International Labor and Working-Class, Inc.

American Movie Audiences of the 1930s Author(s): Richard Butsch Reviewed work(s): Source: International Labor and Working-Class History, No. 59, Workers and Film: As Subject and Audience (Spring, 2001), pp. 106-120 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Labor and Working-Class, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27672712 . Accessed: 20/06/2012 15:57
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ARTICLE
American Movie Audiences
Richard Butsch
Rider University

of the 1930s

Abstract The those and movies with sound changed movie Depression of the 1920s and earlier. Sound silenced audiences, before. audiences of the 1930s from

audiences ty that had marked working-class to change marketing and panies strategies Instead, luxury and building movie palaces. borhood instituted become displacing controlled centrally more heterogeneous. theaters,

discouraging The Depression construction plans. They

the sociabili led movie stopped com selling

independents show bills and policies. also appear to have Audiences All the voluble behavior of this, too, discouraged

their operation of neigh they expanded that had been more worker and friendly,

in this era of labor activism, workers and their fam working-class people. Ironically, ilies seem to have become in movie satisfied with the convenience theaters, quieter of chain-operated movie houses.

The 1930s were an exciting decade for labor activism in the United States and a in steel, automobile, and other high point for the growth of unions. Workers heavy industries organized industrial unions. The Committee on Industrial Or or CIO) was formed with ganization (later Congress of Industrial Organizations
a membership of more with than a million such workers. tactics in struggles employers, new workers initiated Factory as sit-down In politics, strikes. they ad

vanced
ployed

legislation
workers. at

and programs
the same time

in the New Deal

that workers'

to help employed
action and

and unem
class con

Ironically,

collective

sciousness were at a high point, movie audiences became quiet. They did not act collectively to control their experience in the theater. How did this happen? Two major factors shaped the 1930s movie house: sound movies and the Depression.
Entertainment ences, in particular, audiences have have not a always deal been of quiet.2 "class" Working consciousness class audi and ac exhibited good

tivism in theaters. The highpoint of audience activism was the Jacksonian era, when young workers filled the theaters of large industrializing cities. The pro totypical case is the "b'hoys" who crowded the Bowery Theater of New York They
from

and directed the show from the pit. They decided what the musicians played. forced actors to repeat a favorite line in the middle of a scene, or to divert
the play altogether and sing a song or dance. They called actors and man

International Labor and Working-Class History No. 59, Spring 2001, pp. 106-120 ? 2001 International Labor and Working-Class

History,

Inc.

American

Movie

Audiences

of

the

1930s

107 not satisfied with

actors out of the

agers before the curtain for applause or a dressing down. When

the responses to their calls, they rioted, sometimes even chasing theater. In the authority melodrama late nineteenth audiences, theaters that century, working-class catered even after the law had were given

managers lively

greater in cheap and

over

audiences to working-class

still quite They

audiences.

talked

sang, hissed and booed, although they rarely rioted. Not far from the Bowery, Yiddish theaters on Second Avenue were renowned for their avid and outspoken the plays, they busily kibitzed about the characters and audiences. Throughout what would happen to them. Between acts the hubbub of their talking and argu
ing with family, friends, and neighbors made uptown theaters seem dead.

When working-class
the tone and

nickelodeons
to fit

shortly before 1910, cropped up like mushrooms filled them with voluble audiences who again set neighborhoods
their own purposes. Reformers, such as Jane Addams in

pace

immi Chicago and Michael Davis in New York, remarked how working-class grants turned these commercial spaces for movies into social clubs for their own
needs. Reformers likened it to the workingman's club, the saloon, without alco

hol and with the wife and children. What these lively audiences had in common were
of their own were working-class public spaces neighborhoods, where workers with relatively theaters felt welcome.

theaters in or on the edge

cheap These admission. were The unpreten

tious places (the Bowery,

the pit and gallery), not

although an impressive building, had wood benches

requiring "proper" dress or behavior, where one could

in

"drop in"with little planning. They made it a social space through their animated conversation and playful mood. And they were filled with familiar faces of fel
low workers, a devoted following of regulars who could recognize each other at

the theater. How did sound film and the Depression theater of the 1930s?

change all this at the movie

Who Were Movie Audiences?

Admissions

and Demographics

Although different sources claim different attendance figures, the general pat tern of change in the sound era is clear. (See Table 1.) Before sound technology came crashing in on the movies in 1929, admissions had been and the Depression
growing steadily, as movie-going became increasingly a universal recreation.

and the disappearance of silent films coincided with a slowdown The Depression in 1930-33, even though admission prices dropped to as little as a third of what they had been. But a revival began about 1934. From that point, attendance (television, suburbia) again steadily rose to 1948, when postwar developments
changed movie-going habits. This was the golden era of movies, when movie go

ing was most

spent more

popular. During
on movie-going

the 1930s and through World War Two, people

than any other recreation, accounting for about

twenty percent of all recreational

amusements.3 Beyond gross admissions,

expenditures
estimates of

and eighty percent of spectator

breakdowns are un

demographic

108
Table Indoor Year Sound theaters Silent Drive-ins 1. Movie Theaters

ILWCH, 59, Spring 2001

and Admissions Weekly attendance Average admission price

(in millions)

