American Cinema of the 1930s: Themes and Variations (Screen Decades: American Culture American Cinema)

296 Pages·2007·2.7 MB·English

by  Ina R. Hark

American Cinema of the 1930s
S C R E E N
AMERICAN CULTURE / AMERICAN CINEMA
D E C A D E S
Each volume in the Screen Decades: American Culture/American Cinema series
presents a group of original essays analyzing the impact of cultural issues on the cin-
ema and the impact of the cinema in American society. Because every chapter
explores a spectrum of particularly significant motion pictures and the broad range
of historical events in one year, readers will gain a continuing sense of the decade as
it came to be depicted on movie screens across the continent. The integration of his-
torical and cultural events with the sprawling progression of American cinema illu-
minates the pervasive themes and the essential movies that define an era. Our series
represents one among many possible ways of confronting the past; we hope that
these books will offer a better understanding of the connections between American
culture and film history.
LESTER D.FRIEDMAN AND MURRAY POMERANCE
SERIES EDITORS
Ina Rae Hark, editor, American Cinema of the 1930s: Themes and Variations
Wheeler Winston Dixon, editor, American Cinema of the 1940s: Themes and
Variations
Murray Pomerance, editor, American Cinema of the 1950s: Themes and Variations
Lester D. Friedman, editor, American Cinema of the 1970s: Themes and Variations
Stephen Prince, editor, American Cinema of the 1980s: Themes and Variations
American Cinema
of the
19 3 0
s
Themes and Variations
EDITED BY
INA RAE HARK
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY AND LONDON
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
American cinema of the 1930s : themes and variations / edited by Ina Rae Hark.
p. cm. — (Screen decades)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN–13: 978–0–8135–4081–8 (hbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN–13: 978–0–8135–4082–5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Motion pictures—United States—History. I. Hark, Ina Rae.
PN1993.5.U6A85735 2007
791.430973’09043—dc22
2006032344
A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.
This collection copyright © 2007 by Rutgers, The State University
Individual chapters copyright © 2007 in the names of their authors
All rights reserved
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or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permis-
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Visit our Web site: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu
Manufactured in the United States of America
To . . . Shirley
Errol and Olivia
Nelson and Jeanette
Cary,Victor, Douglas, and Sam
Judy, Ray, Bert, Jack . . . and Toto, too
Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and
Sneezy
. . . who inhabit my earliest memories of 1930s cinema

C O N T E N T S
Acknowledgments ix
Timeline:The 1930s xi
Introduction:Movies and the 1930s 1
INA RAE HARK
1930 Movies and Social Difference 25
AARON BAKER
1931 Movies and the Voice 48
CYNTHIA ERB
1932 Movies and Transgression 69
DAVID LUGOWSKI
1933 Movies and the New Deal in Entertainment 92
MARTIN RUBIN
1934 Movies and the Marginalized 117
CHARLENE REGESTER
1935 Movies and the Resistance to Tyranny 139
INA RAE HARK
1936 Movies and the Possibility ofTranscendence 162
SUSAN OHMER
1937 Movies and New Constructions of the American Star 182
ALLEN LARSON
1938 Movies and Whistling in the Dark 206
SAM B.GIRGUS
1939 Movies and American Culture in the Annus Mirabilis 227
CHARLES MALAND
Select Academy Awards,1930–1939 253
Works Cited and Consulted 257
Contributors 267
Index 269

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I suppose my involvement with this book would never have
happened had it not been for the program directors of my local television
stations in Charleston, West Virginia, in the 1950s who filled up their after-
noons and weekends with movie packages consisting mostly of films from
the 1930s. My earliest impressions of what real movies looked like started
then, so I give a nod of appreciation to WCHS and WSAZ.
The volume itself would not have been possible without the hard work
and gifted insights of its contributors: Aaron, Cynthia, Marty, Charlene,
Susan, Allen, Sam, and Chuck. I thank you for your cooperation, profes-
sionalism, and good humor during all the stages of writing and revision. To
the editors for this series, the terrific trio of Murray, Les, and RUP’s Leslie
Mitchner, thanks for always being engaged, responsive, and supportive
from the moment you asked me to edit the volume until its final stages of
production. The book would not look as handsome or as professional as it
does without the great work of copyeditor Eric Schramm and all the ven-
dors from whom the other authors and I obtained photos. Special thanks to
Ron Mandelbaum, Victor Burgos, Cory Plowman, and Doug McKeown at
Photofest. Invaluable assistance at the proofreading and indexing phases
came from the English Department at the University of South Carolina and
graduate student Andy Smith.
As with nearly every scholarly project I have undertaken since gradu-
ate school, this book has benefited immensely from the encyclopedic mem-
ory, analytical intelligence, and listening ear of Steven Cohan. He has been
especially helpful during my work on American Cinema of the 1930s, from
brainstorming about possible contributors to reading the first draft of my
own chapter to lending me a great Astaire-Rogers photo. Most of all, when-
ever I would get tunnel vision and turn the decade into one endless parade
of Warner Bros.’ gangsters and swashbucklers, he would always remind me
of the centrality of MGM, melodrama, and musicals.
Ina Rae Hark
Columbia, S.C.
15 September 2006
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