Hollywood historian William Mann compares 1918 Spanish flu to coronavirus – Deadline

The year was 1918. At the end of the First World War, the Spanish flu began to ravage the world. In one year, it killed 675,000 Americans and 50 million worldwide – 10 million more than those who died in the war.

There are several parallels between the Spanish flu response and COVID-19 in the United States. In both cases, a state of emergency was declared; all public places, including cinemas and schools, have been closed for months; and wearing face masks in public has been recommended.

The Spanish flu pandemic has caused cataclysmic changes in the film industry, most of them orchestrated by Adolph Zukor. This led to the establishment of the studio system, which continues to dominate Hollywood, and vertical integration, with the studios controlling the cinemas by the owners of mom-and-pop.

In an interview with Deadline, Hollywood historian William Mann, author of Tinseltown: Murder, morphine and madness at the dawn of Hollywood, which he and Kevin Murphy adapt in a series for Spectrum Originals, talks about the profound impact of the Spanish flu pandemic on the film industry, what are the big upheavals that the current pandemic could bring (especially in terms of ownership theater) and how long it would take Hollywood to recover. It also highlights the mistakes made in the management of the Spanish flu pandemic from which the authorities should learn lessons, recognizes the biggest Hollywood star lost in the face of the Spanish flu and underlines the attitude of celebrities towards the wearing of masks in public at the time.

You can also follow a timeline of the 1918 Hollywood epidemic under Q&A that illustrates some of the points Mann makes and portrays a fascinating picture of how authorities in California and Los Angeles have approached the crisis – sometimes winning, sometimes stumbling – and how the theater owners fought for survival.

DEADLINE: You have studied each chapter of The history of Hollywood. Why is this period, from about 1918 to about 1926, so important?

MANN: That’s when Hollywood was created, that’s when all the structures that would define the American film industry were put in place – how the films were made, how they were sold, how they were shown.

It is the moment in history when the American film industry decided to follow a particular path. Until then, there were many different ways, independent films, artists controlled – they tried that with United Artists. But the studio system was created around this time and it really started with the 1918 epidemic.

DEADLINE: What role did the pandemic play in the creation of the studio system?

MANN: During the epidemic, between 80% and 90% of American cinemas were closed for a period of two to six months. It was a huge disturbance and not only the cinema, but the sale of films and the making of films. It was a patchwork across the country. New York and San Francisco resisted the longest, but eventually had to close.

Los Angeles banned cinemas early on. The studios – and that was when the studios were in Los Angeles and New York – banned the filming of crowd scenes and, to their credit, the studios stopped all production during this period for more than a month, from the middle of October to the end of November 1918.

The first cases in L.A. were announced in September. About 3,000 people died in Los Angeles in just over a year, a quarter of all deaths in that period. We forget how important it was, and largely the economic impact.

The studios suffered significant losses. Paramount lost nearly $ 2 million from 1918 to 1919; it’s more like $ 30 million now. Distributors have also suffered from the fact that you cannot send films when the cinemas are closed. But the biggest economic impact was felt by exhibitors, mom-and-pop cinemas across the country, who were ruined by it. Many of them lived from month to month, showed movies and struggled to pay their bills, and when they were suddenly forced to close for two, three, four, six, seven months, they lost everything. Even after the cinemas reopened, in many cases they did not return until mid-1919, so the cinemas closed left and right.

The reality was then that the exhibition of American films was really mom and pop. It was a small town, it was independent exhibitors. Some had formed a chain, some had formed associations, but for the most part, it was not a huge control over exposure, and that’s where Adolph Zukor comes in. Because he had this idea long before the epidemic that if I could get control of all these theaters, then I could control the whole industry, so he is using the epidemic to put this plan in place.

DEADLINE: How did he do it?

MANN: Zukor is a fascinating guy. He’s a bad guy, but he’s also a guy with a vision, and what he did put so many people into bankruptcy but at the same time created the American film industry, and it worked like that during the 60s to the next 70 years. In some ways, Zukor’s cinema vision is still used today, even with new technologies; this is the vertical integration model, which means top-down control.

So Zukor said, here I make films, I should be able to then control how they are distributed and how they are shown. In doing so, by taking control of all aspects of the film industry, Zukor ousted all of these independent filmmakers, many of whom were women. He exploited the pandemic to build his new model in which women are cut off from positions of power, not to mention also people of color because there were a number of African-American and Sino-American and Mexican-American filmmakers working in Los Angeles and had their own businesses, had their own distribution networks. But when Zukor buys everything, so many people lose access and lose a voice in the industry.

