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Speaking for the Audience: Double Features, Public Opinion, and the Struggle for Control in 1930s Hollywood

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 24; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10509200500486213

1543-5326

Susan Ohmer,

Cinema and Media Studies

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Christian Metz, The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and the Cinema (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1990); Robert Eberwein, Film and the Dream Screen (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1990); Robert F. Arnold, “Film Space/Audience Space: Notes Toward a Theory of Spectatorship,” Velvet Light Trap 25 (Spring 1990): 44–52. Annette Kuhn, Dreaming of Fred and Ginger: Cinema and Cultural Memory (New York: New York UP, 2002); William Paul, “The K-Mart Audience at the Mall Movies,” in Ina Rae Hark, ed., Exhibition: A Film Reader (New York and London: Routledge, 2002): 77–88. Mary Beth Haralovich, “Film History and Social History: Reproducing Social Relationships,” Wide Angle 8.2 (1986): 4–14; Diane Waldman, “From Midnight Shows to Marriage Vows: Women, Exploitation, and Exhibition,” Wide Angle 6.2 (1984): 40–48; Robert Allen, “From exhibition to reception: reflections on the audience in film history,” Screen 31.4 (Winter 1990): 352. Eric Smoodin, Animating Culture: Hollywood Cartoons from the Sound Era (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers UP, 1993): 44–69. Douglas Gomery, Shared Pleasures: A History of Movie Presentation in the United States (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994): 34–82. The ideological implications of quantitative measurements have been explored in creative ways in Susan Herbst, Numbered Voices: How Opinion Polling Has Shaped American Politics (University of Chicago Press, 1993) and Patricia Cline Cohen, A Calculating People: The Spread of Numeracy in Early America (University of Chicago Press, 1983). Allen, “From exhibition to reception”: 352. Edward Beach, “Double Features in Motion-Picture Exhibition,” Harvard Business Review 10 (July 1932): 505–506. “Film Shortage Squawks,” Variety 20 January 1937: 7; see also Beach: 509. “Warner, Skouras, Independents Looking to End of Dual Bills,” Variety 13 April 1937: 25; Thomas Brady, “Hollywood Has ‘Double Trouble,’“New York Times 7 July 1940, Sec. IX: 3; “Pros and Cons on Duals”: 6, 29; Robert W. Chambers, “The Double Feature as Sales Problem,” Harvard Business Review 16 (Winter 1938): 230–231; Bosley Crowther, “Double Feature Trouble,” New York Times Magazine 14 July 1940: 8, 20. “‘B’Films, Exhibs and the Coast,” Variety 20 January 1937: 5. Douglas Gomery, See Shared Pleasures: A History of Movie Presentation in the United States (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992): 77. Chambers, “Double Features”: 230–231; Andre Sennwald, “Two For One Price,” New York Times 15 September 1935: Sec. IX, 3; “Hollywood Told Off on ‘B’ Pix,” Variety June 1940: 6, 19; “Industry Pacts Can't Halt Duals: Silverman,” Motion Picture Herald 11 May 1940: 16. Beach, “Double Features,” 514; “‘H’Wood Incubator-‘B’ Pix,” Variety 20 January 1937: 5; “Film Shortage Squawks,” Variety 20 January 1937: 7; “Warner, Skouras and Fox W-C to Continue Double Bills,” Variety 21 April 1937: 4; “No ‘B’ Film Viewpoint of Goldwyn Disputed,” Variety 13 November 1937: 56; “Chi Can't Stop Dual Pix,” Variety 30 December 1936: 21; “Doubles Look Into Stay,” Variety 24 March 24: 7; “Screen Fans Organize to Bite the Hand that Feeds them Double Features,” Newsweek 4 October 1937: 25; “Pros and Cons on Duals Still Go On,” Variety 29 October 1937: 6; Roy Chartier, “Exhibs Vs. Distribs—Per Usual,” Variety 5 January 1938: 40; “Dual Bill Advocates Score in Loew's Poll,” Motion Picture Herald 12 February 1938: 