1927 1928 1929

1930 1931 1932 1933 1934

20 100 800
8,860 13,128 13,880 14,405 14,381 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 15,273 15,358 18,192 18,182 17,829

21,64457 22,20465 22,54480

14,14090 0.30 75 8,865 0.20 60 4,835 0.23 60 .23 4,128 70 2,504 .23 80 .23 88 .23 88 .23 85 .23 85 .23 ? 95 99 97 96 102 80 .241 85 .252 85 .273 85 .294 85 .317 85 .352

1940 19,032 1941 19,645 1942 20,281 1943 20,196 1944 20,277 1945 20,355

1946 18,719
1947 18,059 1948 17,575 1949 17,367 1950 16,904 1951 16,150 1952 15,347 1953 14,174

300
548 820 1,203 2,202 2,830 3,276 3,791

90 .403
90 .404 90 .401 .460 .528 .528 51 .60 46 .60 70 60 54

Sources: Theaters, admissions, and prices from Film Daily Year Book, 105,107. Admission prices for 1930-31 from Tino Balio, Grand Design Press, 1993), 13.

1960 (New York: Film Daily, 1960), (Berkeley: University of California

certain,

as

illustrated

by

continuing

disagreements

over

the

class

composition

of

nickelodeon audiences. By the 1930s most people went to the movies, but some went more than others. In 1939, writer Margaret Thorp estimated that forty mil in the 1930s were regulars, and described the au lion of 130 million Americans
dience as mostly middle-class, white, between fourteen and forty-five years old,

and more
goer

adult females
World

than males. George

Two as twenty-seven

Gallup

described
old,

the typical movie

twenty-eight

just before

War

years

earning

dollars a week (close to the median income for American While most would agree that the audience was white poverty restricted attendance

families).4 (since segregation and there is disagree by blacks and other minorities),

American

Movie

Audiences

of

the

1930s

109

ment over the class balance. Contradicting Margaret Thorp's impression that the middle class predominated, community studies from the 1930s indicate heavier movie-going by lower classes. A study in San Francisco found that workers and clerks with income about one third of professionals spent over twice as much per year on movie-going. A 1936 Fortune survey found twenty-eight percent of the
"prosperous," twenty-seven percent of the lower middle class, and nineteen

percent Warner
mid-1930s

of the poor went to the movies once per week. Sociologists W Lloyd and Paul Lunt found large numbers of workers inmovie houses in the
in "Yankee City." At least some portion of the audiences were un

employed workers whiling

It is clear today. However, that what all classes is more

away their idle hours.5

went to the movies and went more audience regularly behavior than is important for understanding

the makeup of audiences in individual theaters: Who was sitting next to whom? While it is hard to establish with any certainty, trends in exhibition suggest that in terms of eth individual theaters had audiences that were less homogeneous
nicity and class, as compared to audiences in the famous nickelodeons. These

and other changes

sound film,

arising from the Depression,

movie audience behavior.

along with

the introduction

of

transformed

Sound Silences Audiences:

1926-1931

A simple factor in quieting audiences was the introduction of sound film. Be tween 1926 and 1931 movie theaters were fitted with sound systems, the over whelming majority in 1930. By 1931, theaters without sound were in the minor 1928 (before (See Table 1.) Between ity; by 1934, they had all but disappeared. sound had an impact) and 1935 (after silent movies had disappeared), one-third
of all movie houses, about seven thousand theaters, closed. Those that closed

their doors
mostly

typically could not afford

in rural

to install new sound systems

areas. One old movie-goer

and were
said,

independents

and working-class

"After
prices

that, everything
started to go up."6 at first received

seemed

to change with
welcome.

the movie
Donald

business.
Crafton's

Even
review

the
of

Sound

an uncertain

published
favor while

letters to fan magazines

others were just as

reveals very mixed

Some claimed

opinions,
soothing

some strongly in
characteristics

opposed.

and a unique dramatic quality for silent films. Others

provement over subtitles, and liked hearing what

found "talkies" a great im

were actually saying.7

actors

Early
sound ly, even

sound tracks and the acoustics

quality for music. In small might But and be

of early theaters did not produce

where an musicians over with often played improvement theaters been quite a mediocre dollar

good
poor piano

theaters,

player where

low-quality on a cheap the stage

recording upright. shows

at downtown had

admissions, attendance

orchestras

elaborate,

dropped precipitously when musicians were fired and the shows cut back. Sur veys found that most people preferred talking movies but live music. As sound
improved, however, sound tracks made live music superfluous.

In the silent era, piano players in small theaters often used their music

to in

110
fleet the meaning of the movie, a romantic

ILWCH, 59, Spring 2001

e.g., making scene comic. Audiences

often controlled the meaning of the movie by directing musician(s), the only live to provide music preferred by the audience and different from that performers,
recommended mood by movie producers. Recorded control sound over and the music standardized and message, eliminating audiences' entertainment.8

Sound also changed behavior. As one report phrased it, "the talking audi ence for silent pictures became a silent audience for talking pictures." Talking and other noises now were distractions that interfered with listening to the
movie enforced, become were dialogue. with less problems Audience audiences assertive, with attitudes changed talkers. Silenced, on the accordingly. the audience Silence seems when was self to have there shushing more concentrated When

the projector.

sound

the movie?except was unsatisfactory,

it became

customary
was done.

