0:07:53a normal women from the Midlands would never have dreamed possible.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02The female role models that women would have started to see
0:08:02 > 0:08:05from Hollywood movies were utterly unlike any kind of role model
0:08:05 > 0:08:08they would have seen before.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17Absolutely exceptional individuals who were unusual,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20odd and tantalising for that reason.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23One American actress would show British women
0:08:23 > 0:08:25what they might be capable of.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29Clara Bow is the kind of archetypal, X Factor girl of the 1920s.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34She enters a talent competition and that's how she becomes a movie star.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38The reason we remember her is because she starred in a film called It.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46The 1927 film It turned its leading lady into a star,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49and its title became synonymous with sex appeal.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53On screen and off, Clara Bow was the original It Girl,
0:08:53 > 0:08:56more interested in having a good time than behaving properly.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00The Cinderella story of transformation
0:09:00 > 0:09:04was exactly what young British women were dreaming of.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08It's a really great movie actually because it completely
0:09:08 > 0:09:10focuses on her and her desire.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14She's a shop girl and she looks across at the owner
0:09:14 > 0:09:19of the department store and she just looks at him and suddenly you know
0:09:19 > 0:09:22she's going to have him, and there's this great inter title which says,
0:09:22 > 0:09:25"Sweet Santa Clause, give me him!"
0:09:31 > 0:09:35She goes out to get him and she totally gets him and, actually,
0:09:35 > 0:09:38one of the ways in which she does that, thinking about this
0:09:38 > 0:09:42concept of glamour, is by making herself glamorous.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46The film was silent, but its message was loud and clear -
0:09:46 > 0:09:49girls, you can make it too.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53You just need glamour, sex appeal and a big pair of scissors.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58There's a great sequence where she gets him to invite her to the Ritz
0:09:58 > 0:10:00and she realises she has nothing to wear
0:10:00 > 0:10:04so she cuts up her store uniform and makes it into a great ballgown.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08Clare Bow was one of the first shop girl movie stars.
0:10:08 > 0:10:13She was in one way an ordinary girl just like you and me,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16and in another way, ravishingly pretty,
0:10:16 > 0:10:18in exactly the right way for the Twenties.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21Clara Bow, I think, was a very American star.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24She was very much an expression of Americana.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27She absolutely represents this concept of a young woman
0:10:27 > 0:10:32who is throwing convention out of the window, is out for a good time,
0:10:32 > 0:10:35is not afraid to express desire, who is modern.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44Women could afford to go to the cinema two or three times a week.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48American movies were showing these girls that wherever they came from,
0:10:48 > 0:10:52they too could transform their lives into something special.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55Obviously, if you were young and you looked at your mother
0:10:55 > 0:10:57and at the life she had had you thought,
0:10:57 > 0:11:01"Well, maybe, there's something to be said for sex-appeal, for being an It girl,"
0:11:01 > 0:11:06so I think that we now think of Hollywood as being sheer consumption
0:11:06 > 0:11:10but I think in many ways it was peddling a different message -
0:11:10 > 0:11:14"There's another way and there's a world out there to go and grab."
0:11:15 > 0:11:19As Hollywood grew more sophisticated, so too did its stars.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23By the '30s, the British working classes could spend
0:11:23 > 0:11:27an evening with some of the most glamorous people in the world.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33The word glamour first became very popular in the 1930s. Its history
0:11:33 > 0:11:38is actually quite complicated. The word derives from Scottish.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43It was first used by Walter Scott in 1805 to mean a magical power that
0:11:43 > 0:11:48could make something or someone look much better than they really were.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52The reason for the term becoming so popular in the 1930s
0:11:52 > 0:11:55is precisely because film, more than any other medium,
0:11:55 > 0:12:00achieved this ability to make things seem better than they were.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08I'd like to kiss you, but I've just washed my hair. Bye!
0:12:08 > 0:12:11In many ways glamour is different from beauty.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13Glamour is something that can be acquired,
0:12:13 > 0:12:17it can be bought, so in a sense it's democratic.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21That was the idea, I think, that it was democratising.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25It did give the shop girl the opportunity that she too
0:12:25 > 0:12:27could be glamorous. She might never be beautiful,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30she might never be rich, but she could be glamorous.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35A shop girl in Newcastle who goes to the movies and sees
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Gloria Swanson is going to be...
0:12:38 > 0:12:40swept away by the glamour of it.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43She is not going to be able to wear that dress, but she is going
0:12:43 > 0:12:46to be able to paint her nails or have her hair waved in that way.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50That's where this incredible power...
0:12:52 > 0:12:55..of the industry to create trends
0:12:55 > 0:12:59and create money for the people behind it is really starting.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07America's cultural and commercial assault
0:13:07 > 0:13:09started after the First World War
0:13:09 > 0:13:13when Britain was £1100 million in its debt.
0:13:13 > 0:13:18Mass production and consumerism had made the USA rich.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22Their standard of living was five times higher than the UK's.
0:13:22 > 0:13:23By the '30s, most Americans
0:13:23 > 0:13:28had four wheels when many Brits still had two.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31The United States was the envy of the world.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35America holds the strings to...
0:13:35 > 0:13:39the consumer purse and everything everybody wants, like Coca-Cola...
0:13:41 > 0:13:44..or the latest jazz records, comes from America.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48America had industrialised later than Britain, so it had
0:13:48 > 0:13:51all sorts of new technology, much more up-to-date methods,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55and of course a huge country with a vast labour force, and
0:13:55 > 0:13:57of course, a vast purchasing population.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00Mass production took off in America
0:14:00 > 0:14:04in a way that it never could and it never would in Britain.
0:14:04 > 0:14:09Technological developments like washing machines, Hoovers, fridges,
0:14:09 > 0:14:14electric cookers meant that household life was freed up.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18You didn't have to spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week
0:14:18 > 0:14:21doing the laundry and making sure your family had enough to eat.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24Those things truly liberated women,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27and so their expectations of life grew greater.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31Young women started to lavish their spare time on themselves.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35Using make-up became widespread when American mass production
0:14:35 > 0:14:37found its feminine side.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40They made lipstick cases, twist up lipstick cases which
0:14:40 > 0:14:44were developed from a cartridge shell from the First World War.
0:14:46 > 0:14:51Hinged powder compacts for the beauty business and they had
0:14:51 > 0:14:54labelling and bottling plants.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57The cosmetics companies were churning it out.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Seduced by the promise of beauty, make-up became irresistible
0:15:05 > 0:15:08to women regardless of their class.