22. Paul Seale, “A Host of Others: Toward a Nonlinear History of Poverty Row and the Coming of Sound,” Wide Angle 13.1 (January 1991): 79. Ulf Jonas Bjork provides an elegant analysis of the complex ways that double features figured into one city's exhibition practices in “Double Features and B Movies: Exhibition Patterns in Seattle, 1938,” Journal of Film and Video 11.3 (Fall 1989): 34–49. “H’Wood Told Off On ‘B’ Pix”: 5. Leo H. Rosten, Hollywood: The Movie Colony, The Movie Makers (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1941): 346, note 2. “Hays May Survey Public,” Variety 10 January 1940: 3. “Movie Promotion Up,” Business Week 8 June 1940: 47; “War Hits Hollywood,” Business Week 3 February 1940: 49–50; Thomas M. Pryor, “Film News of the Week,” New York Times 19 May 1940 Sec. IX: 4. For a more extended analysis of these factors, see Kristin Thompson, Exporting Entertainment: America in the World Film Market 1907–1934 (London: British Film Institute, 1985); and Ian Jarvie, Hollywood's Overseas Campaign: The North Atlantic Movie Trade, 1920–1950 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992): 135–212 and 336–397. “National Survey on Upping B.O.,” Variety 1 May 1940: 5, 22 and “Movie Trade Bemoans Unhappy Lot,” Business Week 29 June 1940: 22–23. “The Fortune Survey VI: Industries That Satisfy,” Fortune August 1938: 75. Sydney Self, “Movies Face ‘The Axe,’“Barrons's 29 July 1940: 20. Chalmers, “The Double Feature”: 226–227. Sennwald, “Two For One Price”: 3. “Suburban N.Y. Exhibs Now Are Getting the Giveaway Bug-But Bad,” Variety 20 January 1937: 25. Frank S. Nugent, “There Should Be a Law Against It,” New York Times 3 May 1936, Sec. X: 3. Frances Fink, “Down with Doubles,” Literary Digest 27 November 1937: 13–15; “In the Cinema Mailbag,” New York Times 1 December 1935, Sec. XI: 8; “Doublfeaturitis,” Scientific American February 1938: 55; and Nugent, “There Should Be a Law”: 3. “Civic Groups Join in Legislative Move on Double Bills in Chicago,” Motion Picture Herald 19 February 1938: 23; “Double Trouble,” Time 21 February 1938: 55; “Chicago May Ban Duals,” Variety 23 February 1938: 27; “Golden Calls Chicago Duals’ Foes ‘Stooges’ of ‘Monopolistic Groups,’“Motion Picture Herald 26 February 1938: 32. “1,000 In First of New Groups to Sponsor Boycotts of Dual Houses,” Variety 2 October 1937: 54; “Goldwyn Says He’ll Join Anti-Dual Fight,” Motion Picture Herald 30 October 1937: 66; Fink, “Down with Doubles”: 13–15. “Double Features,” New York Times 16 April 1933, Sec. IX: 3. Frank H. Ricketson, Jr., The Management of Motion Picture Theatres (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1938): 79. For a more detailed discussion of the founding of the Gallup Poll and its impact on the 1936 presidential election, see the author's George Gallup in Hollywood: The Origins of Market Research in the Film Industry (New York: Columbia UP, forthcoming). Eugene Meyer, “A Newspaper Publisher Looks at the Polls,” Public Opinion Quarterly 4 (June 1940): 238; and Barry Sussman, What Americans Really Think (New York: Pantheon, 1988): 82. See, for example, “Gallup Says Measuring Public Opinion Opens New Political Reporting Field,” Editor & Publisher 14 November 1936: 14; George Gallup, “Putting Public Opinion to Work,” Scribner's (November 1936): 36–39, 73–74. Don Cahalan, interview by the author, Berkeley, California, 20 February 1992, tape recording. Michele Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting: From Radio to Cable (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990): 53–60. “Early ARI Poll Results, “Gallup Looks at the Movies: Audience Research Reports, 1940–1950 (Princeton, New Jersey: American Institute of Public Opinion; Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources, 1979), microfilm, reel 1. AIPO Ballot 136, 19–24 October 1938, Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut