Hollywood and the Great Depression : American film, politics and society in the 1930s / edited by Iwan Morgan and Philip John Davies.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Davies, Philip, 1948- editor.

Morgan, Iwan W., editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--United States--History--20th century.

Motion pictures.

United States.

History.

Nineteen thirties.

Depressions--1929--United States.

Depressions.

United States--Social life and customs--20th century.

Manners and customs.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

vi, 288 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2016]

Summary:

In the popular imagination, 1930s Hollywood was a dream factory producing escapist movies to distract the American people from the greatest economic crisis in their nation's history. But while many films of the period conform to this stereotype, there were a significant number that promoted a message, either explicitly or implicitly, in support of the political, social and economic change broadly associated with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programme. At the same time, Hollywood was in the forefront of challenging traditional gender roles, both in terms of movie representations of women and the role of women within the studio system. With case studies of actors like Shirley Temple, Cary Grant and Fred Astaire, as well as a selection of films that reflect politics and society in the Depression decade, this fascinating book examines how the challenges of the Great Depression impacted on Hollywood and how it responded to them.

Contents:

1 : The political history of classical Hollywood : moguls, liberals and radicals in the 1930s/ Mark Wheeler

2 : Columbia Pictures and the Great Depression : a case study of political writers in Hollywood / Ian Scott

3 : Organization women and belle rebels : Hollywood's working women in the 1930s / J.E. Smyth

4 : The congressional battle over motion picture distribution, 1936-1940 / Catherine Jurca

5 : Shirley Temple and Hollywood's colonialist ideology / Ina Rae Hark

6 : Astaire and Rogers : carefree in Roberta / Peter William Evans

7 : The 'awful truth' about Cary Grant / Mark Glancy

8 : Footlight parade : the New Deal on screen / Harvey G. Cohen

9 : Our daily bread : 'cooperation', 'independence', and politics in mid-1930s cinema / Brian Neve

10 : Embodying the state : masculine transformation in Hollywood films of the New Deal era / Anna Siomopoulos

11 : 'We're only kids now, but someday... : Hollywood musicals and the Great Depression 'youth crisis / David Eldridge

12 : Chaplin's Modern Times : the reception of the film in the US, France, and Britain / Melvyn Stokes

13 : John Ford's Young Mr Lincoln : a popular front hero for the late 1930s / Iwan Morgan.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780748699926

0748699929

0748699937

9780748699933

1474414028

9781474414029

OCLC:

945357276