0:15:09 > 0:15:14Colour cosmetics, until roughly the beginning of the First World War,
0:15:14 > 0:15:16were used by actresses, which was absolutely fine,
0:15:16 > 0:15:18or whores, which was not.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22So ladies who used make-up, because Queen Victoria hated make-up,
0:15:22 > 0:15:27so the ritual of wearing colour cosmetics was an absolute no-no.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30If you wanted to buy a lipstick you had to go behind your hand to
0:15:30 > 0:15:33hide the conversation with the shop girl
0:15:33 > 0:15:35and then she would find you the lipstick.
0:15:35 > 0:15:40'The plain girl needn't be plain says this popular artist.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42'Take this girl, for instance.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45'Let's try the face, that's the pale over under the hair.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49'It's one thing to draw the line and the other to know where to draw it.'
0:15:49 > 0:15:53The girls were flaunting tradition, they loved it, they would take out
0:15:53 > 0:15:57their powder compact and strike a pose with it.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01This was something which they knew that their mothers
0:16:01 > 0:16:04and their grandmothers would hate so they instinctively loved it.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08'An ever so discreet touching up and glamour's just around the corner,
0:16:08 > 0:16:11'in fact it's arrived, and soon her admirers will be wading in.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15'Make the most of your good features and conceal the your worst.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19'In other words, if you've got a face, don't treat it rough.'
0:16:21 > 0:16:26It was part glamour, part the trend and part bucking
0:16:26 > 0:16:30etiquette and restrictions that have been in place before.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36In the interwar period, the beauty business
0:16:36 > 0:16:39became a multi-million pound industry,
0:16:39 > 0:16:43aided and abetted by the screen sirens who helped show the ordinary
0:16:43 > 0:16:46how to achieve the extraordinary.
0:16:47 > 0:16:49And remember...
0:16:49 > 0:16:54to be beautiful and natural is the birthright of every woman.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57The influence of these women, of stars,
0:16:57 > 0:16:59in terms of marketing, was colossal.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02Practicality went out of the window.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05Before you bought a product because you needed it. Now you were buying
0:17:05 > 0:17:08products because you wanted them, you desired them.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13Don't it look cute, huh?
0:17:13 > 0:17:18Whenever there was a movie with a different change of make-up
0:17:18 > 0:17:22or change of hair, platinum blonde, Gene Harlow's platinum blonde,
0:17:22 > 0:17:26thin plucked eyebrows, it set an enormous trend.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28Customers were insatiable for it.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31Greta Garbo created a trend for using eyebrow pencils. She had
0:17:31 > 0:17:34to use it because she was extremely blonde so you couldn't
0:17:34 > 0:17:39see her eyebrows on the screen, but she almost changed the faces
0:17:39 > 0:17:42of women in the UK because of her pencilled-on eyebrows.
0:17:42 > 0:17:44That technology was new then, as well.
0:17:44 > 0:17:49Clara Bow promoted Max Factor's make-up, she wore his mascara.
0:17:49 > 0:17:54It could be said that the creation of the luxury beauty industry
0:17:54 > 0:17:58started with Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein
0:17:58 > 0:18:00at the turn of the last century,
0:18:00 > 0:18:03and by 1935, Helena Rubenstein and Elizabeth Arden,
0:18:03 > 0:18:07great rivals, great rivals it must be said,
0:18:07 > 0:18:10were the richest businesswoman in the world.
0:18:10 > 0:18:15The aspirational model, I think for a lot of British women,
0:18:15 > 0:18:19had been sort of princesses and the Queen and the Duchess and things,
0:18:19 > 0:18:23and if you look in magazines, you see adverts for cosmetics and it's
0:18:23 > 0:18:27usually the Countess of this or the Duchess of that who's endorsing it.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31Then of course come in the film stars, and there's Jean Harlow and
0:18:31 > 0:18:36all of a sudden perhaps you don't want to be a princess, perhaps what
0:18:36 > 0:18:40you want to be is a film star in a lovely, slinky satin dress.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42Film is the showcase of consumption.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46It is the thing where you look at you think, "I'd like to buy that"
0:18:46 > 0:18:52or "I'd like to have that," and that activity is understood
0:18:52 > 0:18:55to be American, and it's through the Thirties that we start
0:18:55 > 0:18:57to get comfortable with that.
0:18:57 > 0:19:03There was a great Punch cartoon from 1930 which shows a cinema
0:19:03 > 0:19:07much like this full of people. On the screen, there is a sort of
0:19:07 > 0:19:10mad man strangling a woman, her back is to the screen and she has
0:19:10 > 0:19:15this beautiful wave, and one of the women turned to the other and says,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18"That's the hair do I was talking about."
0:19:18 > 0:19:20And there's a real sense,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24even in the period, that cinema isn't about narratives,
0:19:24 > 0:19:28it's about showing you a lifestyle that you might want to emulate.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33American cinema was influencing British women,
0:19:33 > 0:19:36and the old order was not amused.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40The first UK census after the Great War revealed there were almost
0:19:40 > 0:19:42two million more women than men.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46And these unconventional singletons were proving a problem.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52There's a lot of anger,
0:19:52 > 0:19:55a lot of a feeling of defensiveness,
0:19:55 > 0:20:00a lot of paranoia from an older generation of men
0:20:00 > 0:20:03feeling that...
0:20:03 > 0:20:06young, free, single,
0:20:06 > 0:20:10liberated, possibly sexually liberated women are going to rise up
0:20:10 > 0:20:12and take over the world.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22These thoroughly modern millies were known as the flappers.
0:20:22 > 0:20:27A product of America, they struck fear into the establishment.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30The flapper was dangerous because she was unmarried,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34she was single, she was young, she was emancipated,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37she smoked, she drank,
0:20:37 > 0:20:39she appeared not to care about getting married
0:20:39 > 0:20:42and having a family and that kind of thing.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45There was a great deal of controversy what to do with them,
0:20:45 > 0:20:49there was the husband hunt it was described as,
0:20:49 > 0:20:52everyone was thought to be out there,
0:20:52 > 0:20:56doing their best to doll themselves up in the hope of catching a man.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00There was a lot of pointing the finger at the new fashions,
0:21:00 > 0:21:06at the raising of skirts and the donning of silky leg wear and...
