The American Silent Cinema and the Marginalization of Advertising

325 Pages·2015·1.88 MB·English

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Communication Dissertations Department of Communication
Summer 6-26-2013
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Jeremy W. Groskopf
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_diss
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Groskopf, Jeremy W., "Profit Margins: The American Silent Cinema and the Marginalization of
Advertising." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2013.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/4313936
This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Communication at ScholarWorks
@ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Dissertations by an authorized
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PROFIT MARGINS:
THE AMERICAN SILENT CINEMA AND THE MARGINALIZATION OF ADVERTISING

by

JEREMY GROSKOPF

Under the direction of Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley and Ted Friedman

ABSTRACT

In the early years of the twentieth century, the unique new medium of motion pictures
was the focus of significant theorization and experimentation at the fringes of the American
advertising industry. Alongside the growth of the nickelodeon, and the multiple shifts in the
American cinema’s business model in the ‘transitional era,’ various individuals at the margins of
the advertising industry attempted, and most often failed, to integrate direct consumer-goods
advertising regularly into motion picture theaters. Via techniques as diverse as the glass slide,
the commercial trailer, and the advertising wall-clock, cinema patrons of the 1910s witnessed
various attempts by merchants and manufacturers to intrude upon their attention in the cinema
space. Through research in the trade presses of the cinema, advertising, and various consumer
goods industries, along with archival ephemera from the advertising companies themselves, this
dissertation explores these various on and off-screen tactics for direct advertising attempted in
silent cinemas, and their eventual minimization in the American cinema experience. Despite the
appeal of the new, popular visual medium of cinema to advertisers, concerns over ticket-prices,
advertising circulation, audience irritation, and the potential for theatrical ‘suicide-by-
advertising,’ resulted, over a mere fifteen years, in the near abandonment of the cinema as an
advertising medium. As a transitional medium between the 19th century forms of print and
billboarding, and 20th century broadcasting, the silent cinema was an important element in the
development of modern advertising theories.

INDEX WORDS: Advertising, Silent cinema, Transitional era, Film exhibition, Film
spectatorship, American cinema, Magic lantern, Trailer, Animation
PROFIT MARGINS:
THE AMERICAN SILENT CINEMA AND THE MARGINALIZATION OF ADVERTISING

by

JEREMY GROSKOPF

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the College of Arts and Sciences
Georgia State University
2013
Copyright by
Jeremy Wade Groskopf
2013
PROFIT MARGINS:
THE AMERICAN SILENT CINEMA AND THE MARGINALIZATION OF ADVERTISING

by

JEREMY GROSKOPF

Committee Chairs: Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley
Ted Friedman

Committee: Alisa Perren
Cynthia B. Meyers

Electronic Version Approved:

Office of Graduate Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Georgia State University
August 2013
iv

A moving-picture audience ought to be an inspiration to an advertising man.
I have sat in a moving-picture theater full of kids and grown-ups and have thought,
'If I only knew how to reach these people, I would know all about advertising.'

- Don Herold, September 1915
v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Regardless of attribution of authorship, a dissertation is a community effort. What is
contained within these pages has been immeasurably improved by intellectual and emotional
support from numerous people. In the former category, my committee – with special thanks to
Kathy – has helped to massage this project from nebulous concept to functioning dissertation.
Archival support from Lynn Eaton at Duke, and Dennis Daily at the Penrose Library in Colorado
Springs streamlined my research significantly, and both led me in very useful directions. David
Boutros from the State Historical Society of Missouri was invaluable during a moment of long-
distance research. The impact of prior teachers is also apparent in these pages, especially that of
Matthew Bernstein, who guided me through my thesis and who taught me so much about
researching and writing.
Perhaps more valuable than information, to a dissertator, is the emotional maintenance
which helps one to survive the process. All of my friends, both local and distant, have assisted
me through this process in some way. However, Ian Peters deserves special mention for
performing admirably as both occasional research-monkey and frustration-sponge, not to
mention the countless hours of entertainment. My now two-year old daughter Ivy should also be
singled out for praise for both improving my productivity and helping me to remember that, even
in academia, there is such a thing as down-time. And she’s cute too.
And, of course, my wife Jennifer – who helped me survive my dissertation only a few
years after finishing her own – was both advisor and ally in one, for which she deserves both the
final and most appreciative thanks.
vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ v
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION: THEATERS, COMMUNICATION, AND ADVERTISING
IN THE AMERICAN SILENT CINEMA ...................................................................................... 1
Topics and Terms ........................................................................................................................ 6
Technological ‘Failure’ and the Study of History .................................................................... 10
Literature Review: Media Studies ............................................................................................. 16
Literature Review: Advertising History .................................................................................... 27
Literature Review: Silent Era Cinema Advertising ................................................................... 36
Scaffolds and Structure ............................................................................................................. 41
CHAPTER 2. “A NOVEL AND IRRESISTIBLE MAGNETISM”: ADVERTISING LOOKS
AT CINEMA, 1908-1921 ............................................................................................................. 49
Medium Specific Psychology and the ‘Passive’ Cinema Spectator .......................................... 51
The Captive Audience and Receptive Mood .............................................................................. 56
The ‘Combative Spirit’ and Film’s Stagnation as an Ad Medium ............................................ 60
The Happy Captive and Twentieth Century Advertising ........................................................... 63
CHAPTER 3. “THE FRONT COVER MEDIUM”: MAGIC LANTERN SLIDES,
TEMPORALITY, AND ONSCREEN ADVERTISING .............................................................. 68
What Was a Lantern Slide? ....................................................................................................... 71
A Brief History of the Early American Slide Advertising Industry, 1908-1922 ........................ 77
Why Slide-vertising? ............................................................................................................... 120
Why Not? ................................................................................................................................. 130
‘Slide Psychology’ ................................................................................................................... 134
vii

Technological Slides – Spectacle and Practicality ................................................................. 138
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 146
CHAPTER 4. “SCREEN SUGAR PILLS”: THE COMMERCIAL TRAILER AND THE
MARGINALIZATION OF ONSCREEN ADVERTISING ....................................................... 148
What Was a ‘Trailer’?............................................................................................................. 151
A Brief History of the Advertising Trailer, 1914-1922 ........................................................... 159
Why Trailer Advertising? ........................................................................................................ 192
Why Not? ................................................................................................................................. 202
Case Study - The Alexander Film Company and the ‘High Class’ Trailer............................. 207
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 217
CHAPTER 5. WATCH THIS SPACE: PERIPHERAL ADVERTISING THROUGH
TECHNOLOGIES ...................................................................................................................... 220
Rethinking the Theater and Its Relationship to Advertising ................................................... 224
Frames ..................................................................................................................................... 225
‘Public Service’ Tech .............................................................................................................. 235
Clocks ...................................................................................................................................... 242
‘Active Audience’ Rhetoric and the Cinema as Venue ............................................................ 251
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 255
CHAPTER 6. “INTEMPERATE PROCLAMATIONS”: EXHIBITION, TICKETS, AND THE
BIG CHILL OF CINEMA ADVERTISING .............................................................................. 258
Participating Sponsorship as a Model of Cinema Exhibition ................................................. 263
The Incredible Shrinking Field of Cinema Advertising .......................................................... 268
Cinema Advertising as Media Development ........................................................................... 271