Episode 3: The Dream Merchants (1920-1928) Monday Nov. 15 at 8 pm & 11 pm ET
Wednesday Nov. 17 at 10 pm ET
Saturday Nov. 20 at Noon ET
Monday Nov. 22 at 7 pm ET

The Hollywood studio system flowered in the 1920s, headed by strong-willed leaders -- most of them immigrants and small-time entrepreneurs and many of them Jewish. Each studio had its own house style. MGM, headed by Russian-born Louis B. Mayer with Irving Thalberg as his "boy wonder" production head, was super-glossy. Warner Bros., eventually to be led by brother Jack, provided grit, while Paramount, headed by Hungarian-born Adolph Zukor, lent glamour. Laemmle's Universal Pictures produced lavish spectacles and a series of fantastic dramas starring Lon Chaney. Hal Roach started a production company in 1915 and established Harold Lloyd as its comedy star. As Buster Keaton and Lloyd gave Chaplin competition, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson and Greta Garbo joined the ranks of superstars. Chaplin, Fairbanks and Mary Pickford united with D.W. Griffith in 1919 to form United Artists. Around that same time, media mogul William Randolph Hearst formed Cosmopolitan Pictures to promote the career of his mistress, actress Marion Davies. The movies' influence grew more powerful, affecting real life in terms of fashion, attitudes and behavior. For some, the dreamscape of Hollywood seemed a threat to the nation's morals. Real-life scandals such as those involving Roscoe Arbuckle and director William Desmond Taylor spurred a demand for decency that eventually resulted in self-censorship by the film industry. In 1929 the first Academy Awards® were presented, with William Wellman's airborne adventure Wings sharing Best Picture with the drama Sunrise. Meanwhile, a new technology was about to revolutionize the film world.