No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Cinema and the Age of Television, 1946-1975
Abstract
Hollywood's relationship with broadcasting goes deep, back to the days of the 1920s, before radio networks had yet established themselves. Far-sighted entrepreneurs like Harry Warner of Warner Bros. set up radio stations as publicity vehicles for films and film stars, and advertisers turned to the glamour of Hollywood to promote their products on air. Indeed, American broadcasting could not have developed as it did without the influence of the movie industry, nor would Hollywood be what it is today without its considerable connection to broadcasting. Unlike Britain, where film producers regarded the public monopoly British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as purely a competitor, likely to use up film properties and celebrities without adequate compensation, Hollywood studios and stars eagerly teamed up with radio in the early 1930s in the mutual pursuit of profit, not only as a medium of publicity but in the development of sound technology and practices and as a vibrant venue of mutual creative interaction. This continued and intensified as television debuted in the late 1940s, bringing visual aesthetics and techniques of film production to the serial forms of broadcasting. By the late 1970s, it had become impossible to speak of the film and television industries as separate entities: television networks both produced and aired movies; film studios originated the vast majority of prime-time programs on the networks; and cable television had begun to transform both industries as a new site of hybrid creativity.
Keywords:
radio;
television;
seriality;
filmed programs;
feature films on television;
made for TV movies;
fin/syn (financial interest and syndication) rules;
prime time access rule (PTAR);
situation comedy;
networks
Although box office receipts for the theatrical release of movies have remained consistently high over the past decade, this tends to mask a slow erosion in the frequency of movie-going among the Australia population. Australians, it appears, are gradually losing the habit of going to the movies. This decline sits in marked contrast to increasing numbers of audiences preferring to engage with cinematic content through VOD and other digital platforms. Our engagement with industry stakeholders highlights the concerns of the Australian distribution and exhibition sectors of the industry about competition from a range of competing leisure and entertainment opportunities for Australian consumers. In this paper we argue that it is vital for the local industry to revise its current model of movie-going audiences, in order to better understand what consumers think about the ‘cinematic experience’ and how they value this experience in relation to the variety of competition from other leisure and entertainment experiences. We outline the opportunities to draw from insights across multiple disciplinary fields, in particular to explore the implications of applying ‘the customer journey’ to understanding the variety of social and material factors which may be in play in informing the decision-making of movie-going audiences.
The rapid development of Korean cinema during the decades of the 1960s and 2000s reveals a dynamic cinematic history which runs parallel to the nations political, social, economic and cultural transformation during these formative periods. This book examines the ways in which South Korean cinema has undergone a transformation from an antiquated local industry in the 1960s into a thriving international cinema in the 21st century. It investigates the circumstances that allowed these two eras to emerge as creative watersheds, and demonstrates the forces behind Koreas positioning of itself as an important contributor to regional and global culture, and especially its interplay with Japan, Greater China, and the United States. Beginning with an explanation of the understudied operations of the film industry during its 1960s take-off, it then offers insight into the challenges that producers, directors, and policy makers faced in the 1970s and 1980s during the most volatile part of Park Chung-hees authoritarian rule and the subsequent Chun Doo-hwan military government. It moves on to explore the film industrys professionalization in the 1990s and subsequent international expansion in the 2000s. In doing so, it explores the nexus and tensions between film policy, producing, directing, genre, and the internationalization of Korean cinema over half a century. By highlighting the recent transnational turn in national cinemas, this book underscores the impact of developments pioneered by Korean cinema on the transformation of Planet Hallyuwood. It will be of particular interest to students and scholars of Korean Studies and Film Studies.
The article argues that within analyses of star performers from the classical Hollywood period, the role played by the medium of radio has been significantly underestimated. Building upon new developments in star discourses which question the role of the cinema as the dominant medium
in the creation of star personae, this article examines the relationship between Hollywood and American broadcast media through a study of the multi-medial persona of Peter Lorre in order to suggest that the macabre star persona associated with Lorre has been erroneously attributed to his cinematic career at the expense of a consideration of his radio career. Central to Lorre's public persona was the nature of his employment on American radio between 1936 and 1964. The article discusses the three types of appearances made by the actor: as a star performer in horror programming;
his position as host of horror series; and his celebrity cameos on popular shows. It explores how Lorre's extensive radio work was reliant upon certain consistent modes of representation which had the potential to greatly influence public awareness of the performer and helped to cement his nefarious star persona to a far greater degree than his film roles or screen performances.