for audiences
Projection

to stamp their feet and clap in unison until something

broke audience absorption in the story and re

problems

engaged
interest

them with
and action.9

their fellow viewers, momentarily

joining them in common

The Depression: Movie The Depression

promotion place, Movie price, palace

Palaces

and Neighborhood the movie-going

of

Houses experience.
at the movie the became were scaled

abruptly
and

redefined
as an distraction stopped

It halted
palace. selling back and

the
In its

of movie-going comfort construction

experience from and stage

luxury

worries shows

point. even

in small towns, closed tually disappeared. Many theaters, mostly independents their doors in the early years, due to the double shock of sound film and the de pressed economy. (See Table 1.) These were the ones with the smallest profit margin and the least able to invest in sound. The difficult times continued for
them, managers The in lower even while national reported closed attendance poor tended figures attendance to be theaters rose and whose to record hard levels. Small-town regularly ones that income times.10 were people smaller could and af

markets where

neighborhoods,

or poorer

small

towns

ford only the lowest admission. These neighborhoods

ly to have munity had among homogeneous each other. audiences, In rural areas ones these that were

and towns were more

more of a sense not

like

shared

of com

probably

homogeneous

in terms of class, but they probably did share a "plain folk" identity opposed, in the American tradition, to the big-city rich and powerful symbolized by the movie palace of the 1920s. The movie palaces that survived in the 1930s redefined the evening from one of champagne to one of popcorn and soda. They drastically reduced prices, eliminated or reduced the stage shows, cut staffs, and redefined their jobs. They lowered the wages of ushers and trained them for crowd control instead of cour
teous assistance. Many began continuous showings of movies and emphasized

double features instead of lavish live stage shows. They ended the ban on food and drinks in the theater, and opened refreshment stands to supplement in
come.11

American Movie Audiences

of the 1930s

111

The Depression took hold just as a handful of major Hollywood studios es tablished firm control of the industry, vertically integrated from production to exhibition. These studios halted plans to build large and lavish movie palaces. Instead, they instituted a new wave of theater construction after 1932, building smaller theaters with sound systems in less expensive, modern
on the business streets of neighborhoods, suburbs, and small

architectural
towns to try

style
to ex

pand the market.

trons could seat became freshments

In place of ushers, they turned up lights between movies

themselves. centers Concession of profit.12 stands selling popcorn and other

so pa
re

The new theaters differed from the old neighborhood houses. Vertical in centralized decision-making, the influence of the local man tegration reducing
ager. longer mous, nity Decisions his.13 less space. This about made booking the to the movies, houses local more patrons, music, and even and refreshments perhaps less more like were anony a commu no impersonal less

responsive

"neighborly,"

more

houses closed, working-class cheaper, old neighborhood people were to see movies in the company of middle-class The Depres likely patrons. sion and vertical integration pushed theaters to seek a broader market and try to attract all classes within their vicinity. One indicator of the need to appeal to As
market are the comments of managers writing to Motion Picture Her

a broader

ald, warning
were managers

that a movie
of theaters

appealed
in small

only to women
towns where

or to "high brows." These

that segmented the au

a movie

dience could not turn a profit, and therefore

mogeneous audiences of the wrong sort, i.e.,

they were alert to the danger of ho

too small in numbers.14

shift to broader markets was part of a national pattern in economic structure, as national brands and national chains were beginning to push aside corner stores and unbranded or local products. As historian Liz Cohen has ar gued, working-class people were being incorporated into this mass market and This shopping at chain stores. Culturally, this was drawing them away from their class and ethnic identity at the very time that many were most class conscious inwork and politics.15 In the movie house, their behavior would reflect their orientation
as consumers consumption rather was than as workers. born at The Fordist solution of increasing worker being the movies.

The reformed palaces and neighborhood houses were becoming more like each other. Palaces jettisoned their aura of luxury and exclusivity in service if not in architecture; neighborhood houses were upgraded with sound and modern ar chitecture was more
night's

that symbolized equality rather than hierarchy. The service in both impersonal and oriented to simply delivering the movie instead of a
Both were seeking audiences from a broader market in or

experience.

der to fill theater seats. This national mass marketing

segregated movie houses that, through location,

displaced
and

earlier class
policy, im

architecture,

plicitly identified with specific classes and ethnic groups. Meanwhile that many of the more "community friendly" independents might still represent specific groups were struggling. To compete with the inte many of the grated chains and to counter the hard times of the Depression,

112
smaller missions. reduced "dish "Foto houses were "bargain "identify-the-star Managers also many to sponsor of

ILWCH, 59, Spring 2001

independent There prices: night," nite." began variations "ten-cent contests," arranged promotional nights "bank night," with with night," "giveaway local events door to boost prizes ad and

special night," "festival

night,"

"family

night," and with

night,"

"tie-ins"

businesses,

schools, and 4H and literary clubs. A New York Times article claimed
two miums designed thousand to entice to appeal theaters, mostly independent Premiums and make such them and as in small towns, were customers. to women "Depression-ware" regular customers who

that over
using pre were re

dishes would

turn each week (for as many as eighty-six weeks) until they had a complete set of dishes. For forty cents she got an article which would have cost twenty cents
or more theaters.16 at a store and also saw a double feature. These giveaways filled many

