Tinseltown's golden era, illustrated: From Chaplin's last silent films to the colorful Wizard of Oz In the 1930s, the legendary City of Cinema moved from the silent era to the talking picture. It was a decade of pomp and excess in the motion picture capital, of glorious stardom and megalomaniac directors; a time when politicians and the mob all wanted a piece of the thrilling action. It was the age of the Marx brothers, Greta Garbo, Frankenstein, and Gone with the Wind, Charlie Chaplin's bowler hat and moustache, Marlene Dietrich's androgynous glamor, and Jean Harlow's perfectly positioned beauty spot.