This book provides needed information on the collaborations between filmmakers and theater personnel before 1930 and completes our understanding of how two art forms influenced each other. It begins with the vaudeville and "faerie" dramas captured in brief films by the Edison and Biograph companies; follows the development of feature-length Sarah Bernhardt and James O'Neill films after 1912; examines the formation of theater/film combination companies in 1914-15; and details later collaborations during the talking picture revolution of 1927. Includes detailed analyses of important theatrical films like The Count of Monte Cristo, The Virginian, Coquette, and Paramount on Parade.

From the earliest days of public outrage over "indecent" nickelodeon shows, Americans have worried about the power of the movies. The eleven essays in this book examine nearly a century of struggle over cinematic representations of sex, crime, violence, religion, race, and ethnicity, revealing that the effort to regulate the screen has reflected deep social and cultural schisms. In addition to the editor, contributors include Daniel Czitrom, Marybeth Hamilton, Garth Jowett, Charles Lyons, Richard Maltby, Charles Musser, Alison M. Parker, Charlene Regester, Ruth Vasey, and Stephen Vaughn. Together they make it clear that censoring the movies is more than just a reflex against "indecency," however defined. Whether censorship protects the vulnerable or suppresses the creative, it is part of a broader culture war that breaks out recurrently as Americans try to come to terms with the market, the state, and the plural society in which they live.

"The Transformation of Cinema chronicles the history of the American film business from the days of storefront nickelodeons to the premiere of D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, complete with full symphony orchestra. Eileen Bowser here redresses the imbalance of the "Griffith did it all" cliché by discussing the efforts of countless lesser-known figures who also helped to create Hollywood and shape the growing film industry. The effect of the surroundings -- the size of the hall; whether the film was shown alone or along with vaudeville entertainment; and the size, quality, and relevance of the musical background -- are all examined for their impact on the filmgoing experience. Bowser documents the emergence of the star system, which set the stage for the classic silent-film era. By 1915 the silent film is seen as a full-fledged art form with its own style and place in the world of business."--Back cover.

Raised in poverty on an Iowa farm, the Cherry Sisters had little education and no training. But they possessed a burning desire to take to the stage and show the world what they could do--and what they could do was awful. Their unique act was "so bad it was good." When the sisters took the stage, they were met with rotten fruit and vegetables, festering meat, dead cats... Riots often broke out after (and sometimes during) their concerts, but they carried on, changing attitudes--and laws--along the way. This book follows the five women through their forty-year career in vaudeville theaters across the U.S. Proud, fearless and fiercely independent in a time when women were treated as second-class citizens, the Cherry Sisters insisted that their voices be heard.

Screen Culture: History and Textuality explores the impact of digital culture on the discipline of film and television studies. Whether the notion of screen culture is used to designate the technological platforms common to present-day digital media, or whether it refers to the support material on which moving images have historically been projected, scanned, or displayed, the 15 previously unpublished essays included here are primarily concerned with the intermedial appraisal of film, television, and digital culture. Contributors are Richard Abel, William Boddy, Ben Brewster, John Fullerton, Douglas Gomery, Alison Griffiths, Vreni Hockenjos, Jan Holmberg, Arne Lunde, Peter Lunenfeld, Charles Musser, Jan Olsson, Barry Salt, Michele L. Torre, William Uricchio, and Malin Wahlberg. Stockholm Studies in Cinema series Distributed for John Libbey Publishing

This book examines how the American frontier was presented in theatrical productions.

Early in the century, Marie Dressler was hailed as one of America's finest comics, with a 20-year string of Broadway and vaudeville successes including The Lady Slavey, Miss Prinnt, Higgledy Piggledy, The Man in the Moon, and Tillie's Nightmare. She starred with Charlie Chaplin in the first ever feature-length comedy Tillie's Punctured Romance and later in Min and Bill for which she won an Academy Award. A brilliant comedienne in body, timing, inflection and reactions, her talents far exceeded the expectations of slapstick, and her movies earned sums far greater than those of Garbo, or Harlow, or even Gable. This work examines Dressler's life from vaudeville to talkies. Based on extensive research and interviews with Dressler's surviving friends, co-stars and colleagues, including Maureen O'Sullivan, Jackie Cooper and Anita Page, it details her public and personal successes and failures. A listing of her stage appearances, vocal recordings and films is included.

This comprehensive reference book provides succinct information on almost thirteen hundred musical stage works written and produced from the 1870s to the 1990s involving contributions by black librettists, lyricists, composers, musicians, producers, or performers or containing thematic materials relevant to the black experience. Organized alphabetically, they include tent and outdoor shows, vaudeville, operas and operettas, comedies, farces, spectacles, revues, cabaret and nightclub shows, children's musicals, skits, one-act musicals, one-person shows, and even a musical without songs. In addition to the hundreds of shows independently created, produced, and performed by black writers and theatrical artists, it presents hundreds more representing a collaboration of black and white talents. An appendix organizes the shows chronologically and highlights those that were most significant in the history of the black American musical stage. An extensive bibliography and indexes of names, songs, and subjects complete the work.