The Hollywood studios at first opposed these promotions. Warner Broth ers released Robin Hood with the condition that no games or giveaways be used when the film was shown. Instead, they preferred promotions that built audience allegiance
attractions, ing such

to the studio, not the theater. Shifting

movie efforts studios promoted Disney, who their movie was a master was Walt

focus from the theater and its

stars of under studio contract. promotion. Pioneer In 1929,

Disney
urday movies community peal

formed Mickey Mouse

matinees as well as in specific tie-ins for

Clubs with weekly meetings

The clubs promoted Disney

scheduled
characters efforts

for Sat
and to link ap

theaters. a range

organizations and also

to this further

of Disney made toys. Disney as well, a veneer activity adding enhance his product image.

that would and Warn

to reformers

Loew's

er Brothers
managers.17

circuits also organized

The major movie studios'

children's
efforts

clubs, as did many

to shift allegiance

local theater
is another ex

to movie stars would be ample of the impact of national branding. Attachment achieved at the cost of weakening the movie house's local attachment to the neighborhood. Localism did not die entirely. Some small-town theaters tried to sustain themselves with live music that appealed to local identity. Historian Gregory Waller found low-budget live shows continuing in small Kentucky towns through
out the 1930s. Movie theaters became an important venue for live country mu

sic, indigenous to the regional culture, alongside Hollywood movies. These small town theaters of three hundred to four hundred seats were important sources of income to live country musicians who, though widely known for their radio per
formances, received little money from those broadcasts or from their record

ings.18 In contrast to the stage shows of the 1920s big-city movie palaces and the 1930s Hollywood movie shown in these country theaters, these live shows gave
voice to the poorer local culture. This was a region and era in which poverty was

not pejorative; in a sense was expressed

times.19

being poor and working-class was a badge of authenticity, and the dominant local culture. Country music of the time typically the hardships of low-income people facing tough lives and tough

American

Movie

Audiences

of

the

1930s

113

Kids at theMovies
What were people doing at the movies? A few scattered sources give some evi

dence of what children were having a good time. Whether neighborhood movie theaters. with pre-adolescent children,
from half a working-class twice a week district going

doing: It would seem the kids were by and large for the clubs or other reasons, children flocked to InMiddletown, Saturday matinees were popular at least half staying for five to six hours. Children
of New Movies Haven were attended movies frequently, the first over prefer overwhelmingly

or more.

ence of leisure activities of Italian working-class

1930. other Two-thirds fifth went reported twice that a week, they went usually to movies alone.

teenage girls inEast Harlem

at least also once similar a week, to what and an It was high

in

school students from a range of social classes in Chicago reported, and similar to findings in Philadelphia in 1935 among junior high students. Movies were overtaking all other activities in children's preferences, including outdoor games for boys and shopping for girls.20 Unlike adults, children didn't change their behavior much with the coming of sound. They often came with groups of friends. Descriptions of children's crowd behavior, yelling and matinees of the 1930s depict typical pre-adolescent high jinx that managers and ushers did their best to contain. Just north of the
Bronx, a cheap theater attracted a mix of black, Italian, and Jewish children for

Saturday serials. One of them reported years later that the film broke regularly and the children "booed, stamped feet and often had fist fights." The mayor of
Chelsea, juvenile ence to Massachusetts, spectators necking.21 were closed such as a theater to endanger in 1930 because "the actions of many a refer their morals"?apparently

It appears that kids participated

audiences. Most importantly, they were

in what were
a theater

still relatively homogeneous

full of kids. One of the recur

ring criticisms of the time is the large numbers

erones at the movies. In urban areas, most walked

of children without
to the theater

adult chap
and therefore

likely from the same neighborhood?even

mentioned, neighborhoods may have shared

though, as at the Bronx

a theater. Finally, many

theater just
went to

school together and would have seen familiar faces there. The kids' "hour" had
many of the same characteristics of earlier theaters with lively audiences. They

were

lively. Adults

however

had quieted

down.

Managers
Some

Talk About Audiences

about adult behavior can be extracted from a weekly column

information

of letters from theater managers entitled, "What This Picture Did forMe," pub re lished in the Motion Picture Herald through the 1930s and 1940s. Managers were many viewed the film and described how well it drew attendance. Included
brief comments about audiences' reactions to pictures. From these we can glean

some sense of the audiences

of the 1930s. I examined

about five thousand

short

114 reviews in the column during 1934-1936

tified eral" by town and by category all of as "small the reviews patronage. Almost

ILWCH, 59, Spring 2001 and 1939-1940.

town," came "small from

Each review was iden

town and rural," in small or "gen or towns

theaters

cities. These were fourth- and fifth-run houses, indicated by periodic comments on the poor quality of the worn-out prints sent to them. Even the largest cities mentioned did not have a population of more than a few thousand. One March 1939 comment indicated that the town was not large enough to support matinees just for children. Many reviews noted that weather and bad roads determined
attendance, walk much less an issue where streets were paved and people might even to the movie The Managers "very few audiences described sophisticated house. were their certainly patrons not as upper-class "plain folk," "not high metropolitan "common class," folk," etc. They sophisticates. "average," described

types,"