0:21:06 > 0:21:10girls who were no better than they ought to be wearing
0:21:10 > 0:21:13make-up and lipstick because they were hoping to catch a husband.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16So there was very much a kind of accusational tone.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22There was a famous editorial in the Daily Express in 1927
0:21:22 > 0:21:25which said that British people
0:21:25 > 0:21:29talk American, think American, dream American, that in fact that many
0:21:29 > 0:21:34women in particular were becoming temporary American citizens and they
0:21:34 > 0:21:39were particularly anxious about the so-called flapper voters, the women
0:21:39 > 0:21:43under 30 who they felt were going to swing the political system their way
0:21:43 > 0:21:46and this created a campaigning crusade against the flapper vote
0:21:46 > 0:21:51which filled a lot of column inches in 1927 and 1928.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55There's one pamphlet written by a man called Shall Flappers Rule,
0:21:55 > 0:22:00and his view was that flappers were...
0:22:01 > 0:22:04..that it was monstrous that these frivolous young women
0:22:04 > 0:22:08should be allowed to have an electoral voice.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12And of course they did, they brought in a Labour government that year.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16'Now women were represented in Parliament, there is new legislation
0:22:16 > 0:22:17'concerning women's rights.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20'Public service was open to them and Margaret Bunfield
0:22:20 > 0:22:22'became the first woman cabinet minister.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25'For these women, emancipation meant the chance to play
0:22:25 > 0:22:29'an active part in politics and to serve the greater number of women
0:22:29 > 0:22:33'for whom emancipation meant other things entirely.'
0:22:33 > 0:22:37These women with other things on their minds were the most regular
0:22:37 > 0:22:40cinema-goers of the period. The movies were an escape
0:22:40 > 0:22:42in more ways than one.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44You'd better come up and see me.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48There's something about men.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54Hello, you haven't proposed to me yet tonight.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57Women couldn't go into pubs, there weren't many public spaces
0:22:57 > 0:23:00that women could go to. They could go to dance halls, of course,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03women could go to the cinema, they could even go on their own,
0:23:03 > 0:23:06they could go with their friends, they could go in the afternoon.
0:23:06 > 0:23:12Some 85-90% of films shown in Britain were from America.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14Only 5% or so were British-made,
0:23:14 > 0:23:18and this led to a lot of anxiety amongst the British cultural elite.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25During the First World War, the Hollywood studios had flourished and
0:23:25 > 0:23:30now, in peacetime, the British film industry was only a bit part player.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34Everything in Britain was subsumed by the effort of winning the war
0:23:34 > 0:23:38in the 1910s. By the time the 1920s came along, Hollywood was
0:23:38 > 0:23:41already up and running, it is an industry with its own momentum.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45There's no way that Britain can catch up with that because you've got
0:23:45 > 0:23:50experienced actors, directors, producers, you've got the whole
0:23:50 > 0:23:53advertising industry and marketing industry working.
0:23:53 > 0:23:58They have a top-down control of their industry so
0:23:58 > 0:24:02everything is wrapped up, there's no way that England could compete.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05There's an economic concern which is there's a lot of money
0:24:05 > 0:24:08coming out of British pockets and going to foreign companies.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12There's also a sort of cultural argument about
0:24:12 > 0:24:15an anxiety that somehow the British way of life is not
0:24:15 > 0:24:19being shown on the screen, that a generation of young people are being
0:24:19 > 0:24:23brought up to understand America as a place of opportunity and
0:24:23 > 0:24:28excitement as opposed to Britain which, by comparison to the
0:24:28 > 0:24:33Hollywood screen, seems rather dull and drab and dreary and unpleasant.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37You know, when I wrote this song, I was thinking about you.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39- Were you, really?- Mm-hm.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42# Baby
0:24:42 > 0:24:44# Baby... #
0:24:44 > 0:24:46Weak on fantasy but strong on reality,
0:24:46 > 0:24:50the British film industry was out of touch with modern aspirations
0:24:50 > 0:24:55and in danger of disappearing. The Government stepped in.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57In 1927 an act was passed to increase the number
0:24:57 > 0:25:00of home-produced films screened in British cinemas.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04The result was the wholesome and hearty Quota Quickies.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08When people admire America too much,
0:25:08 > 0:25:11then, of course, the questions start to come up, why are we eating worse
0:25:11 > 0:25:15food, why are we living in worse houses, what are we doing wrong?
0:25:15 > 0:25:17To counteract that, what you have to say is,
0:25:17 > 0:25:20"Yes, it's true, you're living in a two up, two down with
0:25:20 > 0:25:24"no bathroom but on the other hand, you've got British spirit, British
0:25:24 > 0:25:28"values, you've got this massive camaraderie, you've got culture."
0:25:28 > 0:25:31I don't know what this generation is coming to!
0:25:31 > 0:25:34This generation is the same as any other, it's out for a good time
0:25:34 > 0:25:37while the going is good, and I don't blame them.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39Anyway, Sylvia will make Frank a good wife.
0:25:41 > 0:25:42WOMAN SCREAMS
0:25:42 > 0:25:44Frank, what's that?
0:25:44 > 0:25:48I don't know. Anyway, it was a very fruity one.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51What quota quickies did was they offered a different
0:25:51 > 0:25:53kind of cinema entertainment.
0:25:53 > 0:25:58They were much more indigenous and often much more based around
0:25:58 > 0:26:01familiarity rather than glamour.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03I ain't afraid of catching cold anyway.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05Catching cold, you've always got one.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09Here was an opportunity to win back the home audience.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13But Brits had grown used to the sophistication of Hollywood
0:26:13 > 0:26:17and the cinema-going public expected nothing less.
0:26:17 > 0:26:19I never saw anything!
0:26:19 > 0:26:22- Well, it was behind you! - Was it? Don't be silly.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26Part of the problem was that the response was that fairly cheap
0:26:26 > 0:26:31and shoddy films were made in Britain, so-called quota quickies,
0:26:31 > 0:26:35just to fill the quotas and to respond to this new law,
0:26:35 > 0:26:39and that didn't help British cinema in the short term at all because
0:26:39 > 0:26:44British films has perpetuated the reputation for poor film making.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49Here's something right up your street.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54The legend of them is that they were so dreadful they were unwatchable
0:26:54 > 0:26:59and they were shown 10 o'clock in the morning when the cleaners
0:26:59 > 0:27:01were in the cinema and so nobody ever saw them.
0:27:01 > 0:27:05- Half an hour ago, you said you wanted to tell me something.- Yes.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07Glamour wasn't the only thing missing -
0:27:07 > 0:27:10they even struggled to capture vital moments.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13- We've known each other for quite a time now.- 10 days to be exact.
0:27:13 > 0:27:18Yes, what I wanted to ask you was, would you, could you...?
