The War That Made Hollywood: How the Spanish-American War Saved the U.S. Film Industry

Americans first saw motion pictures on a screen in 1896 but had begun to tire of cinema’s stale offerings by the end of 1897, and American filmmakers were considering abandoning the unprofitable medium. Then the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor (15 February 1898), and a small band of entrepreneurs rushed to capitalize on the disaster. Seizing upon the Spanish-American War’s inherent drama, they created films with narrative power, which brought audiences back to theaters and enabled the pioneers to survive the embryonic American film industry’s near financial collapse. They soon led the motion picture industry west and helped to make Hollywood the cinematic capital of the world.