"farmers,"

movies
"class cated." their

that did not appeal to their patrons as being for "society class of people,"
patronage," These class "the audiences class were and that not supports unlike opera," some of "high brow," and "sophisti in the nickelodeon audiences

composition audiences

sophistication. of necessity included all classes from the area. But

Small-town

consistently lump all their patrons into the "plain folk" category, distinguishing them from big-city sophisticates. This "plain folk" classification is reinforced by regular comments that films of upper-class American life, literary classics like Shakespeare, classical music, and British films (with upper-class ac the managers cents) did not go over well. So while
ater, classes The fourth-run these and audiences the less seem powerful. too, These occasionally expressed were most independent likely some resentment of their by culturally,

it is not clear precisely who

if not economically, to identify

is in each the
with lower

managers, status.

theaters,

unprotected

studios. The vertically integrated industry put these small-town inde at the bottom of the hierarchy, after the big-city theaters had rung most pendents of the profits out of movies. Several managers complained that the biggest hits, such as Gone with theWind, reached them so late and at such inflated prices that few attended. As one described it, those who could afford itwent to the city to see it, and the rest could not afford it even in their town.

the major

From

Community

to Consumers

Managers frequently hearty and even uncontrolled reported considerable that audiences cheered or yelled in delight laughter. They occasionally reported
at movies. one manager In a very reported few instances, an audience audiences requesting were more active. of one In October reel of 1935, a movie. an encore

in about five Only three incidents of hissing or other shouting were mentioned in October thousand reviews. In Mason, Michigan, 1934, boys in the gallery In Frankfort, Kansas, in June 1936, "razzed" Spitfire with Katherine Hepburn. "the folks razzed" a movie entitled Yellow Dust as too silly. In Baldwin, Michi

American Movie Audiences

of the 1930s

115

1936, a young man from a Civilian Conservation gan, in October Corps camp hollered, "Toss her a fish!" when an actress sang in a "high fallutin" style. People typically expressed their opinion by walking out during the show or telling the manager as they left at the end of the show. The managers often re ported a count of how many people "walked out." In September 1936, one re that "they walked out in fours with a $60 bank night." ported in astonishment Managers
comments agers.

stood
as they

in the lobby to observe

left patrons the shows. Often commented when

people's
people they

reactions
returned

and overhear
comments to see a movie

their

volunteered

to man again,

Sometimes

or called the next day to express their approval or disapproval. In one instance, people called to ask the manager to explain what the movie had meant. The fre quency with which managers received unsolicited feedback is remarkable. The column gives a distinct impression that people in these small towns were on a per sonal footing with the managers, who were likely also the owners and long-time
residents of these towns, and more readily voiced their opinions to managers than

audiences do today.22 But instead of making demands during the show, they wait ed to voice their opinions in private to the managers. The overall feeling of these
comments ually is that the their evoked audiences votes rather had taken on the persona acting of consumers individ registering Newsreels than groups that were collectively. where people were of

reactions

an exception,

ten vocal and even collectively

expression of political sentiments

booed political
in reaction

figures during

the show. Public

was wide

to newsreels

apparently

in November ly accepted. InMotion Picture Herald, one manager complained about the upcoming election were "making for rowdy 1936 that newsreels houses. They clap and boo and, boy, I will be glad when the whole damn thing [the election] is settled." Variety reviewed newsreels in the early 1930s at two of New York City's large midtown movie theaters, the Embassy and the Translux.23
Variety sometimes reported audiences as "listless," but at the Translux some

hissed and some applauded Mayor Jimmy Walker. On another occasion, people laughed along with Walker and one person hissed the inauguration of the new mayor. At the Embassy some applauded politicians favoring repeal of Prohibi tion. In 1932, audiences at both theaters hissed President Herbert Hoover while Franklin D. Roosevelt usually received more applause. The New York Times re ported incidents also. Letters to the dramatic editor in the late 1930s complained in newsreels. The Mayor of people in the audience hissing President Roosevelt
of Bronxville, New York, asked theater managers to put on the screen an an

nouncement

that the President should not be booed and that the audience should stand for the national anthem.24 So audiences booed political figures in newsreels in big cities as well as small towns. On the other hand, theMotion Picture Herald, Variety, and The New York
rarely reported outspoken reactions to movies other than newsreels. Film

Times

Daily did report that some audiences booed in 1930 when movie producers and exhibitors added trailers that advertised products. The major studios quickly
ended the practice.25

116
The trend seemed to a norm of silence.

ILWCH, 59, Spring 2001

support The norm of silence was

given legal sanction

ences annoyed by

in 1939, when
talkers in the

a New York court upheld

to give them a "Bronx

the right of audi

cheer."26 This

audience

is notable because
to free expression, Audience

the decision
and condoned more

effectively
audiences commonly

favored a right to silence rather than

policing reported their members were inconsiderate for silence. viola

behaviors

tions of manners. The New York Times published articles and letters complain ing about the manners of adult audiences. Letters in 1936 complained of women not removing their hats and of people talking or crumpling candy wrappers dur ing the movie. Parodying such complaints, an article in 1940 listed suggestions
for audience wear members a loose to make collar, and themselves close one's more eyes for comfortable: a few seconds to take off one's points shoes, at slow

in the movie.27 Overall, pared 1910. to the the ones audiences described expressed depicted in reports themselves in these on reviews are rather sedate com around to movies.

