Going to the Movies

Description

This book analyses the diverse historical and geographical circumstances in which audiences have viewed American cinema. It looks at cinema audiences ranging from Manhattan nickelodeons to the modern suburban megaplex, and from provincial, small-town or rural America to the shanty towns of South Africa.

Going to the Movies studies the social and cultural history of movie audiences. Ranging broadly across historical time and geographical place, it analyses the role of movie theatres in local communities, the links between film and other entertainment media, non-theatrical exhibition and trends arising from the globalisation of audiences. There is an emphasis on movie-going outside the American North-East, and several chapters analyse the complexities of race and race formation in relation to cinema attendance.

Introduction, Richard Maltby and Melvyn Stokes



Part 1: Studies of Local Cinema Exhibition



1. Race, Religion, and Rusticity: Relocating U. S. Film History, Robert C. Allen



2. Tri-racial Theaters in Robeson County, North Carolina (1896-1940), Christopher J. McKenna



3. The White in the Race Movie Audience, Jane Gaines



4. Sundays in Norfolk: Toward a Protestant Utopia Through Film Exhibition in Norfolk, Virginia, 1910-1920, Terry Lindvall, C. S. Lewis



5. Patchwork Maps of Movie-Going, 1911-1913, Richard Abel, Robert Altman



6. Leshono habo' bimuving piktshurs (Next year at the Moving Pictures): Cinema and social change in the Jewish immigrant community, Judith Thissen



7. 'Four Hours of Hootin' and Hollerin": Moviegoing and Everyday Life Outside the Movie Palace, Jeffrey Klenotic



8. Cinema-going in the United States in the mid-1930s: A Study Based on the Variety Dataset, Mark Glancy and John Sedgwick



9. Race Houses, Jim Crow Roosts, and Lily White Palaces: desegregating the Motion Picture Theater, Thomas Doherty



Part II: Other Cinema: Alternatives to Theatrical Exhibition



10. The Reel of the Month Club: 16mm Projectors, Home Theaters and Film Libraries in the 19320s, Haidee Wasson



11. Early Art Cinema in the U.S.: Symon Gould and the Little Cinema Movement of the 1920s, Anne Morey



12. Free Talking Picture - Every Farmer is Welcome: Non-theatrical Film and Everyday Life in Rural America during the 1930s, Gregory A. Waller



13. Cinema's Shadow: Reconsidering Non-Theatrical Exhibition, Barbara Klinger



Part III: Hollywood Movies in Broader Perspective: Audiences at Home and Abroad



14. Changing Images of Movie Audiences, Richard Butsch



15. 'Healthy Films from America': The emergence of a Catholic film mass movement in Belgium and the realm of Hollywood, 1928-1939, Daniel Biltereyst



16. The child audience and the 'horrific' film in 1930s Britain, Annette Kuhn



17. Hollywood in Vernacular: Translation and Cross-Cultural Reception of American Films in Turkey, Ahmet Gurata



18. Cowboy Modern: African Audiences, Hollywood Films, and Visions of the West, Charles Ambler



19. 'Opening Everywhere': Multiplexes and the Speed of Cinema Culture, Charles R. Acland



20. 'Cinema Comes to Life at the Cornerhouse, Nottingham': 'American' Exhibition, Local Politics and Global Culture in the Construction of the Urban Entertainment Centre, Mark Jancovich

 

 

Sujets

• Media Studies
• Social Science
• Popular Culture
• Sociologie, société et politique
• USA
• United States of America
• Película fotográfica
• Culture of the United States
• Cinema of the United States
• General officer
• 20th century
• History of film
• General
• États-Unis
• History
• Film
• Hollywood

Informations

• Publié par: University of Exeter Press
• Date de parution: 02 mars 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9780859899161
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 8 Mo

