Teenagers And Teenpics : Juvenilization Of American Movies. PDF
Preview Teenagers And Teenpics : Juvenilization Of American Movies.
T E E N A G E R S A N D T E E N P I C S T E E N A G E R S A N D T E E N P I C S T H E J U V E N I L I Z AT I O N O F A M E R I C A N M O V I E S I N T H E 1 9 5 0 S Revised and Expanded Edition Thomas Doherty Temple University Press PHILADELPHIA Temple University Press, Philadelphia 19122 Copyright © 2002 by Temple University All rights reserved Published 2002 Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Doherty, Thomas Patrick. Teenagers and teenpics:the juvenilization of American movies in the 1950s / Thomas Doherty. p. cm. Revised and expanded edition. Filmography: p. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 1-56639-945-9 (cl.:alk. paper) — ISBN 1-56639-946-7 (pbk.:alk. paper) 1. Motion pictures—United States—History. 2. Motion pictures and youth— United States. 3. Teenagers in motion pictures—United States. I. Title. PN1993.5.U6 D53 2002 302.23′43′0973—dc21 20011052514 To Sandra Contents Acknowledgments ix 1 American Movies as a Less-than-Mass Medium 1 2 A Commercial History 13 3 The Teenage Marketplace 32 4 Rock ’n’ Roll Teenpics 54 5 Dangerous Youth 83 6 The Horror Teenpics 115 7 The Clean Teenpics 145 8 Generation after Generation of Teenpics 187 Notes 213 Selected Filmography 237 Index to Film Titles 251 General Index 259 vii Acknowledgments In his Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin smugly attests that he would be happy to live the same life over again, “only asking the advantage authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first.” In this spirit, I have exploited what Franklin might call the present felic- ity to polish and expand the first edition of Teenagers and Teenpics,pub- lished in 1988 by the now-defunct Unwin and Hyman, by correcting typos, purging mistakes, repairing syntax, and blue-penciling a few boneheaded comments. In addition, the last chapter, which as before tracks the permutations of the teenpic since the 1950s, has been up- dated with ruminations on some recent trends, notably the grim legacy of the AIDS epidemic on the teenpic genre. Otherwise, for better or worse, the original text remains intact. The first edition owed a great deal to a good many people, in whose debt I remain. John Raeburn was unfailingly generous with his time and incisive with his criticism. William Paul shared his enthusiasm and considerable expertise. At the University of Iowa, back during the age between punk rock and the hairspray bands, an exceptionally sharp and humane group of teachers and friends offered encouragement: Rick Altman, James Carey, Wayne Franklin, Rich Horwitz, Brooks Landon, Cindy Larson, Richard Dyer MacCann, Albert Stone, Sherman Paul, Paul Soucek, Bruce Sternfield, Michael Wall, Robin Wood, and every- one clustered around the Bijou Theater and University Film Board, whose repertory programming served as the informal film studies curriculum on campus. Bruce A. Austin, Ernest Callenbach, and the late Fred C. Clarke lent emotional and editorial support. Roger Cor- man was kind enough to interrupt an editing session and answer ques- tions from a flustered scholar-fan. The National Endowment for the ix
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