working-class exclusively

nickelodeons in reaction

Audiences

almost

This may be that writers

ments, commonly equally across true class absolutely noted of and none, in urban gender. the

failed to report other behavior,

about earlier

but I found no com

of the sort was This

and moving about, talking, socializing, era among audiences. working-class palaces and small-town houses, and

movie

apparently

Compare this to comments of observers around 1910 in nickelodeons. At an immigrant nickelodeon in the small city ofWorcester, Massachusetts, in 1912, for example, the people treated it as "the gathering place of the women of the neighborhood with their babies and little children, a crude sort of tea-room gos siping place." In 1909, New York City regulars "stroll up and down the aisles be
tween scribed more reels and visit friends." as "less social life." The formal In same than response year the in Chicago, Jane Addams there de is much a nickelodeon gossip and and theater, regular to a movie, children's

"shouting,

whistling
markable."

and stomping
In a sing-along,

combine
the

in a demonstration
crowd, not the manager,

which
chose

at times ismost
the songs

re

as peo

ple shouted out different

ence from acting rather than or the manager In some ties. As ed with cued

requests.28 The descriptions

reacting. by Initiatives the movie. were used for came from

uniformly
the audience

depict an audi
rather than

instances, other the small causes socialist

nickelodeons neighborhood of the local

political businesses,

and

union owners

activi tend

entertainment community; meetings.

to support mean

in working-class Some houses

communities showed suf

this might

speakers

or union

fragist or socialist films, other slides to publicize union activities, or hosted fund in the 1900s and 1910s, I raisers.29 While these were not frequently mentioned found no references to such uses of movie houses in the 1930s, despite the high level of union and political activity of the Depression. in the 1930s was distinctly different from both nickelodeon Movie-going
and movie palace audiences. The working-class neighborhood nickelodeon had

been typified by audiences

that co-opted

the space for socializing

and other uses

American

Movie

Audiences

of

the

1930s

117
movie on the

beyond

watching

movies.

Mostly

middle-class

palace

audiences,

other hand, had chosen a "special night out" to indulge in a relatively expensive evening of fantasy and luxury in plush surrounding, with lavish lounges and re
strooms and other amenities, served by an army of solicitous ushers, and pre

sented with a full program of spectacular

Because ly to act the 1930s audiences than those were of more collectively

live as well as film entertainment.30

heterogeneous, they nickelodeons. were less Heteroge like

the working-class

neous audiences would mean

feel less at home and more

fewer familiar and like-minded

The new modern

faces; they would

that replaced

constrained.

theaters

many old neighborhood independents lacked those characteristics that had fos tered the "social club" atmosphere in the nickelodeons. People in the 1930s were drawn to the movie house not to socialize nor for a night's indulgence in luxury. Rather, they sought an inexpensive and relaxed
leisure activity that was convenient and comfortable, and maybe a bonus of a

free dish or winning a raffle. Perhaps working need for collective action outside the movie
union needs. struggles Overt world acts activity They and seem public to have or to send demonstrations come their to the for theater and

people house,
government

in the 1930s satiated their era of in this exceptional

response from to workers' worries baby and sitter. of the

outside, of

children only when

to get away use the movies reminded

as a

audiences

occurred

newsreels

patrons

outside.

The shift in attitude at one's own convenience

when in the the movie 1930s.31 had This was

is illustrated by the habit of arriving at the movie house instead of at the beginning of the show, and of leaving
the a habit point common "where in the we came in," which reappeared nick classic early working-class

reached

elodeon and cheap vaudeville with continuous showings, but supposedly had waned after the introduction of the feature film and the movie palace. At the
movie they the often next common it was palace were entertained performance began. practice with to hold audiences the in vast current lobbies?where show ended and live music?until

Late arrival and early departure have a long tradition, but have always been a mark of the relative affordability and ready availability of entertainment. Be
fore classes cheap entertainment them with was such widely and treated nonchalance available, regularly as to arrive when only they urban chose. upper When

reached the level of a nickel in the nickelodeon and was cheap entertainment available even in small cities, even working-class people might drop in regularly
for a brief respite, whenever convenient.

Who
Another

's in Control?
change that contributed audience carefully to a more participation orchestrated and or on "passive" events and "bargain than many audience organized supervised nights." On was by the theater growth man

of numerous agers Prices managers in the were

inventive 1930s, reduced gave away always

by management. "bank weekly nights," income.

for matinees fifty dollars

so, more

families'

118
a of

ILWCH, 59, Spring 2001

gave away variety "premiums," the well-known dishes, photos of

Managers

stars, and many

those tomers, their days. offering products

other things people were hard pressed

recruited a and special causes. night other for business local stores, and nonprofit schools,

to justify purchasing
groups and clubs to draw cus to promote

in

Managers

In all these instances, participation

by managers but the games and were under their supervision. by managers controlled

by audiences was planned and initiated

Patrons and were required invited little to play from games, audiences.

