AT PICTURE SHOWIn this social history of the movies during the silent-film era, Kathryn H. Fuller charts the gradual homogenization of a diverse American movie audience as itinerant shows gave way to established nickelodeon theaters and then to more luxurious picture palaces. Demonstrating that the vertical integration of the film industry eliminated variety at the local level, Fuller argues that fan magazines helped to reduce the distinctions between rural and urban moviegoers and created a nationwide popular culture of film consumption. Analyzing the articles, advertisements, and letters in such publications as Motion Picture Story Magazine and Photoplay, Fuller shows that these fan magazines initially had catered to both men and women but by the late 1910s shifted their focus to young women who, entranced by Hollywood glamour, eagerly bought products endorsed by the stars. Although the transformation of the movies into big-time entertainment had multiple sources, Fuller argues that ultimately the maturation of the film industry depended on the support of both urban and rural middle-class audiences. Providing the fullest portrait to date of the small-town audience's changing habits and desires, At the Picture Show demonstrates for the first time how a fan culture emerged in the United States, and enriches our understanding of mass media's relationship to early twentieth-century American society. |
Contents
The Nickelodeon | 47 |
Photoplay Magazine Movie Fans and the Marketplace | 150 |
Conclusion | 194 |
Copyright | |
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At the Picture Show: Small-town Audiences and the Creation of Movie Fan Culture Kathryn H. Fuller No preview available - 2001 |
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actors actresses advertising attract Autobiography Bert and Fannie big cities Blumer Cinema CMPB comedies consumer consumer-product Cook and Harris Cooperstown D. W. Griffith educational elodeon entertainment Exhibitor's Trade Review fan magazines Fannie Cook female film exhibition film industry film producers Ford girls High Class Moving History Hollywood ibid industrial films itinerant Lynd male Mary Pickford middle-class Motion Picture Story movie audience movie fan movie fan culture movie shows movie stars movie theaters moviegoing experience Moving Picture Company Moving Picture World MPRC Papers MPSM nickelodeon theaters opera house Paramount patrons percent performance Photoplay Pickford picture palaces Picture Show Picture Story Magazine played popular culture Printer's Ink programs Quirk readers Roebuck and Company rural scenes screen September silent film small-town movie social songs southern Stephen Bush Thanhouser company tion town trade journals ture University of Chicago University Press urban middle-class vaudeville viewers Vitagraph working-class York