Shared Pleasures: A History Of Movie Presentation In The United States (Wisconsin Studies in Film) - Softcover

Gomery, Douglas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0299132145 ISBN 13: 9780299132149

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992

Synopsis

Shared Pleasures presents the first comprehensive history of how Americans have watched their favorite movies. Douglas Gomery tells the complete story of the film exhibition business, from the humble nickelodeon to movie palaces to today's mass markets of cable TV and home video rentals. Along the way Gomery shows us how the American economy and society altered going to the movies.

Shared Pleasures answers such questions as: How and where have Americans gone to the movies? What factors prompted the growth of specialized theaters? To what extent have corporations controlled the means of moviegoing? How has television changed the watching of motion pictures? Gomery analyzes social, technological, and economic transformations inside and outside the movie industry-sound, color (and later, colorization), television movies, cable movie networks, and home video, as well as automobiles, air conditioning, and mass transit. He traces the effects of immigration, growing urban and suburban cultures, two world wars, racial and ethnic segregation, and the baby boom on the movie theater industry, noting such developments as newsreel theaters and art cinemas.

Gomery shows how the movie theater business has remained a profitable industry, transforming movie houses from storefronts to ornate movie palaces to the sticky-floored mall multiplexes of today. Contrary to some gloomy predictions, Gomery contends that movie watching is not declining as a form of entertainment. With the growth of cable TV, home movie rental, and other technical changes, more Americans are watching (and enjoying) more movies than ever before.

About this title

About the Author

Douglas Gomery is professor in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Maryland and senior researcher at the Media Studies Project of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, D.C. He is the editor of High Sierra: Screenplay and Analysis, also published by the University of Wisconsin Press. His other books include The Hollywood Studio System, Movie History: A Survey, and four other books examining the economics and history of American media.

Reviews

Gomery ( The Hollywood Studio System ) has filled a huge gap in the history of motion pictures in America. In this exhaustive volume, he deals with movie distribution and presentation, a subject almost completely overlooked in scholarly treatment of the medium. The first of the book's three sections is a history of movie display from nickelodeons to VCRs. Of particular interest here is the evidence that television was not responsible for the decline in moviegoing. The second section deals with specialty operations, including art-house cinemas and theatres for African-Americans. The final section looks at the effect of technological innovations, from the emergence of sound to wide-screen movies to the advent of home video. Written in a conversational style, the book should appeal to a wide range of movie fans. Tracing the impact of child-bearing patterns, the rise of the suburbs and shopping malls and America's automobile culture as seen in the form of drive-in theaters, this volume is as much a social history of the U. S. as it is a history of movie exhibition. It will become a standard for anyone interested in a complete ``picture'' of our true national pastime.

Copyright 1992 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0299132145
• ISBN 13: 9780299132149
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416