1920-1929

1921

• Chaplin and Buster Keaton make first feature films. Rudolf Valentino debuts in The Sheik.
  
• Germany's F.W. Murnau directs Nosferatu based on Dracula.
  
  1922
  
• First feature film to be done in Technicolor, Toll of the Sea.
  
• Nanook of the North is believed to be first feature length documentary, although all scenes are staged.
  
  1924
  
• Marcus Loew forms MGM studio by combining three production companies he had bought.
  
• Swedish star Greta Garbo debuts, as well as two French directors; Rene Clair and Jean Renior.
  
  1925
  
• Two directors make their debut: Alfred Hitchcock with The Pleasure Garden and Sergei Eisensteins first two features Strike and Battleship Potemkin.
  
• Phantom of the Opera, with Lon Chaney, is released by Universal.
  
  1926
  
• Sound is brought to the cinema by Warner Bro. Using the "Vitaphone". First film to use it is Don Juan. The only non-musical sounds are bells and sword clash and even they were muffled.
  
  1927
  
• October 6: Sound is first used in feature film by Warner Brothers in The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson.
  
• The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is formed by Loius B. Mayer, partly in an attempt to curb the growing power of unions. The first Academy Award is presented to Wings.
  
  1928
  
• Warner Brothers releases The Singing Fool with Al Jolson. Another talkie, the film takes in a record $5 million in 18 months; the other studios gear up to convert to sound.
  
• On Nov. 18, Walt Disney introduces Mickey Mouse to the world in Steamboat Willie.
  
• Spanish Director Luis Bunuel makes his first film, the surreal short Un Chien Andalou, with painter Salvador Dali. It is considered the quintessential avant-garde film.
  
• RKO Radio Pictures Corp. formed by G.E./Westinghouse/R.C.A. to exploit RCA's sound patent
  
  1929
  
• Wall Street crashes in October affecting the film industry.
  
• Talkies are the talk of the industry. By April, 89% of all movies released contain dialogue.
  
• Disney releases first "Silly Symphonies", The Skeleton Dance.
  
• The frist British talkie is released, Blackmail, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
  
• Marx Brother's first film Cocoanuts.
  
  

---