Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
In Hollywood 1938, Catherine Jurca brings to light a tumultuous year of crisis that has been neglected in histories of the studio era. With attendance in decline, negative publicity about stars that were “poison at the box office,” and a spate of bad films, industry executives decided that the public was fed up with the movies. Jurca describes their desperate attempt to win back audiences by launching Motion Pictures’ Greatest Year, a massive, and unsuccessful, public relations campaign conducted in theaters and newspapers across North America. Drawing on the records of studio personnel, independent exhibitors, moviegoers, and the motion pictures themselves, she analyzes what was wrong—and right—with Hollywood at the end of a heralded decade, and how the industry’s troubles changed the making and marketing of films in 1938 and beyond.
Price: $75.00
Pages: 284
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Publication Date:
28 March 2012
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780520233706
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
“A fascinating and substantial contribution to the cultural history of Hollywood film. . . . Highly recommended.”
Catherine Jurca is Professor of English at California Institute of Technology. She is the author of White Diaspora: The Suburb and the Twentieth Century American Novel.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Hollywood Looks at Its Audience
Part One: The Campaign
1. Annus Horribilis
Goldwyn’s Folly
Such a Thing as Bad Publicity
The Moviegoing Habit
2. Exhibitors, the Movie Quiz Contest, and a Divided Industry
The Minds of Exhibitors
The Carrot and the Stick
The Quiz Contest on the Ground
What the Contest Did for Me
Independents Rebel
3. The Campaign and the Press
The Film Industry Speaks Its Mind
Marginal Moviegoers
The Gossip Columnists
The Dailies Have Their Say
Part Two: The Films
4. “The Finest Array of Productions”
Ninety-Four Films
The Death of Glamour
Human Films
The Human Side of Screwball
You Can’t Take It with You
Four Daughters
Boys Town
Marie Antoinette
That’s Entertainment
The Fourth Estate
Conclusion: Motion Pictures’ Worst Year
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Hollywood Looks at Its Audience
Part One: The Campaign
1. Annus Horribilis
Goldwyn’s Folly
Such a Thing as Bad Publicity
The Moviegoing Habit
2. Exhibitors, the Movie Quiz Contest, and a Divided Industry
The Minds of Exhibitors
The Carrot and the Stick
The Quiz Contest on the Ground
What the Contest Did for Me
Independents Rebel
3. The Campaign and the Press
The Film Industry Speaks Its Mind
Marginal Moviegoers
The Gossip Columnists
The Dailies Have Their Say
Part Two: The Films
4. “The Finest Array of Productions”
Ninety-Four Films
The Death of Glamour
Human Films
The Human Side of Screwball
You Can’t Take It with You
Four Daughters
Boys Town
Marie Antoinette
That’s Entertainment
The Fourth Estate
Conclusion: Motion Pictures’ Worst Year
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Notes
Index