Extrait

Going to the movies pb V2 29/11/07 10:45 am Page 1
Going to the
MOVIES
Hollywood and the Social Experience of Cinema
Shop girls and factory hands paying a nickel to watch silent
Westerns in a variety bill at the Music Hall; the “sophisticated”
clientele of New York’s modernist art-house cinemas; the
soldout opening weekends at shopping-mall megaplexes; FilmAid
screenings of Charlie Chaplin in refugee camps in Afghanistan . . .
the ways in which American and global audiences have viewed
movies are as rich and varied a part of cinematic history as
anything shown on the silver screen.
In pioneering essays by many of the leading experts in this
rapidlydeveloping field of cinema history, Going to the Movies moves Going to the
beyond the familiar images of nickelodeons and movie palaces to
analyse the place of movie theatres in local communities, the roles
of race and religion in constructing and segregating audiences, the
links between film and other entertainment media, the varied
Maltby,
forms of non-theatrical exhibition and the historical development
Stokes
of the globalized audience.
MOVIES
& Allen
Hollywood and the Social Experience of Cinema
ISBN 978-0-85989-812-6
ISBN 978 0 85989 812 6
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER PRESS
9 780859 898126
www.exeterpress.co.uk
edited by Richard Maltby, Melvyn Stokes and Robert C. Allen
EXETER S TUDIES IN FILM HIS T ORY
G
oing to the M
o
viesgoing to the movies
From Manhattan nickelodeons to the modern suburban megaplex,
and from provincial, small-town or rural America to Istanbul and
the shanty-towns of Southern Africa, Going to the Movies analyses
the diverse historical and geographical circumstances in which
audiences have viewed American cinema, and the variety of ways
in which these audiences have been constructed by the American
flm industry.
Te book examines the role of movie theatres in local
communities, the links between flm and other entertainment
media, non-theatrical exhibition and historical trends toward the
globalization of audiences. Two novel features of the book are the
emphasis on movie-going outside the metropolitan centres of the
American North-East and the manner in which several of the
chapters analyse the complexities of race and race formation in
relation to cinema attendance.
Many of the leading researchers in this rapidly-developing
feld of cinema history have contributed to this collection, which
showcases the range of issues and perspectives being examined by
flm scholars and historians who are exploring the complexities of
the social experience of movie-going.
Editors: Richard Maltby is Professor of Screen Studies at Flinders
University, South Australia. Melvyn Stokes teaches at University
College London. Robert C. Allen is Professor of American Studies,
History, and Communication Studies at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Maltby et al, Going to the movie1 1 22/11/2007 13:15:59Exeter Studies in Film History
Published by University of Exeter Press in association with the Bill Douglas
Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture.
Series Editors: Richard Maltby, Professor of Screen Studies, Flinders University,
South Australia and Steve Neale, Professor of Film Studies and Academic
Director of the Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular
Culture, University of Exeter.
Parallel Tracks: Te Railroad and Silent Cinema
Lynne Kirby (1997)
Te World According to Hollywood, 1918–1939
Ruth Vasey (1997)
‘Film Europe’ and ‘Film America’: Cinema, Commerce and Cultural Exchange 1920–1939
edited by Andrew Higson and Richard Maltby (1999)
A Paul Rotha Reader
edited by Duncan Petrie and Robert Kruger (1999)
A Chorus of Raspberries: British Film Comedy 1929–1939
David Sutton (2000)
Te Great Art of Light and Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema
Laurent Mannoni, translated by Richard Crangle (2000)
Popular Filmgoing in 1930s Britain: A Choice of Pleasures
John Sedgwick (2000)
Alternative Empires: European Modernist Cinemas and Cultures of Imperialism
Martin Stollery (2000)
Hollywood, Westerns and the 1930s: Te Lost Trail
Peter Stanfeld (2001)
Young and Innocent? Te Cinema in Britain 1896–1930
edited by Andrew Higson (2002)
Legitimate Cinema: Teatre Stars in Silent British Films 1908–1918
Jon Burrows (2003)
Te Big Show: British Cinema Culture in the Great War (1914–1918)
Michael Hammond (2006)
Multimedia Histories: From the Magic Lantern to the Internet
edited by James Lyons and John Plunkett (2007)
University of Exeter Press also publishes the celebrated fve-volume series looking at
the early years of English cinema, Te Beginnings of the Cinema in England, by John
Barnes.
Maltby et al, Going to the movie2 2 22/11/2007 13:16:00Go ING T o THE Mo VIES
Hollywood and the Social Experience of Cinema