at Storrs, hereafter RCPOR. George Gallup, “The Favorite Books of Americans,” New York Times Book Review 15 January 1939: 2, 16. “Mr. Gallup Searches Literature,” Commonweal 27 January 1939: 366–367; and Frederic G. Melcher, “Gallup Among the Books,” Publisher's Weekly 21 January 1939: 181. “Deuces Wild,” Motion Picture Herald 21 January 1939: 7. “Increasing Profits Through Continuous Audience Research,” in Gallup Looks at the Movies: 2. Rosten, Hollywood: The Movie Colony: 153, 160. “Gallup To Do Poll on Para. Scripts,” Hollywood Reporter 16 February 1940: 1. Don Cahalan suggested this link. Interview with the author, February 20, 1992. Ogilvy describes his trip to Hollywood with Gallup in Blood, Brains and Beer (New York: Atheneum, 1978): 73–75. W.R. Wilkerson, “Trade Views,” Hollywood Reporter 30 April 1940: 1. “Not So Different,” Motion Picture Herald 7 January 1939: 1; “Survey Shows Films Kids’ First Choice,” Film Daily 21 September 1939: 1, 80; “Launches Pix Survey as Help to Industry,” Film Daily 25 January 1940: 3. “Hays May Survey Public,” Variety 10 January 1940: 55. “Industry Pacts Can't Halt Duals,” Motion Picture Herald: 16. “Radio's Coast Nightmare: Admen from N.Y. in Breakdowns,” Variety 22 March 1939: 1, 19. “Hollywood Office History,” n. d., [1963–1964], Box 8, Bernstein Papers, J. Walter Thompson Papers, Perkins Library Special Collections, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. “Admen Minimize Hollywood's New Anti-Radio Stance as a ‘Gesture,’“Variety February 15, 1939: 1, 2. “Hays May Survey Public”: 4. Ibid.: 20. George Gallup, interview with Frank Rounds: 138, 144–45. Richard Maltby, “The Political Economy of Hollywood: The Studio System,” in Cinema, Politics and Society in America, eds. Philip Davies and Brian Neve (New York: St. Martin's, 1981): 54. Ibid.: 55. Rosten, Hollywood: The Movie Colony: 63. Sydney Self, “Hollywood Cleaning House,” Barron's 16 December 1940: 13. Rosten, Hollywood: The Movie Colony: 48–49. Rosten discusses the origins of the book in Leo C. Rosten, “A ‘Middletown’ Study of Hollywood,” Public Opinion Quarterly 3 (April 1941): 317. An excellent analysis of Goldwyn's career can be found is A. Scott Berg, Goldwyn: A Biography (New York: Knopf, 1989). “Goldwyn's Solo ‘Westerner’ Deals,” Variety 29 May 1940: 6, 20. Fink, “Down with Doubles,” 14; “Civic Groups Join in Legislative Move,” Motion Picture Herald 19 February 1938: 23. Chambers, “Double Feature”: 227. “S. Goldwyn Urges Higher Admission Prices,” New York Times 8 May 1940, Sec. X: 3. “Goldwyn Advocates H’wood Cut,” Variety 8 May 1940: 5; “Goldwyn Urges Price Scales Tuned to Box Office Values,” Motion Picture Herald 11 May 1940: 17; “Goldwyn Hits Block Booking, Will Trade Show,” Film Daily 8 May 1940: 1, 3. Stephen Fox, The Mirror Makers: A History of American Advertising and Its Creators (New York: William Morrow, 1984; rpt. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997): 139–140. “Film Survey to be Taken,” New York Times 16 May 1940: 29; “Goldwyn-Gallup Poll,” Motion Picture Herald 18 May 1940: 9; “Gallup Will Poll Country on Duals,” Film Daily 16 May 1940: 1, 3; Edwin Schallert, “Gallup to Conduct Poll on Double Bill Issue,” Los Angeles Times 16 May 1940, Pt. II: 11; Thomas M. Pryor, “Film News of the Week,” New York Times 19 May 1940, Sec. IX: 4; W. R. Wilkerson, “Trade Views,” Hollywood Reporter 16 May 1940: 1. “RKO Follows Goldwyn Into Gallup Poll Idea,” Variety 29 May 1940: 18. AIPO Ballot 106, 16–20 December 1937, RCPOR. AIPO Ballot 108, 13–18 January 1938, RCPOR. AIPO Ballot 201, 13–18 July 1940, RCPOR. “Gallup Revamps Double-Feature Poll Question,” Variety 5 June 1940: 7. The survey consisted of two forms that varied some of the wording of the questions. Don Saunders, Instructions for Bulletin AIPO 201, 11 July 1940, RCPOR. AIPO's press release about the