A 1955 print ad shows television fixture Jackie Gleason being upstaged by clothing from his signature "Jackie Gleason Originals" line by Manhattan Shirt Company. The ad plays off of Gleason's reputation as a showman-a persona he reminds us of by hamming it up in a Santa suit with his eyes bulging and hands pressed against his chest in an exaggerated expression of surprise-by suggesting that the star plays second fiddle to the very products he's endorsing. Gleason looks on with astonishment (or perhaps intrigue, or envy) as the CBS television camera, microphone, and arc lamp are directed not at him but instead at a selection of dress shirts, ties, pajamas, and handkerchiefs-some of which bear illustrated figures of Gleason in his signature "And away we go!" stance-that are placed front and center in the ad, shunting him off to the side.
Rerun Nation is a fascinating approach to television history and theory through the ubiquitous yet overlooked phenomenon of reruns. Kompare covers both historical and conceptual ground, weaving together a refresher course in the history of television with a critical analysis of how reruns have shaped the cultural, economic, and legal terrains of American television. Given the expanding use of past media texts not only in the United States, but also in virtually every media-rich society, this book addresses a critical facet of everyday life.
The 1950s was one of the most turbulent periods in the history of motion pictures and television. During the decade, as Hollywood's most powerful studios and independent producers shifted into TV production, TV replaced film as America's principal postwar culture industry. This pioneering study offers the first thorough exploration of the movie industry's shaping role in the development of television and its narrative forms. Drawing on the archives of Warner Bros. and David O. Selznick Productions and on interviews with participants in both industries, Christopher Anderson demonstrates how the episodic telefilm series, a clear descendant of the feature film, became and has remained the dominant narrative form in prime-time TV. This research suggests that the postwar motion picture industry was less an empire on the verge of ruin--as common wisdom has it--than one struggling under unsettling conditions to redefine its frontiers. Beyond the obvious contribution to film and television studies, these findings add an important chapter to the study of American popular culture of the postwar period.
The essays included in this collection represent some of the best cultural and historical research on broadcasting in the U. S. today. Each one concentrates on a particular event in broadcast history-beginning with Marconi's introduction of wireless technology in 1899. Michael Brown examines newspaper reporting in America of Marconi's belief in Martians, stories that effectively rendered Marconi inconsequential to the further development of radio. The widespread installation of radios in automobiles in the 1950s, Matthew Killmeier argues, paralleled the development of television and ubiquitous middle-class suburbia in America. Heather Hundley analyzes depictions of male and female promiscuity as presented in the sitcom Cheers at a time concurrent with media coverage of the AIDS crisis. Fritz Messere examines the Federal Radio Act of 1927 and the clash of competing ideas about what role radio should play in American life. Chad Dell recounts the high-brow programming strategy NBC adopted in 1945 to distinguish itself from other networks. And George Plasketes studies the critical reactions to Cop Rock, an ill-fated combination of police drama and musical, as an example of society's resistance to genre-mixing or departures from formulaic programming. The result is a collection that represents some of the most recent and innovative scholarship, cultural and historical, on the intersections of broadcasting and American cultural, political, and economic life. © 2005 by The University of Alabama Press. All rights reserved.
Thesis--Northwestern University. Vita. Bibliography: leaves 229-233. Microfilm of typescript.
The Medium and the Magician: Orson Welles, the Radio Years, 1934–1952
- Paul Heyer
Hollywood and Broadcasting: From Radio to Cable
- Michele Hilmes
The Revolution Wasn't Televised: Sixties Television and Social Conflict
- Mark Alvey
NBC: America's Network
- Douglas Gomery
It's the Pictures That Got Small: Hollywood Film Stars on 1950s Television
- Christine Becker
She Battles for Minorities
- Gross Linda
Hollywood in the Age of Television
- William Lafferty
I'd Hate Myself in the Morning: A Memoir
- Ring Larder
Making Television: Authorship and the Production Process
- David Marc
The Serials: Suspense and Drama by Installment
- Raymond W Stedman
Roots of Radio's Rebirth: Audiences Aesthetics Economics and Technologies of American Broadcasting 1926-1951
- Russo Alexander