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The Community of Cinema How Cinema and Spectacle Transformed the American Downtown
James Forsher
ISBN: 0-275-97355-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-97355-1
168 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 4/30/2003
List Price: $71.95 (UK Sterling Price: £49.95)
Discount Price: $35.98 Sale Price for U.S. Customers Only. Save 50%. Ends 12/31/2009.
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Description: The movie theater has in many ways served as a barometer of the evolution of urban America over the past century. The Community of Cinema explores how the growth and decline of the inner city has been intertwined with the history of the movie theater, how the cinema helped redefine the use of downtowns to include entertainment and socialization, a sense of social place in our society, and the use of spectacle as a part of our daily experience in shopping, eating, and business. This is the first book to examine directly the importance of the movie theater in the creation and growth of the modern American downtown, and its fostering of its own sense of place and community.

The Community of Cinema also attempts to bridge the various fields included in the subject of cinema's impact on culture and form, among them film studies, architecture, urban planning, and sociology. In so doing, author James M. Forsher explores in each chapter the ways in which the community of cinema came about, the changes it sparked in the downtown and neighborhood shopping districts, and the sense of community it added to our society as a whole.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
    Introduction
    From Storefront to Palace
    A Community of Cinema
    It Started with a Nickel
    Entertainment Districts and the New American Downtown
    Queen Elizabeth & The Feature Film
    Palaces on Main Street
    Roxie
    Theater as a Social Battleground
    "Colored Theaters"
    Propaganda Battles
    The Church Takes up the Fight
    Safe Haven
    America Cinema during the Depression
    World War Two Comes to Your Neighborhood Theater
    From Downtown to Suburb
    Los Angeles Theater District
    The Battle to Integrate
    The Return of Spectacle
    Preserving the Age of Spectacle
    Megaplexes and Spectacle in the 21st Century
    Theater, Place, and Community
    Bibliography
    Index
About the Author: JAMES FORSHER is the Director of the Media Production Program at California State University, Hayward.
LCC Class: 302
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