edited by
Richard Maltby, Melvyn Stokes and Robert C. Allen
Maltby et al, Going to the movie3 3 22/11/2007 13:16:00First published in 2007 by
University of Exeter Press
Reed Hall, Streatham Drive
Exeter EX4 4QR
UK
www.exeterpress.co.uk
© Richard Maltby, Melvyn Stokes and Robert C. Allen,
and the individual contributors 2007
Te right of Richard Maltby, Melvyn Stokes and Robert C. Allen,
and the individual contributors, to be identifed as authors of this
work has been asserted by them in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Acts 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Paperback ISBN 978 0 85989 812 6
Hardback ISBN 978 0 85989 811 9
Typeset in 10½ on 13 Adobe Caslon
by Carnegie Book Production, Lancaster
Printed in Great Britain by Short Run Press Ltd, Exeter
Cover image: An African American moviegoer climbs the stairs to the ‘Jim Crow
roost’ in a motion picture theatre in Belzoni, Mississippi, 1939.
Maltby et al, Going to the movie4 4 22/11/2007 13:16:00Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Notes on Contributors x
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction 1
Richard Maltby and Melvyn Stokes
Part I: Studies of Local Cinema Exhibition
1. Race, Region, and Rusticity: Relocating U.S. Film History 25
Robert C. Allen
2. Tri-racial Teaters in Robeson County, North Carolina,
1896–1940 45
Christopher J. McKenna
3. Te White in the Race Movie Audience 60
Jane M. Gaines
4. Sundays in Norfolk: Toward a Protestant Utopia Trough
Film Exhibition in Norfolk, Virginia, 1910–1920 76
Terry Lindvall
5. Patchwork Maps of Moviegoing, 1911–1913 94
Richard Abel
6. Next Year at the Moving Pictures: Cinema and Social
Change in the Jewish Immigrant Community 113
Judith Tissen
Maltby et al, Going to the movie5 5 22/11/2007 13:16:01going to the movies
7. ‘Four Hours of Hootin’ and Hollerin’’: Moviegoing and
Everyday Life o utside the Movie Palace 130
Jefrey Klenotic
8. Cinemagoing in the United States in the mid-1930s:
A Study Based on the Variety Dataset 155
Mark Glancy and John Sedgwick
9. Race Houses, Jim Crow Roosts, and Lily White Palaces:
Desegregating the Motion Picture Teater 196
Tomas Doherty
Part II: Other Cinema: Alternatives to Teatrical Exhibition
10. Te Reel of the Month Club: 16mm Projectors, Home
Teaters and Film Libraries in the 1920s 217
Haidee Wasson
11. Early Art Cinema in the U.S.: Symon Gould and the Little
Cinema Movement of the 1920s 235
Anne Morey
12. Free Talking Picture—Every Farmer is Welcome:
Nontheatrical Film and Everyday Life in Rural America during
the 1930s 248
Gregory A. Waller
13. Cinema’s Shadow: Reconsidering Non-theatrical Exhibition 273
Barbara Klinger
Part III: Hollywood Movies in Broader Perspective:
Audiences at Home and Abroad
14. Changing Images of Movie Audiences 293
Richard Butsch
15. ‘Healthy Films from America’: Te Emergence of a Catholic
Film Mass Movement in Belgium and the Realm of
Hollywood, 1928–1939 307
Daniel Biltereyst
vi
Maltby et al, Going to the movie6 6 22/11/2007 13:16:01contents
16. Te Child Audience and the ‘Horrifc’ Film in 1930s
Britain 323
Annette Kuhn
17. Hollywood in Vernacular: Translation and Cross-cultural
Reception of American Films in Turkey 333
Ahmet Gürata
18. Cowboy Modern: African Audiences, Hollywood Films,
and Visions of the West 348
Charles Ambler
19. ‘o pening Everywhere’: Multiplexes and the Speed of
Cinema Culture 364
Charles R. Acland
20. ‘Cinema Comes to Life at the Cornerhouse, Nottingham’:
‘American’ Exhibition, Local Politics and Global Culture in
the Construction of the Urban Entertainment Centre 383
Mark Jancovich
Notes 394
Index 462
vii
Maltby et al, Going to the movie7 7 22/11/2007 13:16:01Illustrations
2.1 Community Service Pictures’ Special Announcement, 1920 50
2.2 Te newly reopened Pastime Teater in Lumberton, 1934 53
2.3 Te theater changed to cater mainly for African Americans,
prompting Indian outrage, 1934 53
2.4 Te Rowland Teatre reopened in 1937 with three race-specifc
entrances, 1937 56
2.5 Race-specifc pricing structure: advertisement from the Riverside
Teater for the flm Topper Takes a Tr,ip 1939 58
3.1 Lincoln Motion Picture Company distribution survey form, 1918 61
3.2 Noble Johnson and Harry Gant, Lincoln Company cameraman 64
3.3 Te Flying Ace poster, Norman Manufacturing Company, 1926 65
3.4 Te Ebony Motion Picture Company 66
3.5 opening Night of the Rex Teater, Hannibal, Missouri; and detail
of the balcony 70
3.6 Noble Johnson, early ‘cross-over’ star 74
4.1 Billy Sunday, 1915 77
4.2 Judged by their formal attire in this cartoon, members of the
social elite did attend motion pictures 80
4.3 Te Granby Family Teatre in Norfolk, 1907 81
4.4 Te American Teatre, 1913 82
4.5 Billy Sunday and Mae West, 1933 91
viii
Maltby et al, Going to the movie8 8 22/11/2007 13:16:01illustrations
5.1 Mutual Moviesad,1914 95
5.2 Advertisement for‘Iowa’sMostBeautifulPhotoPlayTeatre’,
1912 97
5.3 Advertisement fortheCantonOdeon,1912 98
5.4 Pawtucket/Central Falls,RhodeIsland 104
5.5 Downtown Pawtucket,c.1913 1