One of a series of short subjects made in 1949 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, “Let’s Go to the Movies” provides a brisk, Hollywood-centric gloss of early narrative film history, coupled with brief glimpses “behind the scenes” of major studio productions.

A curtain opens on an Academy Awards Ceremony with an “ Oscar ” statuette on the stage (0:10). Title: “Members of the Motion Picture Industry present Let’s Go to the Movies” (0:13). A movie studio “backlot” with false tenement building fronts, actors in costumes, a film crew and stage sets (0:23). An Edison Kinetoscope. An early hand-cranked motorcar. Crossfade to automobiles of the 1910’s, 1920’s (0:41). Silent film clips: Mary Pickford “In the Hills of Old Kentucky” (1:00). A sign advertises “Raff & Gammen’s Entertainment Arcade.” POV looking into a penny arcade Kinetoscope. Clip: Charlie Chaplin falls off a chair in “Easy Street” (1:16). A hand-cranked film projector. A queue of women in hats at a nickelodeon. A slide: “Ladies Please Remove Your Hats” (1:36). A scene from Edwin Porter’s “The Great Train Robbery” (1:48). A clip from D.W. Griffith’s racist film, “The Birth of a Nation,” as adapted from “The Clansman” (1:57). Newsreel intertitle: “President Roosevelt Advocates Big Stick Policy.” An audience cheers the appearance of Teddy Roosevelt. An Edison cylinder, a lightbulb, an oscilloscope and 35mm motion picture film. A man speaks into a microphone. A recording is mastered on a lathe (2:09). Title: “1927” over an offensive clip of Al Jolson singing “Mammy” in blackface, from “The Jazz Singer” (2:23). “1929” over John Barrymore as Richard III in “Show of Shows”, a Warner Brothers musical revue (3:13). “1929” over “Philharmonic Orchestra.” French horns, piano (3:44). The Campus Theatre at Vermont Ave. and Santa Monica Boulevard, advertises “Key Largo” and a Walt Disney cartoon (4:03). The Esquire Theatre on Fairfax Ave, (now Canter’s Deli) advertises a Beatrice Lilie double feature. The Hawaii Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. A billboard for Danny Kaye in “El Lechero,” aka “Wonder Man” (4:07). Gaumont studios in France. An Italian Poster for “Bambi.” The Art Deco Nichigeki Theater in the Yurakucho district of Tokyo, Japan. The Moulin Rouge Cinema. The Cinema Marignan, now the Gaumont Champs-Elysees, in Paris (4:14). Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Ave. The El Capitan, The Hollywood First National Building. The Broadway, a bowling alley, The Hollywood Post Office (4:31). Inside a scenery shop. Ironing a costume. Applying makeup recording foley sound effects. A prop warehouse. An editing suite with rewinds, splicers (4:41). A backlot from above. A soundstage. A spotlight. A working set. A sound recording console (5:14). Mitchell type 35mm motion picture camera in a blimp for dissipating sound (5:26). Developing film prints. Editors unspool 35mm film into trim bins. Frame-by-frame analysis of rodeo footage (5:29) on a Moviola. A full bin of exposed 35mm nitrate cellulose film (6:07). African-American workers on a cotton plantation. Bales of cotton are shipped and processed into cellulose. Chemically treating the filmstrips. A banquet table of silverware (6:14). Montage: Lumber and plaster. A scenic designer sculpts a statue. Buckets of white paint. A spotlight rotates. A foundry and steam engines. Chemists in a laboratory with beakers and microscopes. 1940s automobiles in Hollywood (7:00). An artist produces an ad for Joan of Arc starring Ingrid Bergman. Elderly women inspect nitrate prints under a sign: “No Smoking.” Film shipping canisters (7:51). The Santa Anita Theater marquee advertises “Deep Waters” and “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.” Another cinema marquee: “My Son, My Son” and “International Lady.” The Gilmore Theater, showing “The Noose Hangs High.” The Monica plays “Hazard” and “River Lady.” The Ermine has “That Lady in Ermine” and “King of the Gamblers” (8:05). 35mm film reels spin to life on a Moviola. Inside a film lab (8:17). Staged scenes: A cinema proprietor speaks with patrons. A distributor checks schedules. A screenwriter at a desk with a typewriter and an Oscar. A producer watches as another man writes for him. An art director. A director in a folding chair. A cameraman (8:41). A shot from “Notorious.” A sound recordist. An orchestra (8:30). End titles (9:03).

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com