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American Movie Audiences of the 1930s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2002

Richard Butsch
Richard Butsch
Affiliation:
Rider University
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Abstract

he Depression and movies with sound changed movie audiences of the 1930s from those of the 1920s and earlier. Sound silenced audiences, discouraging the sociability that had marked working-class audiences before. The Depression led movie companies to change marketing strategies and construction plans. They stopped selling luxury and building movie palaces. Instead, they expanded their operation of neighborhood theaters, displacing independents that had been more worker friendly, and instituted centrally controlled show bills and policies. Audiences also appear to have become more heterogeneous. All this, too, discouraged the voluble behavior of working-class people. Ironically, in this era of labor activism, workers and their families seem to have become quieter in movie theaters, satisfied with the convenience of chain-operated movie houses.

Type
ARTICLE
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 59 , April 2001 , pp. 106 - 120
Copyright
© 2001 The International Labor and Working-Class History Society

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Footnotes

I thank Douglas Gomery, Kathryn Fuller, Lizabeth Cohen, and Ava Baron for their help. I especially thank Thomas Doherty for generously sharing information about primary sources on audience behavior.