Zukor wanted to do it all the time, but he saw that it was a golden opportunity and sent his lawyers across the country because he said he received all of these reports about the cinemas closing. He said, “Oh, okay, so we go out and offer to take it away from them.” And if they weren’t ready to sell for a few cents on the dollar, say, “Well, I’m going to build another theater across the street and go bankrupt.” They were tired, they were exhausted, they were losing money, and they just threw in the towel and gave in.

In 1921, Zukor, who was at the head of what was then called Famous Players who became Paramount, was the tallest person in the industry. He controlled more theaters, he controlled more films, and he continued for quite a long time.

DEADLINE: Looking now at the movie theater closings and what happened in 1918, how will movie theater owners emerge from the coronavirus pandemic at the other end?

MANN: I think it’s going to be really interesting. I think COVID-19 closings could end up having as significant an impact on movies as the 1918-19 flu. It will be different, of course, but just like in 1918, the whole structure of the industry could change in a few years.

The cinema of 1921, barely two years after the epidemic, looked nothing like the industry of 1918, it had radically changed. The length of movies and the way people bought tickets for movies has all changed.

I am now looking at the streaming services which now mainly use the Zukor model. They control production, distribution and exposure. Zukor would encourage them. And yes, it allows some of the smaller people to go out of business, but there is also … it’s a very effective model and maybe this industry will find another way to make sure the product continues to come out.

DEADLINE: Instead of mom and pop theaters, we now mainly have theater chains. Will it take into account what will happen to them or will it just be bigger players going out of business? Who do you think will own these theaters in a few years and will they remain relevant to streaming?

MANN: Everyone is asking the question now, will we ever go back to the theaters? It’s been almost two decades now that films have become difficult to make for a specific audience, and that small films have moved to Netflix or Amazon.

It’s hard to say, because Zukor in 1918 saw the problem and exploited it, both for his own ends, but I also think for the good of the American film industry. I think it could happen here now. I don’t know who owns these cinemas, will it be streaming companies, will it be someone else, studios? I don’t know, but there is clearly going to be some sort of change.

DEADLINE: Are there other parallels between COVID-19 and the Spanish flu pandemic? At the level of local government, the answer is quite similar, in 1918, it seemed more chaotic, with a lock imposed, lifted and then applied again several times. What’s different this time, especially here in California and Los Angeles?

MANN: Yes, you put your finger on the head: Often these closures were lifted too early in 1918. People still died of them in March, April and May 1918. Mary Pickford, who was the biggest movie star in the world At the time, understood it at the beginning of 1919, therefore the cinemas would reopen and no one would come and then they close that the mortality rate continued to climb.

There must be greater consistency – it is understood, we hope, that we learned from 1918. You don’t, you keep social distance as long as you can. They didn’t use that word back then, but I hope we learned, don’t repeat these mistakes.

DEADLINE: One of the mistakes that we seem to have repeated is not having enough masks.

MANN: Yes, one of the things that interested me while reading this material many years ago when I was researching the book, but even more recently when COVID hit, was the shortage of masks. People didn’t have enough masks, and then when people did, it was seen as a coward – you’re weak if you’re going to wear a mask. Some of the biggest Hollywood stars wouldn’t deliberately wear masks in public because they didn’t want to appear, especially men, they wanted to appear masculine and masculine and you know, wearing a mask would show that he was weak.

DEADLINE: Who were the most famous Hollywood victims of the 1918 pandemic? Many of the biggest stars were lucky and recovered.

MANN: Yes, many of them have recovered. Mary Pickford recovered, Lillian Gish restored. They were both huge, huge stars. But the biggest Hollywood name who died was an actor by the name of Harold Lockwood. No one remembers him today, unfortunately, but he was a really great actor. He worked for Metro which later became Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and he was young, I think he was only about 31 years old. Very handsome man in the foreground, he fell ill and died within a few days. It’s shocking to the industry and the fans are devastated.

DEADLINE: We are in three weeks after the massive closure of Hollywood. The studios hope to resume filming this summer. Based on the events of 1918, when do you realistically expect Hollywood to return to normal?

MANN: It’s so hard to say. I mean, Hollywood in 1918 didn’t go back to normal for really another year. It took that long to recover their losses and, you know, to reopen everything, so it took at least a year in 1918. We don’t really see the cinema resume, the crisis doesn’t end until the end of 1919 , clearly in 1920. It is therefore difficult to say how long it will take. I hope that the measures we have taken now have been more consistent and I hope that it will not take us so long to recover from this situation, but it is clear that there will be economic difficulties throughout the country .