This was different

called the tunes.

even from the sing-alongs

Now managers called the

in the nickelodeons
tunes, and the

when patrons
were led

sing-alongs

by the "bouncing ball" on the screen and the organist that remained from the live shows and music of earlier days. Thomas Doherty points out how 1930s
movies shots of sometimes the stars orchestrated that were timed audience for reactions. Actors Opening paused credits for included applause. laughs.32

Not that patrons seemed tomind following rather than leading. This seems consistent with the new attitude of sitting back and being entertained, to have delivered to them what they had purchased, and, if they were lucky, with a bonus,
not ences relax, to do who, not something unlike act. and their exercise critics, are control. not One is reminded but simply of choose television television audi to passive,

This interpretation
strained straint theater may audiences. explain

differs from the usual one that middle-class

It is suggesting Images of rather the that relaxation

decorum
more middle than

re
re class

"passivity."

nineteenth-century

depict a group obsessed with respectability and conformity to proper behavior in order to protect their status. They repressed their urges and constrained their
actions, ences including for middlein theaters. and upper-class This does forms seem to explain the during "taming" the midof audi to late of entertainment

nineteenth
for middle-class

century.33 Similarly, the movie

decorum, proper dress,

palaces of the 1910s and 1920s called

behavior, and the exclusion

appropriate

of children who could not be counted on to behave themselves. the middle class from a disorderly Manners and decorum distinguished class. The traditional image of working-class men and boys depicts them working letting go rather than restraining themselves in their leisure pursuits in public
places. The nickelodeon afforded working-class audiences an opportunity to

make

themselves at home and they exhibited less concern for what others of them, especially others outside their own community. thought The sketchy descriptions of audiences in the 1930s suggest that the middle and working classes were both more concerned with the relaxing qualities of
although were but not were not as vocal, rather with candy in the lively, pursuing propriety sense and of earlier audiences audiences, seem communal their and audiences. Movie working-class as nickelodeon working-class consumer individual comfort. They community. leaving comfort hats Comments on, and good about so forth impression, man suggest and

movie-going,

less concerned tearing they were open more

both

ners, that

wrappers, with

talking, personal

concerned

than

American Movie Audiences

focused in the more theater. on their own

of the 1930s
small than the

119
them

group

"community"

surrounding

During
The movie, tractions. friends The and

the 1930s, then, movie

not the place, audience and was Behavior comfort

going settled into a form familiar to us today.

and convenience, anonymous, by not more less luxury, less a class. were the at of com community same The

cross-class, was

neighbors.

distinguished

ments made
today. Talking

in the 1930s about movie

and other noises seems consumption. became

audiences
been

can often be found in comments

to adults in the from a audience. transformed

annoyances

Working-class experience

movie-going into private

to have

community

NOTES
1. I thank Douglas and Ava Baron for their Fuller, Lizabeth Cohen, Gomery, Kathryn for generously thank Thomas information about primary help. I especially sharing Doherty sources on audience behavior. 2. The following is distilled from Richard Butsch, Au The Making synopsis of American diences from Stage to Television, 1750-1990 UK, 2000). (Cambridge, see A. D. Murphy, 3. On admissions, "Trace Recession's Impact on Pix," Variety, August to Sound, The Talkies: America Cinema's Transition 1926-1931 6,1980, Crafton, 1, 32; Donald the American 263, 355; Lary May, "Making Theatres, Way: Modern (Berkeley, 1999), 190-91, as and the Film Industry, 12 (1987):92, Audiences 107-111. On movies 1929-1945," Prospects see Bruce Austin, of expenditures, Immediate Audiences percent Seating: A Look At Movie at share declined CA, 1989), 36. Movies' rapidly after the war to about five percent (Belmont, Art (Boston, the end of the 1950s. See Garth Jowett, Film: The Democratic 1976), 473. On dis see Douglas in "Toward a New Media numbers, Economics," pute over admission Gomery, Film Studies, ed. David Bordwell and Noel Carroll (Madison, WI, Post-Theory: Reconstructing 1996), 413-15. 4. Margaret Facts," Time, Thorp, America At The Movies (New Haven, 1939); "Boy Meets 73. July 21,1941, 5. Jowett, Film: cial Life of aModern Idle Time," The New The New York Times, The Democratic and Paul Lunt, The So Art, 265, 285; W. Lloyd Warner see "Plenty of Community (New Haven, 1941), 412. On the unemployed, and the response: York Times, April from Trouble," 12,1938,22; "Respite 16,1938,12. April 6. May, "Making the American that almost half closed between Way," 92, 108, estimated see Crafton, 1929 and 1932. On independents, The Talkies, 255. Quote from John Margolies American Movie and Emily Gwathemey, Ticket to Paradise: and How We Had Fun Theaters

in Chicago, Industrial Workers 1919-1939 (Cam The New York Times, October 20, 1929, IX-17; "Audiences and Sound," The New York Times, January 4,1931, VIII-6. on attendance were published comments to movies 10. Managers' in the and reactions in Motion Picture Herald the 1930s. column, "What the Picture Did for Me," weekly throughout a glimpse of audiences It provides in small town America. and movie exhibition 11. Douglas A History Shared Pleasures: Presentation in the United Gomery, of Movie as a Modern States (Madison, Business 1992), chapter 4; Tino Balio, Grand Design: Hollywood 1930-1939 Enterprise, (Berkeley, 1995), 26-30. 12. Crafton, The Talkies, 264, 265; May, "Making the American Way"; Douglas Gomery, "The Popularity in the U.S. 1930-1950," inHigh Theory/Low of Film Going ed. Col Culture, inMcCabe (New York, 1986), 71-79. a New Deal, 13. Gomery, Shared Pleasures, 125-29. chapter 4; Cohen, Making

