Moviegoing in America

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).

• List of Illustrations. Acknowledgments.Introduction: A Century at the Movies: Gregory A. Waller.Part I: Capturing an Audience, Creating a Business: 1896–1916:.Introduction.1. Introducing Cinema to the American Public: The Vitascope in the United States, 1896–7:Charles Musser.2. From Rum Shop to Rialto: Workers and Movies: Roy Rosenzweig.3. Cheap Amusements (1908): John Collier.4. Some Picture Show Audiences (1911): Mary Heaton Vorse.5. Motion-Picture Work (1911): David Hulfish.6. Hints to Exhibitors (1908): W. Stephen Bush.7. Handling the Visitor (1909): Moving Picture World.8. Posteritis (1910): F. H. Richardson.9. Swelling the Box Office Receipts (1911): George Rockhill Craw.10. The Murder of Othello (1911): H. F. Hoffman.11. Projection (1912): F. H. Richardson.12. The Regulation of Motion Picture Theaters (1912): Boyd Fisher.13. Architectural Treatment of the Moving Picture Theatre (1914): Aymar Embury II.Part II: Palatial Palaces and Everyday Practices: 1916–1930:.Introduction.14. "You Can Have the Strand in Your Own Town": The Struggle between Urban and Small-Town Exhibition in the Picture Palace Era: Kathryn H. Fuller.15. What the Public Wants in the Picture Theater (1925): Samuel L. Rothafel ("Roxy").16. Theater Entrances and Lobbies (1925): E. C .A. Bullock.17.A Description of the Capitol Theater, Chicago (1925): John Eberson.18.Building Theatre Patronage (1927): John F. Barry and Epes W. Sargent.19. Motion Picture Theater Management (1928): Harold B. Franklin.20. Fashioning an Exhibition Empire: Promotion, Publicity, and the Rise of Public Theaters: Douglas Gomery.21. Where "Movie Playing" Needs Reform (1920): K. Sherwood Boblitz.22. Musical Presentation of Motion Pictures (1921): George W. Beynon.23. Music (1927): John F. Barry and Epes W. Sargent.24. Future Developments (1927): Harry M. Warner.25. Motion Pictures as a Phase of Commercialized Amusement in Toldedo, Ohio (1919): J. J. Phelan.26. The Motion Picture and the Upbuilding of Community Life (1920): Orrin G. Cocks.27. Our Movie Made Children (1934): Henry James Foreman.28. Ethnography and Exhibition: The Child Audience, the Hays Office, and Saturday Matinees: Richard deCordova.Part III: Picture Shows and New Theaters: The 1930s and 1940s:.Introduction.29. Hillbilly Music and Will Rogers: Small-Town Picture Shows in the 1930s: Gregory A. Waller.30. Bank Night (1936): H. O. Kusell.31. The Management of Motion Picture Theatres (1938): Frank H. Ricketson, Jr.32. Show Lady (1939): Carlie Beach Roney.33. What's Playing at the Grove? (1948): Fortune.34. Give the Movie Exhibitor a Chance! (1935): P. S. Harrison.35. Economic Control of the Motion Picture Industry (1944): Mae D. Huettig.36. New Theatres for the Cinema (1932): Ben Schlanger.37. Motion Picture Theaters (1937): Ben Schlanger.38. A New Architecture for the Movie Theater (1948): Architectural Record.39. Psychology of the Theater (1948): Walter A. Cutter.Part IV: Drive-In, Art House, Mulitplex: The 1950s and Beyond:.Introduction.40. Spectator and Screen: John Belton.41. Big Boom in Outdoor Movies (1956): Frank J. Taylor.42. Free Lances (1929): Alexander Bakshy.43. Sure-Seaters Discover an Audience (1952): Stanley Frank.44. Some Considerations on the Rise of the Art-Film Theater (1956): John E. Twomey.45. Domestic Theatrical and Semi-Theatrical Distribution and Exhibition of American Independent Feature Films: A Survey in 1983: Betsy McLane.46. The Harlem Theater: Black Film Exhibition in Austin, Texas: 1920–1973: Dan Streible.47. The Exhibitors (1972): Stanley H. Durwood.48. The K-Mart Audience at the Mall Movies: William Paul.49. Modern Times (1993): Barbara Stones.50. From Exhibition to Reception: Reflections on the Audience in Film History: Robert C. Allen.Part V: Research and Resources:.A Guide to Research and Resources.Research Projects in the History of Moviegoing and Film Exhibition.Bibliography.Index.

"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 "Interesting, at times surprising, and wide-ranging, Moviegoing in America is an outstanding collection on film exhibition in the United States from before the nickelodeons through today's stadium-seated multiplexes." Chuck Maland, University of Tennessee, Knoxville "Moviegoing in America is a strong contribution to Film Studies. Spanning a broad historical period, drawing upon the work of major researchers, and comprising scholarly as well as trade press essays, it will be highly valuable to all courses on American film history." Lucy Fischer, University of Pittsburgh