Menus for Movieland

Newspapers and the Emergence of American Film Culture, 1913--1916
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-0-520-28677-1
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 424 Seiten, Cloth Over Boards, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 635 g

At the turn of the past century, the main function of a newspaper was to offer “menus” by which readers could make sense of modern life and imagine how to order their daily lives. Among those menus in the mid-1910s were several that mediated the interests of movie manufacturers, distributors, exhibitors, and the rapidly expanding audience of fans. This writing about the movies arguably played a crucial role in the emergence of American popular film culture, negotiating among national, regional, and local interests to shape fans’ ephemeral experience of moviegoing, their repeated encounters with the fantasy worlds of “movieland,” and their attractions to certain stories and stars. Moreover, many of these weekend pages, daily columns, and film reviews were written and consumed by women, including one teenage girl who compiled a rare surviving set of scrapbooks. Based on extensive original research, Menus for Movieland substantially revises what moviegoing meant in the transition to what we now think of as Hollywood.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Abel, Richard

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Journalismus & Presse
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Filmgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Mediengeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

PROLOGUE
Document: “Tomorrow’s Sunday Tribune”

INTRODUCTION: THE NEWSPAPER, A CULTURAL PARTNER OF THE MOVIES
Document: “Best Film Ad Medium”

1. THE INDUSTRY GOES TO TOWN (AND COUNTRY)
ENTR’ACTE: LOCAL AND REGIONAL NEWSREELS
Document: “Right Off the Reel!”

2. “NEWSPAPERS MAKE PICTURE-GOERS”
ENTR’ACTE: NEWSPAPER MOVIE CONTESTS
Document: “The Movies”

3. “IN MOVIE LAND, WITH THE FILM STARS”
ENTR’ACTE: CARTOONS AND COMIC STRIPS
Document: “Close Ups Are Very Important”

4. “FILM GIRLS” AND THEIR FANS IN FRONT OF THE SCREEN
Document: Kitty Kelly ad

ENTR’ACTE: MOTION PICTURE WEEKLIES
Document: “Today’s Best Moving Picture Story”
5. EDNA VERCOE’S “ROMANCE WITH THE MOVIES”
AFTERWORD

Appendix: U. S. Newspapers
Newspaper Abbreviations
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Richard Abel is Emeritus Professor of International Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Michigan. He is the author of The Red Rooster Scare: Making Cinema American, 1900–1910, Encyclopedia of Early Cinema, Americanizing the Movies and “Movie-Mad” Audiences, 1910–1914, and Early Cinema, among other books.