survey said that it included children as young as six, but this is not indicated in the instruction booklet. George Gallup, “Public Votes Against Double Feature Movie Programs in Special National Survey,” August 9, 1940, Public Opinion News Service, New York Public Library, microfilm, n.p. Letter from Lois Timms-Ferrara, Coordinator for User Services, RCPOR, to the author, July 2, 1990. George Gallup, A Guide to Public Opinion Polls, rev. ed. (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1948): 82. “57% of Movie Fans Favor Single Films,” New York Times 9 August 1940: 9; “Goldwyn-Gallup Survey Reports,” Motion Picture Herald 10 August 1940: 21; “Gallup Poll Findings,” Film Daily 12 August 1940: 1, 10; George Gallup, “Polls Show Majority Opposed to Film Theaters’ Double Bills,” Los Angeles Times 9 August 1940, Pt. I: 1, 9; “Poor's Survey Bullish on Pix B. O.,” Variety 28 August 1940: 4. David Ogilvy, Blood, Brains and Beer: 81. Samuel Goldwyn, “Hollywood Is Sick,” Saturday Evening Post 13 July 1940: 18–19, 44, 48–49. John T. McManus, “Thumbs Down on Doubles,” New York Times 31 May 1936, Sec. X: 4. For earlier studies, see “Double Features,” New York Times 16 April 1933, Sec. 9: 3; “Would Shorten Films,” New York Times 3 October 1934: 25; “Chicago Sentiment Veers to Singles,” Variety 3 April 1937: 23. “Quarterly Survey V: Movies and Movie Stars,” Fortune (July 1937): 104. “They Used to Vote Dry and Act Wet; Now Vote Singles But Buy Dual Pix,” Variety 7 April 1937: 11. “Exhibitors in 132 Spots Polled,” Variety 12 June 1940: 7, 10; “Variety Survey 70% vs. Twin Pix,” Variety 12 June 1940: 7, 10; “74% of Public Don't Like Twin Pix,” Variety 19 June 1940: 6, 19; “2D Summary of ‘Variety’ Poll on Duals,” Variety 19 June 1940: 6, 10; “Summary of 51 Cities,” Variety 26 June 1940: 15, 24. “Film Audience of 32 Millions Untapped-Gallup,” Film Daily 9 August 1940: 7. “‘Just Not Interested’ in Films Any Longer,” Variety 28 August 1940: 12. Margaret Thorp, America at the Movies (New Haven: Yale UP, 1939). George Gallup, interview by Thomas Simonet, Princeton, New Jersey, September 21, 1977, transcript, Part II: 11. “Five Million More Fans Weekly,” Hollywood Reporter 20 January 1942: 4. Rosten, Hollywood: The Movie Colony, 415, note 1. “Kids, Reliefers Favor Duals,” Hollywood Reporter 9 August 1940: 4. Film Daily August 8, 1940: 1. “Topics of the Times,” New York Times 20 August 1940: 18. “Gallup's Pan on Pix,” Variety 14 August 1940: 5. “Film Audience of 32 Millions Untapped”: 7. August 9, 1940, 7; John Q. Adams, in collaboration with the Interstate Theatre Managers, “How to Bring ‘Em Back,” unpublished report, May 10, 1941, “Gallup Poll 1939–1941,1942” file, Box 4443, David O. Selznick Papers, Harrry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. “Foreign Markets Lost, Movies to Improve Selling,” Advertising Age 30 September 1940: 27; “Indie UA, S. F., Makes Bid for Gallup's 32,000,000,” Variety 25 September 1940: 8. “Duals ‘Solution,’“Motion Picture Herald 5 October 1940: 8; “Public Wants Duals, Says Arthur,” Motion Picture Herald 2 November 1940: 15; “New Experiment on Duals,” Variety 5 February 1941, 7, 23; “Extend Earlier Screening,” Motion Picture Herald 8 February 1941: 17; “Spotting ‘A’ Film at 9–9:30,” Variety 12 February 1941: 8; “National Interest in ‘9 O’Clock Plan,” Variety 19 February 1941: 8. W. R. Wilkerson, “Trade Views,” Hollywood Reporter 5 June 1940: 1; “Growing Tendency for Features,” Variety 17 December 1941: 22. Goldwyn, “Hollywood Is Sick”: 18–19. Gallup, “Public Votes Against Double Feature Movie Programs,” n.p. “Silverman OKs Gallup Poll,” Film Daily 21 August 1940: 1, 3. Gregory A. Waller, Main Street Amusements: Movies and Commercial Entertainment in a Southern City, 1896–1930 (Washington and London: Smithsonian, 1995) and Kathryn H. Fuller, At the Picture Show: Small-Town Audiences and