America's corporate art : the studio authorship of Hollywood motion pictures / Jerome Christensen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Christensen, Jerome, 1948- Author.

Series:

Post 45.

Post 45

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion picture studios--California--Los Angeles--History.

Motion picture studios.

Motion picture authorship--California--Los Angeles--History.

Motion picture authorship.

Motion picture industry--California--Los Angeles--History.

Motion picture industry.

Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.)--History.

Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (401 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Contrary to theories of single person authorship, America's Corporate Art argues that the corporate studio is the author of Hollywood motion pictures, both during the classical era of the studio system and beyond, when studios became players in global dramas staged by massive entertainment conglomerates. Hollywood movies are examples of a commodity that, until the digital age, was rare: a self-advertising artifact that markets the studio's brand in the very act of consumption. The book covers the history of corporate authorship through the antithetical visions of two of the most dominant Hollywood studios, Warner Bros. and MGM. During the classical era, these studios promoted their brands as competing social visions in strategically significant pictures such as MGM's Singin' in the Rain and Warner's The Fountainhead. Christensen follows the studios' divergent fates as MGM declined into a valuable and portable logo, while Warner Bros. employed Batman, JFK, and You've Got Mail to seal deals that made it the biggest entertainment corporation in the world. The book concludes with an analysis of the Disney-Pixar merger and the first two Toy Story movies in light of the recent judicial extension of constitutional rights of the corporate person.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 The Rackets

2 MGM and the Invention of the Postwar Era

3 “’Til the Stars Go Cold”

4 Ownership and Authorship

5 Saving Warner Bros

6 Post-Warners Warners

7 The Conscience of a Corporation

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

ISBN:

9780804778428

0804778426

OCLC:

767502415