0:27:18 > 0:27:20Frank, are you proposing to me?
0:27:20 > 0:27:22Yes...
0:27:22 > 0:27:26Really, the trouble with British cinema was that it found it
0:27:26 > 0:27:29very difficult to generate any stars.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33Partly this was the type of people who were in the acting profession.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36Most of them came from a theatre background, most of them were
0:27:36 > 0:27:40upper-middle-class, they had Metropolitan accents and they didn't
0:27:40 > 0:27:45have the classless appeal and the glamour of the American stars,
0:27:45 > 0:27:48that was cultivated by the American studio system.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51Hurray! The party is waking up at last.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03The biggest stars in the 1930s are Gracie Fields and George Formby,
0:28:03 > 0:28:07who again, they're not stars who trade in glamour,
0:28:07 > 0:28:10they're stars who trade in familiarity.
0:28:10 > 0:28:15Indeed, Gracie Fields, quite a lot of Field's films are about
0:28:15 > 0:28:21the contrast between her ordinariness and a kind of glamorous world.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25Interestingly, humour seems to play more of a role when it comes
0:28:25 > 0:28:28to British stars. If you look at the films from the Twenties,
0:28:28 > 0:28:32and certainly Thirties, there seems to be a chirpy
0:28:32 > 0:28:35and quite often working-class ethic running through it.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38It was almost like, "We're definitely one of you,
0:28:38 > 0:28:42"we share your values and aspirations, your pluck.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46"It's us against a slightly uncaring and difficult world."
0:28:46 > 0:28:50It's either this sort of bloodless, "Anyone for tennis?" things
0:28:50 > 0:28:54- or... - INDISTINCT SINGING
0:28:54 > 0:28:56and that sort of other end of it.
0:28:56 > 0:29:02But neither were the kind of highly sexualised gods and goddesses
0:29:02 > 0:29:04of the American screen.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12Britain did finally attempt to play Hollywood at their own glamour game,
0:29:12 > 0:29:17but films like the 1937 musical Gangway were peddling a completely
0:29:17 > 0:29:19different message about America.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23# Gangway, I'm shouting gangway
0:29:23 > 0:29:28#I've got a very extraordinary date to meet the one I love. #
0:29:28 > 0:29:32# Gangway, I'm shouting gangway... #
0:29:34 > 0:29:39The Jessie Matthews movie express a kind of cheery gallantry.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42# Running down the street
0:29:42 > 0:29:46# And hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry to the only one that I adore. #
0:29:46 > 0:29:50- Get your feet off my desk! - These films are not quota quickies,
0:29:50 > 0:29:55they are big budget British films, and they're ambitious to be exported
0:29:55 > 0:29:59to Hollywood, so they're trying to compete with Hollywood films.
0:29:59 > 0:30:00Nothing ever happens in England.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03Those birds in America have all the fun. Gangsters...
0:30:03 > 0:30:05- Riots.- Fires.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08- Earthquakes.- Racketeers.- Murders.
0:30:08 > 0:30:09Gee, what a swell country to live in.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13Just think, Joe, what fun it is to be a newspaper woman like the ones
0:30:13 > 0:30:15in the American movies.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18Wisecracking with the boss, sitting around with the boys,
0:30:18 > 0:30:20then the alarm and off you go.
0:30:20 > 0:30:22If they'd only give me half a chance round here,
0:30:22 > 0:30:24I'd get some front page news.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26She's like, "I wish I was a girl
0:30:26 > 0:30:30in an American film, it'd be so marvellous."
0:30:30 > 0:30:34And, of course, in the narrative she then gets that opportunity,
0:30:34 > 0:30:36so she goes to America,
0:30:36 > 0:30:42she gets involved in this kind of detective narrative, and what she
0:30:42 > 0:30:45realises from going to America is that it's actually quite scary.
0:30:47 > 0:30:48What on earth are you doing?
0:30:48 > 0:30:51Keep looking straight ahead, sister, and don't try to pull anything.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54Remember there's a gat sticking right in to your ribs.
0:30:54 > 0:30:55A gat?
0:30:55 > 0:30:57A gat, a rod, a gun.
0:30:57 > 0:30:59By the end of the film, she's like, "Oh, let me go home!"
0:30:59 > 0:31:02Just a minute, I forgot something.
0:31:02 > 0:31:03What?
0:31:03 > 0:31:05I forgot to stay home.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07Ah, she's always kidding.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11In real life, Jessie Matthews did remember to stay home.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14But for many other Brits, the Hollywood studios called
0:31:14 > 0:31:17and proved to be their salvation.
0:31:19 > 0:31:24Cary Grant is a pretty classic example. Archie Leach from Bristol -
0:31:24 > 0:31:27He had a cheeky chappie thing and if he
0:31:27 > 0:31:31had stayed here, he probably would've been playing the spoons in the halls.
0:31:31 > 0:31:33But Hollywood spotted something in him,
0:31:33 > 0:31:40and they developed his looks and they developed his charm, his quirkiness,
0:31:40 > 0:31:42and eventually you have one of the greatest stars of all time.
0:31:42 > 0:31:43You lied to me.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46- No, Edward...- A ridiculous story about a leopard.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48It wasn't a ridiculous story. I have a leopard.
0:31:48 > 0:31:49- Where is the leopard? - In there.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51- I don't believe you.- But you have to believe me.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55I've been a victim of your unbridled imagination... Ooh!
0:31:57 > 0:32:01Most potential British stars achieved
0:32:01 > 0:32:05their fame through going to Hollywood, so people like
0:32:05 > 0:32:10Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard
0:32:10 > 0:32:12all made their name by going to Hollywood, as did some of the key
0:32:12 > 0:32:15directors like Alfred Hitchcock. They made their name there.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19This was the trouble that Britain had, keeping on to its talent when
0:32:19 > 0:32:22Hollywood had all the riches and the power.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29For working class men like Cary Grant,
0:32:29 > 0:32:32the British class system conspired to keep them in their place.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36The USA, on the other hand, was the land of opportunity,
0:32:36 > 0:32:39where rags to riches stories didn't just happen in the movies.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45But America was viewed with suspicion, and in a period of
0:32:45 > 0:32:48growing anti-Semitism, the Jewish movie moguls
0:32:48 > 0:32:52were accused of undermining old-fashioned British values.
