Charles Musser

"The most important book on early American cinema yet to appear. At once a compelling biography and a fundamentally new view of a major cultural phenomenon, it offers fresh perspectives on the development of twentieth-century American society."--Robert Sklar, author of Movie-Made America

Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company

Before the Nickelodeon

Looks at the early years of the motion picture industry through 1907.

The American Screen to 1907

The Emergence of Cinema

Carol Nelson

The entrepreneur of phonograph concerts and motion-picture programs Lyman H. Howe was the leading traveling exhibitor of his time and the exemplar of an important but until now little examined aspect of American popular culture. This work, with its numerous and lively illustrations, uses his career to explore the world of itinerant showmen, who exhibited all motion pictures seen outside large cities during the 1890s and early 1900s. They frequently built cultural alliances with genteel city dwellers or conservative churchgoers and in later years favored "high-class" topics appealing to audiences uncomfortable with the plebeian nickelodeons. Bridging the fields of American studies and film history, the book reveals the remarkable sophistication with which exhibitors created their elaborate, evening-length programs to convey powerful ideological messages. Whether depicting the Spanish-American War, the 1900 Paris Exposition, or British colonialism in action, Howe's "cinema of reassurance" had many parallels with the music of John Philip Sousa. Originally published in 1991. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Lyman H. Howe and the Forgotten Era of Traveling Exhibition, 1880-1920

High-Class Moving Pictures

Marta Braun

Nancy Mowll Mathews

Professor Nancy Mowll Mathews

Published in conjunction with a 2005-2007 exhibition organized by the Williams College Museum of Art, this volume addresses the rich topic of comparisons across theater, film, and the visual arts during the late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. Seventeen essays are arranged in sections on early film and American artistic traditions. 183 colour & 100 b/w illustrations

American Art and Early Film, 1880-1910

Moving Pictures

"Presidential campaigns of the twenty-first century are not the first to use new media to promote their platform and marshal votes. In Politicking and Emergent Media, distinguished film historian Charles Musser looks at four US presidential campaigns during the long 1890s (1888-1900) as Republicans and Democrats mobilized a variety of media forms to achieve electoral victory. New York--the home of Wall Street, Tammany Hall, and prominent media industries--became the site of intense debate as candidates battled over voters' rights, labor issues, and currency standards for a fragile economy. If the city's leading daily newspapers were mostly Democratic as the decade began, Republicans eagerly exploited alternative media opportunities. Using the stereopticon (a modernized magic lantern), they developed the first campaign documentaries. Soon they were using motion pictures, the phonograph, and telephone in surprising and often successful ways. Brimming with rich historical details, Charles Musser tells the remarkable story of the political forces driving the emergence of new media at the turn of the century"--Provided by the publisher.

US Presidential Elections of the 1890s

Politicking and Emergent Media

Jane Marie Gaines

Pearl Bowser

Oscar Micheaux—the most prolific African American filmmaker to date and a filmmaking giant of the silent period—has finally found his rightful place in film history. Both artist and showman, Micheaux stirred controversy in his time as he confronted issues such as lynching, miscegenation, peonage and white supremacy, passing, and corruption among black clergymen. In this important collection, prominent scholars examine Micheaux’s surviving silent films, his fellow producers of race films who alternately challenged or emulated his methods, and the cultural activities that surrounded and sustained these achievements. The relationship between black film and both the stage (particularly the Lafayette Players) and the black press, issues of underdevelopment, and a genealogy of Micheaux scholarship, as well as extensive and more accurate filmographies, give a richly textured portrait of this era. The essays will fascinate the general public as well as scholars in the fields of film studies, cultural studies, and African American history. This thoroughly readable collection is a superb reference work lavishly illustrated with rare photographs.

Charles Musser

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