(Boston, 1991), 44. 7. Crafton, The Talkies, 485-89. 8. Elizabeth "Sound Comes Fones-Wolf, 68 (1994):14-28. tory and Biography a New Deal: 9. Lizabeth Cohen, Making at Movies," bridge, UK, 1990), 128; "Stamping

to the Movies,"

Pennsylvania

Magazine

of His

120 ILWCH, 59, Spring 2001

14. From "What the Picture Did for Me," Motion Picture Herald, 1934-1940. a New Deal, 15. Cohen, Making 125-29. in "What the Movie Did for Me," Motion 16. Many special nights and tie-ins mentioned at Play: Games Picture Herald, and Pre Thomas 1934-1936,1939-1940; Pryor, "The Audience The New York Times, April Stars as Box Office Attractions," miums Rival Hollywood's 24, on premiums "The Popularity of Film Going," and bingo. 1938, X, 4. See also Gomery, 17. Richard The Case of Disney, de Cordova, 1929-1933," "Tracing the Child Audience: in Prima dei codici 2. Alie porte di Hays de Cordo and Richard Italy, 1991), 217-221; (Venice, inMacy's Window: in Pro and Disney Animation," Consumerism va, "The Mickey Childhood, ed. Eric Smoodin ducing the Magic Kingdom, (New York, 1995). and Will Rogers: 18. Gregory Waller, in the Small Town Picture Shows "Hillbilly Music to the Early Sound Era, ed. 1930s," inAmerican Movie Audiences from the Turn of the Century found Melvin Stokes and Richard Maltby Shared Pleasures, 72-73, (London, 1999). Gomery, that big name bands played occasional dates in some downtown movie palaces as well. Visiting differed headline from the musicians however, performers, permanently employed by movie theaters in the 1920s. see Bill Malone, 19. On country music, U.S.A. Country Music, (Austin, 1985). Tim Patter of Marxist Cultural Theory," Science and Society 39(1975):257 son, "Notes on the Application 291. Haven, on New in Transition 20. Robert and Helen Lynd, Middletown (New York, 1937), 260-62; see Frank Shuttleworth and Mark May, The Social Conduct and Attitudes of Movie Fans in a 'Little Italy'" (Ph.D. diss., "Leisure Time of Girls Reed, (New York, 1933), 7,8; Dorothy see Kenneth "A Study of the Recre Columbia Lewis Heaton, University, 1932); on Chicago, ational Life of High of Chicago, School Students" 1933), 222; on (Ph.D. diss., University see Elmer Cressman, "The Out-of-School Activities of Junior High School" Philadelphia, 1937). (D.Ed, diss., Penn State College, 21. Alice Mitchell, Children and Movies An 1929), 42; "Mayor Sees Audience's (Chicago, tics and Closes Bay State Theatre," The New York Times, February 13, 1930, 21; Margolies, Ticket to Paradise, 100. see Waller, 22. Also and Will Rogers," 167-168. "Hillbilly Music I searched Variety's reviews at large urban houses from October 1930 to April 1933. the President," The New York Times, April 10,1938, IV, 9; "Curb on Hissing "Hissing toMovie Theatre Managers," The New York Times, August 11,1940, IV, 9; "Hissing Suggested not Illegal," The New York Times, August The New 15,1940,18; "Hissing: Silence Preferred," York Times, August Cheer," The New York Times, Oc 18,1940, IV, 7; and "Bars Bronx(ville) was not new. Movie tober 19,1940,11. newsreels noted hissing Hissing producer Rob Wagner 23. 24. the Movies," in 1920. See Rob Wagner, American Magazine, "You?at December, 1920,211. 25. Film Daily, Screen Ad 8, 1930, 1; "No More July 17, 1930, 1; Film Daily, September in Fox Theaters," Film Daily, November 18,1930,1. vertising Allowed for Kibitzers 26. "Bronx Cheer in Movie The New York Times, No Upheld by Court," vember 2,1939, 27. on Women's 27. "A Woman The New York Times, April Hats," 1, 1936, 24; "Nuisance," The New York Times, April 5,1936, The New of Screen Events," IV, 9; and "Weekly Round-up York Times, June 23,1940, IX, 3. 28. Roy Rosenzweig, in an Industri and Leisure Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers al City, 1870-1920 UK, 1983), 202. (Cambridge, of newsreels 29. Steven Ross, Working Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class inAmer ica (Princeton, 1998), 26-27. a New Deal, 30. Cohen, Making Urban Ge "Movie Audiences, 121-22; Douglas Gomery, of the American Film," The Velvet Light Trap 19 (1982):23-29. ography, and the History In: The Audible 31. Thomas Doherty, "This isWhere We Came Screen and the Voluble in American Movie Audience of Early Sound Cinema," ed. Melvin and Stokes Audiences, Richard Maltby, 145-146. 32. Doherty, "This isWhere We Came In," 143-44. 33. John Kasson, and Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Rudeness Urban America and Matinee Ladies: Re-Gendering Butsch, (New York, "Bowery 1990); Richard B'hoys American American Theater Audiences," 46 (1994):374-405. Nineteenth-Century Quarterly