0:32:55 > 0:33:01There was a great deal of snobbery about this, the idea that
0:33:01 > 0:33:05British culture was being diluted, British taste was being diluted by
0:33:05 > 0:33:09this vulgar newcomer, because America was still regarded as
0:33:09 > 0:33:13an upstart nation, founded as it were by the British, now they were biting
0:33:13 > 0:33:17back and they were going to take over British culture, take over British
0:33:17 > 0:33:24ways of life, and this was in music, theatre, cinema and just in goods.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26This obviously was something which was resented,
0:33:26 > 0:33:29particularly by the mandarins,
0:33:29 > 0:33:33and the holders, as it were, of the British tradition.
0:33:33 > 0:33:38America was viewed with suspicion by many of the British cultural elites
0:33:38 > 0:33:42because it was seen as a brash, emotional, unrestrained
0:33:42 > 0:33:47society - materialistic, without the social and cultural hierarchies that
0:33:47 > 0:33:49were secure in Britain.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52But Hollywood in particular was seen as a hotbed of scandal.
0:33:52 > 0:33:56In the 1920s, a lot of Hollywood stars
0:33:56 > 0:33:59caused scandal by divorcing each other,
0:33:59 > 0:34:04by taking drugs, by dying in unfortunate circumstances,
0:34:04 > 0:34:10and there's a sense as the 20s go on that Hollywood is projecting a sort
0:34:10 > 0:34:13of unhealthy image to the world.
0:34:15 > 0:34:17In the 20s and 30s,
0:34:17 > 0:34:21Chicago mobsters weren't only causing a problem in America.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29Gangster films are a classic example of a film showing behaviour which
0:34:29 > 0:34:32creates a certain amount of concern amongst the authorities.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35There's only one thing that gets orders and gives orders,
0:34:35 > 0:34:38and this is it. I'm gonna write my name all over town in big letters.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42- Stop intimidating...- Get out of my way, I'm gonna spit.
0:34:42 > 0:34:46Very rarely were they scruffy gangsters. They were dressed up to
0:34:46 > 0:34:50the nines in fantastically cut suits, hats pulled down over their eyes,
0:34:50 > 0:34:53their shoulders hunched up, almost to hide their necks.
0:34:53 > 0:34:58They had particular ways of walking that many people in Britain and other
0:34:58 > 0:35:00countries certainly imitated.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03Classically in gangster movies, films like The Public Enemy,
0:35:03 > 0:35:09or Scarface, there's a point in the movie where the young guy from the
0:35:09 > 0:35:13streets has made enough money as a gangster and he transforms himself,
0:35:13 > 0:35:14so you get a point where he...
0:35:14 > 0:35:17I think there's a point where Jimmy Cagney
0:35:17 > 0:35:22arrives in a new car, or in a new set of clothes, and there's a sense
0:35:22 > 0:35:28of having made it and displaying that having made it through dress.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31And that's very not British.
0:35:32 > 0:35:34Arnie, you're through.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36You hired these mugs, they missed.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40Now you're through. If you ain't outta town by tomorrow morning,
0:35:40 > 0:35:42you won't never leave it except in a pine box.
0:35:44 > 0:35:46I'm taking over this territory.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48Many British cultural critics of the time
0:35:48 > 0:35:52dismissed cinema as neither art nor smart. The arrival of cinema sound
0:35:52 > 0:35:54provided them with more ammunition
0:35:54 > 0:35:57to fire at the Americans.
0:35:57 > 0:36:00When the talkies come in, there's a lot of concern about
0:36:00 > 0:36:03the ways in which sound will affect the use of the English language,
0:36:03 > 0:36:06so there's various commentators who say things like,
0:36:06 > 0:36:09"We don't want people saying, 'Oh, yeah,' and, 'Says you,'
0:36:09 > 0:36:12"and all this terrible American slang, how vulgar.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16"We want to have a film industry which reminds people of the
0:36:16 > 0:36:21"greatness of British literature, of the beauty of the English language,"
0:36:21 > 0:36:23and so forth, and so on.
0:36:23 > 0:36:25What are you driving at?
0:36:25 > 0:36:29Jean Harlow was a star who had a massive worldwide impact, mainly
0:36:29 > 0:36:33because of her trademark hair, the platinum blonde,
0:36:33 > 0:36:35but also because of her manner.
0:36:35 > 0:36:36You bet you ain't.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39You think I sit home all day looking at bracelets? Ha!
0:36:39 > 0:36:41Of all the dumb bunnies.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45What do you think I'm doing while you're out pulling your dirty deals?
0:36:45 > 0:36:47Waiting for Daddy to come home?
0:36:47 > 0:36:51She had this very rough, sharp, wisecracking way of speaking which
0:36:51 > 0:36:56meant that when she was situated in films which were often high-class,
0:36:56 > 0:37:01she's often dressed in shimmering white frocks, pictured in hotels,
0:37:01 > 0:37:07in luxury homes, she appears to be in a way both at home as a film star
0:37:07 > 0:37:11and out of place as Jean Harlow, the woman from the street.
0:37:11 > 0:37:13And I think that paradox, in a way,
0:37:13 > 0:37:17was something that made her very appealing to British audiences.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20I have told you a million
0:37:20 > 0:37:22times not to talk to me when I'm doing my lashes.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26Then don't you talk to me when I'm shaving.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29Hollywood created for the female audience, because they were
0:37:29 > 0:37:32female supported stars,
0:37:32 > 0:37:36they created the concept of the woman who's tremendously well dressed,
0:37:36 > 0:37:41and always in wonderful tailoring and beautiful white frocks,
0:37:41 > 0:37:43and this and that and the feathers,
0:37:43 > 0:37:46but always with the right thing to say.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49There was no l'esprit d'escalier for these dames. They had it on the
0:37:49 > 0:37:53tip of their tongue. Rosalind Russell in Front Page,
0:37:53 > 0:38:00"Whack, whack, whack", and this was a kind of, for me, healthy fantasy.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02This was the empowered woman
0:38:02 > 0:38:06who also attracted women because she looked great,
0:38:06 > 0:38:11her make-up was great, her hair was great, but she was nobody's fool.
0:38:11 > 0:38:16But in the land of opportunity, things were far from perfect.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20America's rags to riches story was suddenly going into reverse.
0:38:20 > 0:38:22'And in the richest country in the world,
0:38:22 > 0:38:27'in towering Wall Street, disaster.
0:38:27 > 0:38:33'The money castles came crashing down and fortunes dissolved in a day.'
0:38:34 > 0:38:37Mass production had fuelled a spending spree that couldn't
0:38:37 > 0:38:43be sustained, and in 1929 the US stock market collapsed,
0:38:43 > 0:38:46creating a worldwide financial disaster.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51The Depression only affected part of Britain,
0:38:51 > 0:38:53but where it did affect in the North
0:38:53 > 0:38:56and North-East, Wales, Scotland, it was very real.