the Creation of Movie Fan Culture (Washington and London: Smithsonian, 1996). “Jack Shea on Why Duals Do OK Biz,” Variety 5 June 1940: 7. Bosley Crowther, “Doubles, Or Maybe Nothing,” New York Times 11 August 1940, Sec. IX: 19. “Researcher Finds One Solution,” Motion Picture Herald 31 August 1940: 39. “New Suburban Markets,” Motion Picture Herald 31 August 1940: 39. “Curtis Publishing Researcher Makes Survey,” Variety 10 July 1940: 5. “After 25 Years H’wood Decides to Ask Joe Public,” Variety 25 September 1940: 3, 61. Gallup, “Public Votes Against Double Feature Movie Program,” n.p. Thorp, America at the Movies, op. cit. “Des Moines Patrons to Vote,” Film Daily 23 August 1940: 3. “Des Moines Patrons Reverse Gallup,” Motion Picture Herald, 7 September 1940: 18; see also “Des Moines Voting on Duals Question,” Film Daily 27 August 1940: 1, 7. “Singles a Flop”: 1, 4. “Noisy Debate on Dueling via CBS,” Variety 28 August 1940: 18; also “Hoblitzelle, Goldwyn, Chadwick, Carr, Housewives Debate Doubles,” Motion Picture Herald 31 August 1940: 14. “Interstate Refutes Gallup Poll, But Admits More Selling Needed,” Motion Picture Herald 14 June 1941: 35. “Companies Win Anti-Dual Ruling,” Motion Picture Herald 13 March 1937: 28; “Movie Anti-Trust Suit,” Business Week 30 July 1938: 17–18; “Trust Drive Enters Crucial Phase,” Business Week 27 April 1940: 15–16; “Plan Worked Out to End Film Suit,” New York Times 24 August 1940: 15; “Film Trust Truce Nears,” Business Week 31 August 1940: 39; “Movies Arbitrate,” Business Week 2 November 1940: 15, “Show Business Consent Decree,” Time 11 November 1940: 70–71; “Film Arbitration,” Business Week 25 January 1941: 18–23. See also Simon Whitney, “Antitrust Policies and the Motion Picture Industry,” in The American Movie Industry, ed. Gorham Kindem (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois UP, 1982): 165–171. “Wide Scope of U.S. Anti-Monopoly,” Newsweek 1 August 1938: 18. “Allied Asks That Pix Buying Wait on Its Survey,” Film Daily 25 July 1940: 8. “Allied to Poll Patrons on Pix Favored,” Film Daily 26 May 1941: 1, 12; “AID in ‘Scientific Forecasts’ on Biz,” Film Daily 5 June 1941: 1, 5; “Exhibitor Poll Favors Law,” Variety 21 January 21: 14. George Gallup, interview by Thomas Simonet, transcript, Part II: 11. “Rural America Against Dual,” Motion Picture Herald 19 October 1940: 27; “Survey Shows Varied Film Tastes,” Film Daily 11 July 1941: 8; “Owners Asked to Aid Youth Groups,” Motion Picture Herald 15 February 1941: 46; “Seat-Preference Survey,” New York Times, 22 October 1941: 27. “Exhibition Meets with Production to Stop Duals,” Motion Picture Herald 21 June 1941: 15; “Good Pix Will End Duals, Says Balaban,” Film Daily 3 July 1941: 1, 10; “Early Trade Press Screenings Urged,” Film Daily 1 August 1941: 1, 5; “Growing Tendency for Features?” Variety 17 December 1941: 22. “Showdown over Duals,” Motion Picture Herald 19 October 1940: 8; Chester B. Bahn, “Duals Again,” Film Daily 23 October 1940: 1, 2; “Singles a Flop”: 1, 4. “Speech on Duals,” Motion Picture Herald 21 November 1942: 13; “Exhibs Move to End Duals,” Variety 18 November 1942: 7; Bosley Crowther, “Change or Delay?” New York Times 22 November 1942, Sec. VIII: 3. Frank S. Nugent, “Double, Double, Toil and Trouble,” New York Times Magazine 17 January 1943: 11, 21. W. R. Wilkerson, “Trade Views,” Motion Picture Herald 25 July 1941: 1. “Five Million More Fans Weekly,” Hollywood Reporter 20 January 1942: 1–4. Samuel Goldwyn, letter to Eddie Silverman, June 10, 1941, “Goldwyn” file, folder 15, box 299, The David O. Selznick Papers, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. Pierre Bourdieu, “Public Opinion Does Not Exist” [1972]. Trans. Mary C. Axtmann. In Communication and Class Struggle, Vol. 1: Capitalism, Imperialism, eds. Armand Mattelart and Seth Siegelaub (New York: International General, 1979): 125.