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Beyond the Movie Theater excavates the history of non-theatrical cinema before 1920, exploring where and how moving pictures of the 1910s were used in ways distinct from and often alternative to typical theatrical cinema. Unlike commercial cinema, non-theatrical cinema was multi-purpose in its uses and multi-sited in where it could be shown, targeted at particular audiences and, in some manner, sponsored. Relying on contemporary print sources and ephemera of the era to articulate how non-theatrical cinema was practiced and understood in the US during the 1910s, historian Gregory A. Waller charts a heterogeneous, fragmentary, and rich field that cannot be explained in terms of a master narrative concerning origin or institutionalization, progress or decline. Uncovering how and where films were put to use beyond the movie theater, this book complicates and expands our understanding of the history of American cinema, underscoring the myriad roles and everyday presence of moving pictures during the early twentieth century.
Gregory A. Waller is Provost Professor in Cinema and Media Studies in the Media School at Indiana University and editor of Film History: An International Journal.
"A monumental triumph. Gregory A. Waller mines untapped historical evidence, revealing a vast and previously obscured area of early twentieth-century cultural activity. This is a fresh, surprising, and highly original contribution to American film history."—Haidee Wasson, author of Everyday Movies: Portable Film Projectors and the Transformation of American Culture
"Outstanding. Waller brings a mastery of archival source work and careful methodological consideration to myriad contemporary periodicals and newspapers—many of which have been overlooked by previous historians of American cinema, until now. This is excellent scholarship."—Patrick Vonderau, University of Halle
320 pp.6 x 9Illus: 60 color images
9780520391505$34.95|£30.00Paper
Apr 2023