Moviegoing in America A Sourcebook in the History of Film Exhibition

by Waller, Gregory A.

• ISBN13: 9780631225928
• ISBN10: 0631225927
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-12-05
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Pairing significant research with primary documents, Moviegoing in America charts the evolution of film exhibition and reception as a function of changing patterns of American community, identity, consumption, and the fabric of everyday life."Moviegoing in America is an important, groundbreaking book." -- The Moving Image"Waller assembles an impressive collection that should become a key resource in the teaching of film exhibition history." -- Screen

Author Biography

Gregory A. Waller is Professor and Chair of the Department of English, University of Kentucky. He is author of Main Street Amusements: Movies and Commercial Entertainment in a Southern City, 1896-1930 (1995), which was awarded the Theater Library Association Award and the Katherine Singer Kovacs Award of the Society for Cinema Studies for outstanding scholarship in film and media studies. The author's other publications include American Horrors: Essays on the Modern American Horror Film (1987) and The Living and the Undead: From Stoker's 'Dracula' to Romero's 'Dawn of the Dead' (1986).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Acknowledgments	x
Introduction: A Century at the Movies	1	(8)
Gregory A. Waller
Part I Capturing an Audience, Creating a Business: 1896-1916	9	(74)
Introduction	11	(2)
Introducing Cinema to the American Public: The Vitascope in the United States, 1896-7	13	(14)
Charles Musser
From Rum Shop to Rialto: Workers and Movies	27	(19)
Roy Rosenzweig
Cheap Amusements (1908)	46	(4)
John Collier
Some Picture Show Audiences (1911)	50	(4)
Mary Heaton Vorse
Motion-Picture Work (1911)	54	(10)
David Hulfish
Hints to Exhibitors (1908)	64	(2)
W. Stephen Bush
Handling the Visitor (1909)	66	(2)
Moving Picture World
Posteritis (1910)	68	(2)
F.H. Richardson
Swelling the Box Office Receipts (1911)	70	(3)
George Rockhill Craw
The Murder of Othello (1911)	73	(2)
H.F. Hoffman
Projection (1912)	75	(2)
F.H. Richardson
The Regulation of Motion Picture Theaters (1912)	77	(4)
Boyd Fisher
Architectural Treatment of the Moving Picture Theatre (1914)	81	(2)
Aymar Embury II
Part II Palatial Palaces and Everyday Practices: 1916-1930	83	(88)
Introduction	85	(3)
``You Can Have the Strand in Your Own Town'': The Struggle between Urban and Small-Town Exhibition in the Picture Palace Era	88	(12)
Kathryn H. Fuller
What the Public Wants in the Picture Theater (1925)	100	(4)
Samuel L. Rothafel
Theater Entrances and Lobbies (1925)	104	(2)
E.C.A. Bullock
A Description of the Capitol Theater, Chicago (1925)	106	(4)
John Eberson
Building Theatre Patronage (1927)	110	(6)
John F. Barry
Epes W. Sargent
Motion Picture Theater Management (1928)	116	(8)
Harold B. Franklin
Fashioning an Exhibition Empire: Promotion, Publicity, and the Rise of Publix Theaters	124	(14)
Douglas Gomery
Where ``Movie Playing'' Needs Reform (1920)	138	(2)
K. Sherwood Boblitz
Musical Presentation of Motion Pictures (1921)	140	(4)
George W. Beynon
Music (1927)	144	(3)
John F. Barry
Epes W. Sargent
Future Developments (1927)	147	(4)
Harry M. Warner
Motion Pictures as a Phase of Commercialized Amusement in Toledo, Ohio (1919)	151	(2)
J.J. Phelan
The Motion Picture and the Upbuilding of Community Life (1920)	153	(2)
Orrin G. Cocks
Our Movie Made Children (1934)	155	(4)
Henry James Foreman
Ethnography and Exhibition: The Child Audience, the Hays Office, and Saturday Matinees	159	(12)
Richard deCordova
Part III Picture Shows and New Theaters: The 1930s and 1940s	171	(62)
Introduction	173	(2)
Hillbilly Music and Will Rogers: Small-Town Picture Shows in the 1930s	175	(14)
Gregory A. Waller
Bank Night (1936)	189	(3)
H.O. Kusell
The Management of Motion Picture Theatres (1938)	192	(5)
Frank H. Ricketson, Jr.
Show Lady (1939)	197	(6)
Carlie Beach Roney
What's Playing at the Grove? (1948)	203	(8)
Fortune
Give the Movie Exhibitor a Chance! (1935)	211	(3)
P.S. Harrison
Economic Control of the Motion Picture Industry (1944)	214	(5)
Mae D. Huettig
New Theaters for the Cinema (1932)	219	(2)
Ben Schlanger
Motion Picture Theaters (1937)	221	(4)
Ben Schlanger
A New Architecture for the Movie Theater (1948)	225	(3)
Architectural Record
Psychology of the Theater (1948)	228	(5)
Walter A. Cutter
Part IV Drive-In, Art House, Multiplex: The 1950s and Beyond	233	(76)
Introduction	235	(3)
Spectator and Screen	238	(9)
John Belton
Big Boom in Outdoor Movies (1956)	247	(5)
Frank J. Taylor
Free Lances (1929)	252	(3)
Alexander Bakshy
Sure-Seaters Discover an Audience (1952)	255	(4)
Stanley Frank
Some Considerations on the Rise of the Art-Film Theater (1956)	259	(6)
John E. Twomey
Domestic Theatrical and Semi-Theatrical Distribution and Exhibition of American Independent Feature Films: A Survey in 1983	265	(3)
Betsy McLane
The Harlem Theater: Black Film Exhibition in Austin, Texas: 1920-1973	268	(11)
Dan Streible
The Exhibitors (1972)	279	(3)
Stanley H. Durwood
The K-Mart Audience at the Mall Movies	282	(14)
William Paul
Modern Times (1993)	296	(4)
Barbara Stones
From Exhibition to Reception: Reflections on the Audience in Film History	300	(9)
Robert C. Allen
Part V Research and Resources	309	(37)
A Guide to Research and Resources	311	(11)
Research Projects in the History of Moviegoing and Film Exhibition	322	(2)
Bibliography	324	(22)
Index	346