Reframing Culture: The Case of the Vitagraph Quality Films

William Uricchio; Roberta E. Pearson

Published by Princeton University Press 1993

Reframing Culture

The Case of the Vitagraph Quality Films

William Uricchio and Roberta E. Pearson

Volume 234 in the series Princeton Legacy Library

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400863631

Overview
Contents

About this book

The works of Shakespeare and Dante or the figures of George Washington and Moses do not often enter into popular conceptions of the silent cinema, yet, between 1907 and 1910, the Vitagraph Company frequently used such material in producing "quality" films that promulgated "respectable" culture. William Uricchio and Roberta Pearson situate these films in an era of immigration, labor unrest, and mainstream American xenophobia, in order to explore the cultural views promoted by the films and the ways the audiences--the middle classes as well as workers and immigrants--related to what they saw. The authors associate the production of quality films with a top-down forging of cultural consensus on issues such as patriotism and morality, and reveal the surprising bottom-up negotiations of these films' "meanings.".

Devoting chapters to the literary, historical, and biblical subjects used by Vitagraph, this book draws upon plays, pageants, school textbooks, and even product advertisements to illuminate the conditions of cinematic production and reception. It provides a detailed look at one aspect of the film industry's transformation from "despised cheap amusement" to the nation's dominant mass medium, while showing how cultural elites engaged in a struggle similar to that of today's American academy over the literary canon and national value systems.

Originally published in 1993.

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.

Reviews

Vitagraph, the largest of the New York studios during the early part of the century, made numerous films based in literary classics, historical events, and Biblical Lore. The authors make a convincing case that the 'Vitagraph Quality Films' series played an important role in improving the cultural status of the movies.

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Illustrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
INTRODUCTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
CHAPTER ONE. Responses to Cultural Crisis: Political Domination and Hegemony Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
CHAPTER TWO. The Film Industry's Drive for Respectability Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
CHAPTER THREE. Literary Qualities: Shakespeare and Dante Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
CHAPTER FOUR. Historical Qualities: Washington and Napoleon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
CHAPTER FIVE. Biblical Qualities: Moses Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
APPENDIX. Vitagraph's Description of the Washington and Napoleon Films Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245

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