Hollywood 1938 : motion pictures' greatest year /

N 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...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Jurca, Catherine, 1964-
Format: Licensed eBooks
Language:English
Published: Berkeley : University of California Press, ©2012.
Series:Fletcher Jones Foundation humanities imprint.
Online Access:https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pp0ps
Description
Summary:N 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.
Item Description:"Portions of this book appeared as "What the Public Wanted: Hollywood, 1937-1942," Cinema Journal 47, no. 2 (2008): 3-25; and "Motion Pictures' Greatest Year (1938): Public Relations and the American Film Industry," Film History 20, no. 3 (2008): 344-56"--Title page verso.
Physical Description:1 online resource (x, 272 pages).
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-261), index and filmography.
ISBN:9780520951969
0520951964
1280116536
9781280116537
9786613520821
6613520829
9780520233706
0520233700
9780520271807
0520271807