William Randolph Hearst entered into early filmmaking with his first newsreel in 1913, filming the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson. His popular Perils of Pauline, and other serialized stories, appeared the next year. By the time the industry was regularly producing full-length feature films, Hearst was a major producer with a busy film company of rising stars.

By 1919 the American motion picture industry had survived it's first major financial crisis, and had reorganized after the Motion Pictures Patent Trust was busted the year before. Hearst was a six-year veteran in an industry that saw production studios open and close at a fast pace. That put him among the early film pioneers who would go on to rule the movie world during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Hearst arrived in Hollywood in grand style as part of the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio during the last years of the silent film era. Hearst wanted to make movies, Louie B. Mayer wanted to seize a fabulous opportunity for unlimited advertising, and the rest is American motion picture history.