The Big Show , livre ebook

320

pages

English

Ebooks

2015

Écrit par
Michael Hammond

Publié par
University of Exeter Press

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320

pages

English

Ebooks

2015

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Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

University of Exeter Press

Date de parution

02 mars 2015

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780859899000

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

11 Mo

The Big Show looks at the role played by cinema in British cultural life during World War One.

In writing the definitive account of film exhibition and reception in Britain in the years 1914 to 1918, Michael Hammond shows how the British film industry and British audiences responded to the traumatic effects of the Great War.

The author contends that the War’s significant effect was to expedite the cultural acceptance of cinema into the fabric of British social life. As a result, by 1918, cinema had emerged as the predominant leisure form in British social life. Through a consideration of the films, the audience, the industry and the various regulating and censoring bodies, the book explores the impact of the war on the newly established cinema culture. It also studies the contribution of the new medium to the public’s perception of the war.

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Local Tracks: Exhibition Culture in Southampton

2. The Crisis of Total War and New Audiences

3. Anonymity and Recognition: The Roll of Honour Films

4. Education or Entertainment? Public and Private Interpretations of Battle of the Somme

5. Artful and Instructive: Respectability and The Birth of a Nation

6. Civilization: A Super-film at the Palladium, 1917

7. Chaplin: A Transatlantic Vernacular

8. 1918: Anguished Voices and Comic Slackers

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Filmography

Index

Voir

Publié par

University of Exeter Press

Date de parution

02 mars 2015

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780859899000

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

11 Mo

THE BIG SHOW

In writing the definitive account of film exhibition and reception in Britain in the years 1914 to 1918, Michael Hammond shows how the British film industry and British audiences responded to the traumatic effects of the Great War. The author contends that the War’s most significant effect was to expedite the cultural acceptance of cinema into the fabric of British social life. As a result, by 1918, cinema’s function had shifted from public service educator to therapeutic pastime, and film-going had emerged as the predominant leisure form in Britain. Drawing on the cinema culture of Southampton, an important gateway port to the battlefields of Europe, Hammond presents a series of case studies. These allow him to analyse the impact of the depiction of war on audiences, and to assess the cinema’s role in managing the traumas and stresses of war on the home front. Through a consideration of the films, the audience, the industry and the various regulating and censoring bodies, the book explores the impact of the Great War on the newly established cinema culture. It also studies the contribution of the new medium to the public’s perception of the War.

Michael Hammondlecturer in Film in the Department of English at the is University of Southampton. He has written extensively on the reception of early cinema in Britain, including a contribution toYoung and Innocent? The Cinema in Britain, 1896–1930, edited by Andrew Higson (University of Exeter Press, 2002).

Exeter Studies in Film History General Editors:Richard Maltby and Steve Neale

Exeter Studies in Film History, published in association with the Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture, is devoted to publishing the best new scholarship on the cultural, technical and aesthetic history of cinema. The aims of the series are to reconsider established orthodoxies and to revise our understanding of cinema’s past by shedding light on neglected areas in film history.

Parallel Tracks: The Railroad and Silent Cinema Lynne Kirby (1997) The World According to Hollywood, 1918–1939 Ruth Vasey (1997) ‘Film Europe’ and ‘Film America’: Cinema, Commerce and Cultural Exchange 1920–1939 edited by Andrew Higson and Richard Maltby (1999) A Paul Rotha Reader edited by D uncan Petrie and Robert Kruger (1999) A Chorus of Raspberries: British Film Comedy 1929–1939 David Sutton (2000) The Great Art of Light and Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema Laurent Mannoni, translated by Richard Crangle (2000) Popular Filmgoing in 1930s Britain: A Choice of Pleasures John Sedgwick (2000) Alternative Empires: European Modernist Cinemas and Cultures of Imperialism Martin Stollery (2000) Hollywood, Westerns and the 1930s: The Lost Trail Peter Stanfield (2001) Young and Innocent? The Cinema in Britain 1896–1930 edited by Andrew Higson (2002) Legitimate Cinema: Theatre Stars in Silent British Films 1908–1918 Jon Burrows (2003)

University of Exeter Press also publishes the celebrated five-volume series looking at the early years of English cinema,The Beginnings of the Cinema in England, by John Barnes.

