The Making of American Audiences

• Acknowledgements; Introduction: participative public, passive private?; 1. Colonial theater, privileged audiences; 2. Drama in early Republican audiences; 3. The B'hoys in Jacksonian theaters; 4. Knowledge and the decline of audience sovereignty; 5. Matinee ladies: re-gendering theater audiences; 6. Blackface, whiteface; 7. Variety, liquor and lust; 8. Vaudeville, incorporated; 9. 'Legitimate' and 'illegitimate' theater around the turn of the century; 10. The celluloid stage: Nickelodeon audiences; 11. Storefronts to theaters: seeking the middle class; 12. Voices from the ether: early radio listening; 13. Radio cabinets and network chains; 14. Rural radio: 'we are seldom lonely anymore'; 15. Fears and dreams: public discourses about radio; 16. The electronic cyclops: fifties television; 17. A TV in every home: television 'effects'; 18. Home video: viewer autonomy?; 19. Conclusion: from effects to resistance and beyond; Appendix: availability, affordability, admission price; Notes; Selected bibliography; Index.

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