The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Some people say that the world economic crisis of 1929 created Hollywood in the United States.

This statement is both true and false.

When the Great Depression just hit, Americans still had some money in their pockets, but life became more difficult, so three mainstream forms of entertainment emerged: first, reading, spending $1 to buy books, enough to read for half a month; second, Watching movies, you can enjoy one or two hours in the cinema for 30 cents; third, sex, which led to Zhou Hexuan's (Harmony) contraceptive condom business getting bigger and bigger.

As a result, in 1930, both the American book market and the film market ushered in a strange boom.

But by 1931, as the Great Depression intensified, the American book market and movie market collapsed rapidly, because people didn't even have the spare money to buy books and watch movies.

Many people still choose to read books to pass the time, but instead of spending money to buy books themselves, they go to libraries or bookstores to read books for free. The number of moviegoers in U.S. movie theaters also dropped by 12% from the previous year. This was despite the movie ticket price falling from 30 cents to 20 cents.

1932 was the worst year for American movies, with weekly attendance plummeting to 15 million - the peak in 1930 was 80 million weekly.

Since then, listening to free radio has become the most mainstream form of entertainment in the United States. With the price of radios plummeting by 50%, more than 60% of households in the United States have purchased radios.

As for the movie market, it had already hit rock bottom in 1933. Especially when Roosevelt first became president, he announced four bank holidays a week. This was effective in stabilizing government finances, but it was a fatal blow to the film industry. At that time, movie theaters across the country were in trouble, and film companies could not even get paid. Provide money to pay employees.

More than one-fifth of the film industry was unemployed, Paramount closed its Long Island sound stages, and countless penniless extras were left living on the streets of Los Angeles. This almost became a national scandal.

Among the major Hollywood giants, only MGM can still maintain profitability, while all other companies have fallen into serious losses.

Why is it said that the Great Depression made Hollywood successful?

The key figure was Roosevelt.

After Roosevelt promulgated the industrial revitalization plan, the American entertainment industry began to gradually recover, and ordinary American people began to have some spare money again. But people still didn't have much spare money, so they could only choose cheap consumption activities, so people went to the cinema one after another. By this time, the average ticket price of American movies had dropped to 15 cents.

In the second year of Roosevelt's New Deal alone, more than 1,000 movie theaters reopened, and Hollywood giants such as Paramount and Fox also turned a profit.

In mid-February 1935, when Zhou Hexuan came to Hollywood, there was no trace of the economic crisis. The place was recovering faster than other places in the United States.

Universal Pictures even bought half of the mountain as a studio, with more than 10 studios alone. MGM was even more arrogant, because in the mid-1930s, this company had become the largest giant in Hollywood, and it was an existence that could defeat ten of them.

Last year, Vivien Leigh visited the United States with Zhou Hexuan and quickly became popular with her Peking Opera performances. MGM saw the situation and immediately took action, signing Vivien Leigh with a high salary and letting her star in the second female lead in a movie.

Meanwhile, MGM once again offered to buy the film rights to "Titanic." Zhou Hexuan agreed to this, but the additional condition was that Vivien Leigh must be the heroine, and the two parties happily reached a deal.

In fact, since "Titanic" became popular in the United States, many film companies have wanted to buy the rights. But with the recession in the American film industry, all companies gave up on this idea because the investment in the film "Titanic" was too large and it was easy to lose everything.

Even MGM, which is the most popular, dared to propose a filming plan for "Titanic" only after the film industry recovered.

The super-large studio covers an area of ​​10,000 square meters, with a large pool dug out inside. There are also several huge ship models in the pool, and scenes including shipwrecks, falling into the water, etc. are all shot here. As for indoor scenes such as dance parties and banquets, they need to be shot in another studio, and all scenes are completed manually.

I heard that MGM's budget for filming "Titanic" was US$2 million, of which the copyright fee paid to Zhou Hexuan was US$50,000. This was an unimaginably large investment in 1935.

But MGM had this kind of courage. When the company was first established, it invested in the production of a historical blockbuster "Ben-Hur", and its investment budget was lower than that of all its peers at the time. During the Great Depression, MGM was also the only profitable studio in the United States.

In a word, not short of money!

As soon as Zhou Hexuan and Meng Xiaodong arrived outside the studio, someone immediately came to stop them: "Sir, Madam, it is forbidden to visit here, please leave immediately!"

Zhou Hexuan pointed to the "Titanic" sign outside the studio and smiled: "I am the original author of the novel for this movie, and the heroine is my friend."

The employee's eyes immediately widened, and then he quickly held Zhou Hexuan's hand and said excitedly: "Hello, Mr. Zhou, I am your loyal book fan, and I am very honored to meet you!"

Zhou Hexuan asked: "Can I go in?"

"Of course," the employee said, "but I want to tell the director, please wait a moment!"

The director of "Titanic" is Charles Brumby, a somewhat handsome middle-aged uncle. He is the director of the historical blockbuster "Ben-Hur" (the original version). Five years ago, he also directed a movie called " Shanghai Cruise".

Charles Brumby said enthusiastically: "Hello, Mr. Zhou! My name is Charles Brumby, you can call me Charles."

Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "That's a coincidence. My English name is also Charles. You can also call me that."

"Hahaha," Brumby's laughter was a little devilish, "Then I'll call you Mr. Zhou."

Zhou Hexuan introduced again: "This is my wife Meng Xiaodong."

Brumby immediately said: "I know, the great Far Eastern theater artist. Hello, Ms. Meng!"

"Hello." Meng Xiaodong shook hands gracefully.

Brumby asked: "Are you two coming to visit us? We are filming the Poor Man's Ball."

Zhou Hexuan nodded and said: "Yes, excuse me."

Brumby took them into the studio, which was also large and divided into different filming locations.

When you arrive at one of the shooting studios, you open the thick cotton curtain and enter, you are immediately in another world. It was arranged into a dark, low-class cabin, with dozens of extras wearing poor people's clothes, and a lot of film shooting equipment placed next to it.

Vivien Leigh was rehearsing a scene with an actor. The two danced to the beat of the music, and other extras also sang, danced and laughed loudly.

Zhou Hexuan looked at the actor in surprise. He was actually the Hollywood movie emperor Clark Gable. What a coincidence. Historically, Vivien Leigh also starred with Clark Gable, and the two collaborated on the classic film "Gone with the Wind."

But it's normal to think about it. Clark Gable has already won the Oscar at this time, and he is also the absolute number one brother of MGM. MGM spent huge sums of money to shoot "Titanic", so it must have Clark Gable in charge. This person is a guarantee of box office.

It’s just that in history, Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable hated each other and disliked each other, and I don’t know how they get along now.

The assistant director clapped his hands and signaled everyone to stop. The professional singing and dancing instructor stood up and said, "Vivian, you have to act more cheerful. Your dance steps are too tight."

"Okay, I will correct it." Vivien Leigh nodded.

Charles Brumby shouted: "Vivian, come here!"

Vivien Leigh turned around and looked with a happy face: "Xuan, Dongdong, aren't you in New York? Why are you here in Hollywood?"

Zhou Hexuan stepped forward, gave her a hug, and asked, "How do you feel?"

"Everything is fine," Vivien Leigh complained in a low voice, "Only Gable is an asshole. He is such an annoying guy. I wanted to slap him more than once."

"Haha." Zhou Hexuan was very happy.

No matter how we change history, the world line always returns to what it should be, full of malice.