Monitoring the movies : the fight over film censorship in early twentieth-century urban America / Jennifer Fronc.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fronc, Jennifer, 1974- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

National Board of Review of Motion Pictures (U.S.).

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

Motion pictures.

Motion pictures--Moral and ethical aspects--United States.

Censorship--United States--History--20th century.

Censorship.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (213 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Austin, Texas : University of Texas Press, 2017.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

As movies took the country by storm in the early twentieth century, Americans argued fiercely about whether municipal or state authorities should step in to control what people could watch when they went to movie theaters, which seemed to be springing up on every corner. Many who opposed the governmental regulation of film conceded that some entity--boards populated by trusted civic leaders, for example--needed to safeguard the public good. The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures (NB), a civic group founded in New York City in 1909, emerged as a national cultural chaperon well suited to protect this emerging form of expression from state incursions. Using the National Board's extensive files, Monitoring the Movies offers the first full-length study of the NB and its campaign against motion-picture censorship. Jennifer Fronc traces the NB's Progressive-era founding in New York; its evolving set of "standards" for directors, producers, municipal officers, and citizens; its "city plan," which called on citizens to report screenings of condemned movies to local officials; and the spread of the NB's influence into the urban South. Ultimately, Monitoring the Movies shows how Americans grappled with the issues that arose alongside the powerful new medium of film: the extent of the right to produce and consume images and the proper scope of government control over what citizens can see and show.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction. The Origins of the Anticensorship Movement

Chapter 1. The Lesser of Two Evils: Debating Motion Picture Censorship, 1907-1912

Chapter 2 . "Critical and Constructive": The National Board's "Standards" and City Plan for Voluntary Motion Picture Review, 1912-1916

Chapter 3. "An Historical Presentation": The Birth of a Nation and the City Plan, 1909-1917

Chapter 4 . "Is Any Girl Safe?" White Slave Traffic Films and the Geography of Censorship, 1914-1917

Chapter 5. "Whether You Like Pictures or Not": The General Federation of Women's Clubs and State Censorship Legislation, 1916-1920

Chapter 6. Southern Enterprises: Building Better Films Committees in the Urban South, 1921-1924

Conclusion. Censorship and the Age of Self-Regulation, 1924-1968

Appendix. A Partial List of Cities Cooperating with the National Board of Review, 1918

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4773-1395-8

1-4773-1394-X

OCLC:

1280945567