History of Hitchcock

          Alfred Hitchcock's mother gave birth to him on August 13, 1899, and raised him for the first two decades of his life in London, England. He had two siblings whom he did not see often and simply did not get along with. Since Alfred claimed he did not see them often, he spent a lot of his time alone. His parents were also not very present in his life. His mother was very controlling of him and would often use food as a contingency for his behavior. His father was not the most caring or embracing parent either. His father was known to give very harsh punishments because he didn't know how to effectively deal with children. He once sent young Alfred to the police station with a note saying they should lock him up for a while to teach Alfred a lesson.

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          Many events in Hitchcock's early childhood made lasting impacts on his development. These created the base of many recurring themes that would occur in his later life. Alfred had a very interesting family dynamic. East London was recovering from the repercussions of a serial killer, named Jack the Riper, during the time of Hitchcocks upbringing. While Hitchcock was not born during the life of Jack the Ripper, the atmosphere of his upbringing was still plagued by what happened. Jack the Ripper was the basis of Hitchcock's first independent work. Other recurring themes in his work include the wrongfully accused of murder and the ominousness of small spaces. These components are said to have been created from his experience of being put into jail by his father. While the event lasted only a short amount of time, it left a long lasting mark on Hitchcock.

         

          Hitchcock began his career with no intention of becoming a film creator. He went to school and then landed a job in sales, and after that he made a switch to marketing. He then chose to go back and take a few art classes at a local University to exercise his artistic passion. It was here that he got his start with film production. He began to assist many of his professors with silent films, and  he gained more responsibility and freedom with every film production. Eventually he worked his way up to producing his first independent film: Mrs.Peabody (1922). This was the first of a long career of award winning films. He is most known for his incredible mastery of cinematic techniques to create great suspense in his films. Hitchcock set the tone for many films to come and his techniques have been mimicked in hundreds of other films.