0:38:56 > 0:39:01The cinema could provide escapism from that, of course.
0:39:01 > 0:39:06It's very interesting, in places like South Wales, where there was a strong
0:39:06 > 0:39:10tradition of miners' institutes, a lot of miners' institutes would build
0:39:10 > 0:39:16a cinema or hold film shows in their halls, and though the people running
0:39:16 > 0:39:22the cinema or the miners' institutes would want to have good,
0:39:22 > 0:39:24socially educative films,
0:39:24 > 0:39:27often what the population wanted was just glamour.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30They wanted to see Shirley Temple in
0:39:30 > 0:39:33the Good Ship Lollipop, they wanted films which showed a better life.
0:39:33 > 0:39:38They wanted to lose themselves for a couple of hours
0:39:38 > 0:39:43in something that was lovely, rather than necessarily having the
0:39:43 > 0:39:46realism, which they had plenty of in their daily lives.
0:39:46 > 0:39:47There you go.
0:39:47 > 0:39:48Thank you kindly.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54I don't suppose you have any loaf bread at all?
0:39:56 > 0:39:57Look inside.
0:39:57 > 0:39:59That's mighty.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04I ain't seen that much eatings ever in my born life.
0:40:04 > 0:40:06The poorer and more reduced
0:40:06 > 0:40:11the majority of the population, the greater the level of glamour,
0:40:11 > 0:40:15beauty and escapism that they want to see on the screen.
0:40:21 > 0:40:26One of the interesting things about cinema in the 1930s is that it
0:40:26 > 0:40:32continues to grow, audiences continue to rise, people still are drawn in by
0:40:32 > 0:40:36the glamour of the cinema, despite the fact that there's a Depression.
0:40:36 > 0:40:38Working-class men and women
0:40:38 > 0:40:43still wanted to spend their money on the cinema, and were still attracted
0:40:43 > 0:40:47to the dreams and fantasies of the whole Hollywood scene.
0:40:59 > 0:41:03In the 1930s, a new state of the art movie theatre was opening every week
0:41:03 > 0:41:05on the British high street.
0:41:05 > 0:41:10Bigger, better, and still easily affordable, the Hollywood experience
0:41:10 > 0:41:11moved up a gear.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15'Scenes of enthusiasm such as the district has never witnessed before,
0:41:15 > 0:41:17'but for the grand opening of the Odeon cinema.'
0:41:17 > 0:41:20Cinemas in the 30s were the first introduction to luxury
0:41:20 > 0:41:21for a lot of people.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24There were carpets, soft lighting,
0:41:24 > 0:41:29usherettes in uniform, cigarette girls, people selling chocolates.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32They were known as dream palaces and this is what they were, really.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35And of course the architecture showed that.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43For the price of a shilling, you could come off the miserable
0:41:43 > 0:41:48streets of Glasgow, or the Elephant and Castle, and you could sit in a
0:41:48 > 0:41:53soft velour seat surrounded by soft lights, be served by an usherette,
0:41:53 > 0:41:57and also the cinema owners were very well aware of that
0:41:57 > 0:42:01and they encouraged their pageboys, cigarette girls,
0:42:01 > 0:42:06to welcome people in as if it was The Dorchester on the Old Kent Road.
0:42:06 > 0:42:10Hardship and poverty fed our desire for escapism.
0:42:10 > 0:42:12And Hollywood, even in a depression, managed to
0:42:12 > 0:42:16deliver just what audiences needed.
0:42:27 > 0:42:32Gold Diggers Of 1933 - you get these shining stars who were like gods and
0:42:32 > 0:42:38goddesses. They do these glamorous films, and then 100 dancers jump out.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40# We're in the money
0:42:40 > 0:42:42# We're in the money
0:42:42 > 0:42:46# We've got a lot of what it takes to get along... #
0:42:46 > 0:42:50In Gold Diggers Of 1933, Hollywood puts its own spin on The Depression.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53Nothing, it seemed, could get America down.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56# We've got a lot of what it takes to get along... #
0:42:56 > 0:43:01The key moment, for me, is the point where one of their mates shows up and
0:43:01 > 0:43:04says, "There's an audition, there's a new show going on. We must all go
0:43:04 > 0:43:07"down and audition." And they realise that they can't audition
0:43:07 > 0:43:11because they don't have any clothes to wear, they don't look glamorous,
0:43:11 > 0:43:12they don't look like showgirls
0:43:12 > 0:43:15because they've had to pawn all their clothes.
0:43:15 > 0:43:17And the one person who has got a job,
0:43:17 > 0:43:22has got a job in a drugstore, and she's wearing the drugstore uniform.
0:43:22 > 0:43:24And so they draw lots to see
0:43:24 > 0:43:28who will get to wear the frock that she's wearing in order to go to the
0:43:28 > 0:43:30audition in order to then try and get them all jobs.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32You've got to give Carol that dress.
0:43:32 > 0:43:34Don't, I've got to go back to the drugstore.
0:43:34 > 0:43:36We'll give you something good enough for a drugstore.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39- The dress belongs to them. I'm a hostess there.- Stand still.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42So am I a hostess. I've got to entertain Bonnie
0:43:42 > 0:43:43with the idea of putting us to work.
0:43:43 > 0:43:45There's this real sense in which
0:43:45 > 0:43:50even a uniform from a drugstore is glamorous enough
0:43:50 > 0:43:55to be able to then market yourself as a showgirl,
0:43:55 > 0:43:58to then market the glamour of what a showgirl represents.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00# We're in the money
0:44:00 > 0:44:02# Come on my honey
0:44:02 > 0:44:05# Let's lend it, spend it, send it rolling around... #
0:44:05 > 0:44:10There's a sense in which, if you can pretend to be the thing
0:44:10 > 0:44:15that you're trying to be, you can pass in this economy as that thing.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19Don't forget to stand in the light, Carol, when you're
0:44:19 > 0:44:21talking to Barney. They know what they're doing
0:44:21 > 0:44:23when they dress their hostesses in that drugstore.
0:44:23 > 0:44:24Well, you don't look bad.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29Take two.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35And behind the scenes at the movies, Hollywood's big players were
0:44:35 > 0:44:38starting to dictate women's shapes and sizes.
0:44:41 > 0:44:42Cut. Cut.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48'The production numbers of director Busby Berkeley provide not only
0:44:48 > 0:44:50'escape from The Depression,
0:44:50 > 0:44:53'but a rare combination of picture and sound.'
