A group of bold immigrants build the first film studios in Hollywood, making millions and elevating movies from a novelty to an art form.
I watched all 6 episodes over the last few days. Tedious at times, but the history of the names, the efforts, behind all of those studios whose names are still with us was the hook for me.
“Titans” focuses on the pioneer’s pioneer, Universal founder Laemmle (David Davino), upscale movie palace innovator Fox (Eric Rolland), the struggles of the “three” Warners, the rise of Pickford (Christina Leonardi), narrated to the camera by Adolph Zukor (Grant Masters), the successful producer who eventually absorbed and squeezed out partners and rivals to run Paramount, and eventually gets around to Mayer (Mike Backes).
The series ticks off historic “firsts” — the first film star (Stephanie Granade plays Florence Lawrence, “The Biograph Girl”) and first attempts at making “feature” length films (“Birth of a Nation” is utterly ignored) in a business that began as a cut-rate carnvival and storefront novelty before those storefronts became nickelodeons.
It was a colorful, seat-of-the-pants history made by hustlers who violated Thomas Edison’s (Steve Schroko) many patents and efforts to license and “control” (via a Motion Picture Trust) his inventions and went so far as to found the industry town on the far off West Coast to evade paying that trust.
As “Babylon” showed us, it was a rowdy, gaudy journey these Wild West “outlaws” and their hedonistic employees made to respectability.
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