THE BIG SHOW

British Cinema Culture in the Great War 1914–1918

Michael Hammond

First published in 2006 by University of Exeter Press Reed Hall, Streatham Drive Exeter EX4 4QR UK www.exeterpress.co.uk

The right of Michael Hammond to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Acts 1988.

Every effort has been made to trace the original copyright holders of material used in this book to obtain their permission. We would like to take this opportunity of making acknowledgement to any copyright holder that we may have failed to contact.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 0 85989 758 3

Typeset in Adobe Caslon by JCS Publishing Services

Printed in Great Britain by Antony Rowe, Chippenham

Contents

List of Illustrationsvii Acknowledgementsix Introduction 1 1. Local Tracks: Exhibition Culture in Southampton 16 2. The Crisis of Total War and New Audiences 48 3. Anonymity and Recognition: The Roll of Honour Films 70 4. Education or Entertainment? Public and Private Interpretations ofBattle of the Somme 98 5. Artful and Instructive: Respectability andThe Birth of a Nation 128 6.Civilization:A Super-film at the Palladium, 1917 154 7. Chaplin: A Transatlantic Vernacular 174 8. 1918: Anguished Voices and Comic Slackers 216 Conclusion 246 Notes252 Bibliography281 Filmography294 Index297

Illustrations

1.1. Southampton map showing the locations of cinemas and the two music halls, the Palace and the Empire, during 1914–18.This was adapted by the author from a location map in F. J. Monkhouse (ed.),A Survey of Southampton and Its Regions(Southampton: Southampton University Press, 1964) p. 241. 23 1.2. The Carlton, during George Elliott’s tenure as manager, fromWhat’s On in Southampton,2 October 1915. 43 2.1. Gaiety advertisement inWhat’s On in Southampton, 16 August 1916, around the time of the poster problem. 62 2.2.The White Slave Traffic: Billposters Censorship Committee letter with example of the type of poster considered unacceptable. (Reprinted by permission of Ronald Grant Archive.) 65 3.1. Will Onda’sPreston and District ‘Roll of Honour’, Sixth Series. (Reprinted by permission of National Film and Television Archive, British Film Institute.) 73

3.2. ‘The Great National Tribute: Roll of Honour’, fromSir Douglas Haig’s Great Push, part 5, 22 November 1916. 3.3. ‘Pathé Types’: advertisements for Pathé newsreels, from Pictures and the Picturegoer. Image of‘The Munition Worker’ appeared 28 October 1915, p. 95. Image of ‘The Wounded Tommy’ appeared 4 November 1915, p. 115. 4.1. A set of four photographs depicting the ‘process’ of battle, taken from the filmBattle of the Sommeand reprinted in Sir Douglas Haig’s Great Push, part 1, p. 22.

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4.2. Photograph of the Hampshire Regiment ‘moving up to the attack’, taken from the filmBattle of the Sommeand reprinted inSir Douglas Haig’s Great Push, part 1, p. 31. 5.1. The Grand Theatre exterior, Southampton. (Reprinted by permission of Southampton Archives Service.) 5.2.The Birth of a Nation,advertisement from theSouthampton District and Pictorial, 25 October 1916.

6.1.Civilization,advertisement fromThe Bioscope, 8 February 1917. 7.1. ‘Film Faces by a Famous Funny Fellow’: Charles Chaplin the artist surrounded by his characters, fromPictures and the Picturegoer, 1 August 1914, p. 529. 7.2. Frank Grey cartoon of Chaplin’s Essanay filmWork(1915), fromPictures and the Picturegoer, 8 January 1916, p. 337. 8.1 Western Import Company’s advertisement forShoulder Arms, fromThe Bioscope, 26 September 1918. 8.2. Frank Reynolds’s cartoon fromPunch, 28 July 1915, p. 97.

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