0:44:55 > 0:44:59Busby Berkeley is a good example of the search for the perfect form,
0:44:59 > 0:45:02the perfect woman. He'd line his chorus girls up against a grid
0:45:02 > 0:45:06to make sure that their measurements were all in proportion
0:45:06 > 0:45:08and that they achieved a standard of beauty.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12'Weight, shape, colour of eyes and hair, dancing ability and screen
0:45:12 > 0:45:15'personality form the basis on which the girls are being selected.'
0:45:21 > 0:45:23With Hollywood setting such high standards,
0:45:23 > 0:45:29British women now had to start worrying about the whole package.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31This is when people discovered calories.
0:45:31 > 0:45:36Not only are people copying Hollywood stars and their diets and lifestyles,
0:45:36 > 0:45:39but they're also starting to count calories for the first time.
0:45:41 > 0:45:45The most popular bestseller of the 1920s was a diet book.
0:45:45 > 0:45:52This was the beginning of the kind of body shaping that we see today.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56The craze for slimming was influenced by Hollywood and a lot
0:45:56 > 0:45:58of the fashions were very clingy.
0:45:58 > 0:46:03Satin is a very slinky, but very unforgiving fabric.
0:46:03 > 0:46:09I think Hollywood did certainly influence people's desire to keep
0:46:09 > 0:46:12their zest for life and health and beauty.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16And Busby Berkeley, all the synchronised dancing,
0:46:16 > 0:46:20the synchronised exercising was very much a 30s thing.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23'The ladies of Cambridge like to feel that they're ahead on most subjects
0:46:23 > 0:46:26'and now that physical training is the rage they're showing the
0:46:26 > 0:46:28'world what they can do.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31'It doesn't guarantee to make them all film stars, but it gives them
0:46:31 > 0:46:33'poise, balance and beauty.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37'As far as the beauty goes, they don't seem to be doing so badly.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39'I'll buy the second one in the third row.'
0:46:42 > 0:46:47There are certain eras were the kind of zeitgeist is
0:46:47 > 0:46:51so strong that everyone wants to join it, everyone wants to look
0:46:51 > 0:46:55like they're supposed to look.
0:46:55 > 0:46:59Really the 20s and 30s is one of those periods where
0:46:59 > 0:47:05the girls of season and the girls working in a shop in Doncaster were
0:47:05 > 0:47:07essentially after the same look.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10They have abandoned the more traditional,
0:47:10 > 0:47:15British concept that the classes dressed to look differently.
0:47:15 > 0:47:18There was a conscious desire among the classes to express
0:47:18 > 0:47:20their rank through their clothing.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22Their parents in 1910 -
0:47:22 > 0:47:27you could have spotted someone's income by what they were wearing.
0:47:27 > 0:47:29That went in the 20s and 30s.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35In the 20s, Paris set the fashion trends, but in the 30s
0:47:35 > 0:47:40it was film stars leading the way in impossibly glamorous outfits
0:47:40 > 0:47:44created by Hollywood's costume designers.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48It's absolutely essential
0:47:48 > 0:47:54to understand how important the film costume designers were.
0:47:54 > 0:47:58They were in their heyday in the 30s,
0:47:58 > 0:48:02much more powerful than the so-called international Parisian designers.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05Adrian at MGM,
0:48:05 > 0:48:11Travis Banton at Paramount, Orry-Kelly at Warner Brothers.
0:48:11 > 0:48:17These men were part of the inner circle of the coterie of the most
0:48:17 > 0:48:20famous, wealthiest and glamourous women in the world.
0:48:20 > 0:48:22And they dressed them.
0:48:25 > 0:48:27They hid their lumps and bumps
0:48:27 > 0:48:34and short necks and small breasts and big backsides.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38They were very powerful and their clothes were much copied.
0:48:39 > 0:48:44When Adrian did an organdie ruffled dress
0:48:44 > 0:48:47for Joan Crawford in Letty Lynton,
0:48:47 > 0:48:51Macy's sold half-a-million copies of it.
0:48:56 > 0:48:58Since the 20s, American
0:48:58 > 0:49:03manufacturers had been exploiting the demand for film star frocks.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06Now British women could achieve the glamourous Hollywood look
0:49:06 > 0:49:09at high-street prices.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12When rayon was invented in the mid 1920s,
0:49:12 > 0:49:15it became the working girl's best friend.
0:49:15 > 0:49:20Nylon stockings, later, so you didn't have to have silk stockings.
0:49:20 > 0:49:26You could have a fashion copy blouse
0:49:26 > 0:49:30maybe for £2 and 10 shillings as it would have been in those days
0:49:30 > 0:49:36which before that would have cost more than double a week's wages.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39In the 30s because of the beginning of mass consumption
0:49:39 > 0:49:41and the beginning of a little bit
0:49:41 > 0:49:44more disposable income, it was
0:49:44 > 0:49:48possible to not necessarily have your mother run up your clothes.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51You could see something in a magazine, you could go to a shop
0:49:51 > 0:49:56and you could buy it. In a sense looking beautiful became
0:49:56 > 0:50:00within the purchasing power of a great deal more people.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03It wasn't just a question of admiring beauty from afar -
0:50:03 > 0:50:06you could try and appropriate it for yourself.
0:50:07 > 0:50:12American-style department stores were now offering shoppers of
0:50:12 > 0:50:17any income a chance to wander around inspecting all the items on sale
0:50:17 > 0:50:21without suffering the embarrassment of having to ask the price.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25Woolworths was a great model.
0:50:25 > 0:50:27Marks and Spencer's, for example.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30Their chief executives went to America
0:50:30 > 0:50:33to find out how Woolworths was doing it.
0:50:33 > 0:50:37Certainly amongst some of the British cultural elites there was a
0:50:37 > 0:50:42fear and anxiety about the department store,
0:50:42 > 0:50:45the materialism which it was supposed to encourage,
0:50:45 > 0:50:48the informality of the display
0:50:48 > 0:50:52and interaction between shopkeeper and the public.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55To some extent they became another avenue
0:50:55 > 0:50:57of Americanisation in the period.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09America continued to fascinate British audiences.
0:51:09 > 0:51:14Yet what they were seeing was neither entirely accurate,
0:51:14 > 0:51:17nor especially good for their health.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21Most cinema-goers got a completely
0:51:21 > 0:51:24false impression of what America was like.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27It was either the wide skies of Montana and the cowboy films,
0:51:27 > 0:51:32or it was the chrome and glass-plated Manhattan penthouse.
