Lucia Cynthia - American film history. [1], Origins to 1960

Cynthia Lucia is Professor of English and Director of Film and Media Studies at Rider University. She is author of Framing Female Lawyers: Women on Trial in Film (2005) and writes for Cineaste film magazine, where she has served on the editorial board for more than two decades. Her most recent research includes essays that appear in A Companion to Woody Allen (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), Modern British Drama on Screen (2014), and Law, Culture and Visual Studies (2014).

Roy Grundmann is Associate Professor of Film Studies at Boston University. He is the author of Andy Warhol's Blow Job (2003) and the editor of A Companion to Michael Haneke (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). He is Contributing Editor of Cineaste and has published essays in a range of prestigious anthologies and journals, including GLQ, Cineaste, Continuum, The Velvet Light Trap, and Millennium Film Journal. He has curated retrospectives on Michael Haneke, Andy Warhol, and Matthias Mller.

Art Simon is Professor of Film Studies at Montclair State University. He is the author of Dangerous Knowledge: The JFK Assassination in Art and Film (2nd edition, 2013). He has curated two film exhibitions for the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York City and his work has been published in the edited collection Un-American Hollywood: Politics and Film in the Blacklist Era (2007) and in the journal American Jewish History.

Together they are the editors of the four-volume collection The Wiley-Blackwell History of American Film (2012) and American Film History: Selected Readings, 1960 to the Present (2016), both published by Wiley-Blackwell.

Edited by

Cynthia Lucia, Roy Grundmann, and Art Simon

This edition first published 2016

2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc, except for Chapter 16 1999 University of Texas Press; Chapter 18 1989 James Naremore; and Chapter 26 1981 Cambridge University Press

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

American film history : selected readings / edited by Cynthia Lucia, Roy Grundmann, Arthur Simon.
volume cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: v. 1. Origins to 1960
ISBN 978-1-118-47513-3 (paperback)
1. Motion picturesUnited StatesHistory20th century. I. Lucia, Cynthia A. Barto (Cynthia Anne Barto), editor. II. Grundmann, Roy, 1963- editor. III. Simon, Arthur, editor.
PN1993.5.U6A8656 2015
791.430973dc23

2015015486

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Top: Clark Gable and Jean Harlow, Red Dust, 1932. Photo: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy. Bottom: Intolerance, 1916. Photo: Wark Production Company/Album/akg-images.

These volumes would not have been possible without the outstanding research and scholarship of our respected cinema and media colleagues whose essays appear on these pages. We thank them, along with other scholars whose advice has been invaluable along the way. We are deeply grateful to Wiley-Blackwell editor Jayne Fargnoli, who was instrumental in helping initiate this project and whose continued support and advice have been crucial. We also thank the highly professional and supportive Wiley-Blackwell editorial team, including Julia Kirk, Mary Hall, Mark Graney, Annie Jackson, Brigitte Lee Messenger, and so many others who have devoted their time and effort to designing these volumes. We also are grateful to Colin Root, Robert Ribera, Virginia Myhaver, and Nicholas Forster of Boston University who assisted in completing the four-volume hardcover edition from which this two-volume paperback edition is drawn. And there are so many others both colleagues and students at Rider University, Boston University, and Montclair State University to whom we owe our thanks. We also acknowledge the support of Rider University summer fellowships and research leaves that were instrumental in helping us complete both the hardcover and paperback editions.

We deeply appreciate the support of our families and friends through the years we've spent on this project, without whom we could not have sustained our efforts. We remain forever grateful to Barbara Berger, Isaac Simon, and Tillie Simon; Mark Hennessey; and Ray Lucia for their love, patience, and support.

We especially want to acknowledge Robert Sklar. Bob's contribution to these volumes goes well beyond the two essays that appear here. His mentorship, scholarship, and friendship meant so much to us over the years. It is with great respect and gratitude that we dedicate these volumes to his memory.

The Editors

In many ways, this project began in the classroom. When organizing American film history courses, often taught over two semesters, we encountered the recurring problem of how best to select readings for our students. A strong narrative history seemed essential and several of these are available. But because of their scope and synthesis, these texts do not have space for lengthy discussions of important events, film cycles, or artists. We wanted to create a collection of essays that would provide such in-depth discussions. We also wanted original treatments of bread-and-butter topics the rise of the star system, the place of specific genres like the musical and gangster film, the operations of classical-era studios and their executives as well as less frequently discussed topics. As a means of introducing new areas of inquiry into our courses and the larger field of film scholarship, we especially wanted essays that would cover film production on the margins, such as the avant-garde and documentary, and films made by and on topics associated with underrepresented groups whether women, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, or gays and lesbians. Although we gladly reprinted several important essays, we mostly asked scholars to contribute new work, extending arguments they had made elsewhere or tackling entirely new areas. The result was