Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T11:52:53.706Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Storefronts to Theaters: Seeking the Middle Class

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Richard Butsch
Affiliation:
Rider University, New Jersey
Get access

Summary

Almost from its beginning the movie industry had sought a middle-class audience. Producers hoped to attract the “better classes” by publicizing their efforts at regulation and their responsiveness to reformers' criticisms. Some studios produced films of literary and dramatic classics and avoided the histrionic acting associated with cheap melodrama and lower-class audiences.

Exhibitors in smaller towns were among the earliest to seek a middle-class clientele, since they had to cater to a broader market. A Lexington, Kentucky nickelodeon advertised “polite, fashionable moving pictures … a nice place to spend a half-hour: With the children! With your wife! With your girl!” Another employed uniformed doormen and ushers to ensure order and encourage women and children to attend. A show in Milwaukee gave away a bottle of perfume to women attending matinees; they offered baby sitting as well.

But the major change and the major investment was moving toward regular theaters. There were many more storefront movie shows, but theaters quickly became an important part of the business and increased the visible middle-class clientele. The trade press from 1907 to 1913 urged exhibitors to attract a middle-class audience by refurbishing storefronts into “handsomely decorated and well-equipped little theatres.” Nickelodeon owners who made good profits – not all did – soon began looking for ways to invest their profits and heeded such advice.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Making of American Audiences
From Stage to Television, 1750–1990
, pp. 158 - 172
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×