0:51:32 > 0:51:34Every hour the Martini hour.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39Respectable women before
0:51:39 > 0:51:44the war didn't smoke or drink in either America or England.
0:51:44 > 0:51:50When women started smoking in public and getting drunk,
0:51:50 > 0:51:55it was a revolution.
0:51:55 > 0:51:59Do you realise we've been sitting here for over an hour
0:51:59 > 0:52:00without smoking?
0:52:00 > 0:52:02I was just thinking that.
0:52:02 > 0:52:04Women were smoking cigarettes
0:52:04 > 0:52:09because American tobacco companies were promoting directly to women.
0:52:09 > 0:52:12The sheer amount of smoking that goes on is enormous.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15It's really shocking to see that today, actually.
0:52:15 > 0:52:17SHE SINGS IN FRENCH
0:52:24 > 0:52:26I think there's something about the gesture of smoking
0:52:26 > 0:52:28that's inherently glamourous.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31I can't tell you what it is, but it's true that even now
0:52:31 > 0:52:34when you watch an old movie and people are smoking...
0:52:34 > 0:52:36It's perhaps also something
0:52:36 > 0:52:39to do with the way the light works on the smoke as well.
0:52:39 > 0:52:41The black and white with the smoke going up to the
0:52:41 > 0:52:47ceiling and the way that it's lit creates an idea of glamour as well.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51There's something elegant about the gesture and the way that you're
0:52:51 > 0:52:54forced to sit or hold yourself when you're smoking a cigarette.
0:52:57 > 0:52:59Cocktails sprang up as a response to
0:52:59 > 0:53:02prohibition in America so we now think of the 20s and 30s
0:53:02 > 0:53:06as being the cocktail era in this country as well, but people didn't
0:53:06 > 0:53:09need to drink cocktails in this country because booze was legal.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11The only reason cocktails were invented was to mask the taste
0:53:11 > 0:53:13of bootleg liquor.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17Yes, America is having a huge influence.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20The fact that people are drinking cocktails at all in England is a
0:53:20 > 0:53:23direct result of American influence.
0:53:23 > 0:53:28To a successful trip and a quick return.
0:53:28 > 0:53:30I can do better than that.
0:53:30 > 0:53:33Here's to all of us just as we are.
0:53:43 > 0:53:45As the 1930s progressed,
0:53:45 > 0:53:50the rising threat of global conflict cast a shadow over the country and
0:53:50 > 0:53:55by the decade's close Britain would once again be at war with Germany.
0:53:57 > 0:54:02By the end of the 30s, women are having to move off centre stage
0:54:02 > 0:54:04and during the war
0:54:04 > 0:54:07in the early days, most of the films were about
0:54:07 > 0:54:12war situations because there was the idea that people wanted realism.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15They needed to have the sort of films
0:54:15 > 0:54:19that would show them how to cope in these impossible situations.
0:54:19 > 0:54:24The big event the whole country is talking about, Mrs Miniver,
0:54:24 > 0:54:29a timely drama tuned to the tempo of the world of today.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33Mrs Miniver, the story of a valiant woman whose love and devotion shield
0:54:33 > 0:54:37her family from the cruellest onslaught of devastation ever
0:54:37 > 0:54:39visited upon mankind.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43Films like Mrs Miniver
0:54:43 > 0:54:47were Hollywood's contribution to the war effort, propaganda to edge
0:54:47 > 0:54:51Americans towards supporting Britain in the fight against Nazi Germany.
0:54:54 > 0:54:55Mrs Miniver takes you from
0:54:55 > 0:55:02this relatively carefree lifestyle through into a wartime situation.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04That film itself traces the shift from glamour
0:55:04 > 0:55:07to fighting for survival.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16In a sense the future does lie with men again.
0:55:16 > 0:55:24# Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile... #
0:55:24 > 0:55:28In wartime there would be less call for Hollywood's fantasy.
0:55:28 > 0:55:29British moviegoers wanted a dose
0:55:29 > 0:55:33of traditional values and home-grown pluck.
0:55:33 > 0:55:37# What's the use of worrying..? #
0:55:37 > 0:55:42Part of the war effort was putting on a smile.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45That's something the Americans don't give you,
0:55:45 > 0:55:50that sort of cheeky chappie cheeriness.
0:55:50 > 0:55:51I think it's nice.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57But in a time of air raids, military uniforms and rationing
0:55:57 > 0:56:02our Hollywood gifted obsession with glamour served as a secret weapon
0:56:02 > 0:56:05to boost British morale.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08Mrs Clark made her frock from a pair of
0:56:08 > 0:56:13her husband's old plus four trousers and half a yard of new material.
0:56:15 > 0:56:19Dreams of better lives may have been on hold, but our inter-war
0:56:19 > 0:56:21infatuation with luxury and glamour
0:56:21 > 0:56:24has had a lasting effect on British society.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30I think the glamour of the 1920s and perhaps especially
0:56:30 > 0:56:36in the 1930s left a deep mark on British society and above all on the
0:56:36 > 0:56:41expectations and aspirations of the audiences of the films at that time.
0:56:41 > 0:56:46There's no question that the post-war consumer boom was fuelled by
0:56:46 > 0:56:51the dreams that Hollywood peddled to British audiences in the 1930s.
0:56:54 > 0:56:58That perception of buying into glamour,
0:56:58 > 0:57:01buying into something pretty, buying into something that's like "me time"
0:57:01 > 0:57:04in front of the mirror on the dressing-table,
0:57:04 > 0:57:07whether you approve or disapprove of it, it's very real.
0:57:10 > 0:57:16Even today American films still represent the glamourous lifestyle.
0:57:16 > 0:57:18You don't go to see Ocean's Eleven
0:57:18 > 0:57:22expecting to see a lifestyle that's like your own on the screen,
0:57:22 > 0:57:23whereas you might go to a British film
0:57:23 > 0:57:27expecting to see something more like your own life.
0:57:41 > 0:57:44The artifice of the Hollywood fantasy has become clearer to
0:57:44 > 0:57:49us as the decades pass, yet despite ourselves we're still seduced by the
0:57:49 > 0:57:54tinsel-touched lifestyle we so often encounter in American movies.
0:57:54 > 0:58:00In cinema as in life, there remains a yearning for the undeniable allure
0:58:00 > 0:58:05of Hollywood's golden age and its oh so enticing glamour -
0:58:05 > 0:58:09a glamour that changed the world forever.
0:58:20 > 0:58:23Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:23 > 0:58:26E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk