Women's film and female experience, 1940-1950 PDF
Preview Women's film and female experience, 1940-1950
WOMEN'S FILM AND FEMALE EXPERIENCE This page intentionally left blank WOMEN'S FILM AND FEMALE EXPERIENCE 1940-1950 Andrea S. Walsh PRU AA EISGOESIRE New York Westport, Connecticut London Stills courtesy of Jerry Ohlinger's Movie Materials Store, Movie Star News, and Cinemabilia. The Production Code has been reprinted with permission of Ken Clark of the Motion Picture Association of America. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Walsh, AndreaS. Women's film and female experience, 1940-1950. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Women in moving-pictures. 2. Moving-pictures — United States - History. I. Title. PN1995.9.W6W3 1984 791.4375'0909352042 83-24486 ISBN 0-275-91753-3 0-275-92599-4 (pbk.) Copyright © 1984 by Praeger Publishers All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 83-24486 ISBN: 0-275-92599-4 First published in 1984 (cl.) and 1986 (pbk.) Praeger Publishers, One Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. Printed in the United States of America (ooi' The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). P In order to keep this title in print and available to the academic community, this edition was produced using digital reprint technology in a relatively short print run. This would not have been attainable using traditional methods. Although the cover has been changed irom its original appearance, the text remains the same and all materials and methods used still conform to the highest book-making standards. Dedicated to the memory of my grandmother, Anna Cotter Lally (1889-1981) This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study had many phases - in classrooms, theaters, libraries, my study and late at night in front of the television. I have many people to thank for providing the intellectual, emotional, and practical support necessary for its completion. This project began as my doctoral dissertation. I wish especially to thank my dissertation committee for their support, enthusiasm, patience, and insight. Terry Hopkins saw this project through from inception to completion. His guidance and probing insight helped me to sharpen and refine both theory and method. Joan Smith provided provocative criticism, and always encouraged me to disagree. Like wise, John Flint supported this study, encouraging me to ground it firmly within the larger field of sociology of culture. Mary Ryan helped me design the project initially and to link it to relevant scholarship in women's history. Sarah Elbert gave sisterly support and criticism, as well as guidelines for cultural and historical analysis. I thank Joel Greifinger who provided boundless support - emo tional and intellectual - and never acted bored or frustrated when asked to read and comment upon yet another draft. Likewise, Sonya Michel, my collaborator in research on women's roles in the 1940s, provided sisterly support, perceptive (and always gentle!) criticism, and new and impossible-to-find sources. Many friends, students, and colleagues accompanied me to movies, rekindled my enthusiasm, and read and commented upon all or parts of the manuscript. Marty Frum bought me my first movie stills, discussed an endless number of films with me, prepared the index, and guided me to a wide array of sources. Nina Shapiro and Anna Yeatman planted important ideas about women's culture in my head a decade ago. Linda Silver encouraged me to take my work as seriously as she did. My housemate and fellow media critic Ella Taylor contributed critical insight, humor, and many cups of tea. Myra Boime, Torry Dickinson, Lew Friedland, Robert Horwitz, Ruth Harriet Jacobs, Isaac Jackson, Bill Martin, Chinnah Mithrasekaran, Terry Kalb, Cheryl Klausner, Ellie Leiman, Lynne Layton, Linda Peterson, Barbara Richardson, Simon Rosenblum, Bob Ross, Karen Schachere, Ann Schofield, Mary Smith, Robbie Strongin, Steve Vogel, and Anna Yeatman read or discussed with me the ideas of my study, or sat with me in darkened theatres while I scribbled note after note, after note. Larry Meacham and Betsy Swart provided much- vn viii / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS appreciated research advice. I wish also to thank many of my colleagues and students at SUNY-Binghamton, Cornell, and Clark University, who shared their insights on women in film with me. Lynda Sharp, my editor at Praeger, supported and encouraged this study, while providing helpful criticism. SUNY-Binghamton provided some of the financial supportort necessary to complete this work. I would also like to thank the People's Film Collective, Providence, Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Committee For the Humanities for providing me an oppor tunity to show and discuss some of these films with large and diverse audiences. Barbara Humphries and Emily Sieger, Motion Picture Division, Library of Congress, assisted me in locating and viewing many of these films. Elizabeth Bouche and Roxanne Rawson typed several drafts and were more than willing to accommodate crazy deadlines. Leslie Dowd and Patricia Hamilton assisted in preparing the final draft. Carmen Sirianni lived with this study through most of its short but intense life, watching and listening to plots of more 1940s films than he probably ever cares to remember. For his love, unfailing support, and critical insight, I will always be grateful. My parents Eileen and Michael Walsh and my aunt and uncle Mary and Edward Fallon taught me long ago to love the "Bette Davis" and "Katharine Hepburn" movies about which I would later write. And lastly, this book is dedicated to the memory of my grand mother, Anna Cotter Lally, who always believed that I would indeed finish, but did not live to see the completion. This study has been immeasurably enriched by everyone I have mentioned; any errors, omissions, or inconsistencies are, of course, mine. CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii INTRODUCTION 1 Popular Culture and Popular Consciousness: A Theoretical Framework for Interpreting the Women's Film 5 Popular Culture and Social History 5 Modern Popular Culture and Its Social Context 8 Mass-Mediated Culture as Popular Culture 11 Notes 15 Chapter 1: THE "WOMEN'S FILM" 23 Narrative Form and Visual Style 27 Visual Style 27 Women's Films: Historical and Contemporary Context 30 Film Production 30 The Women's Film, the Studios, and the Production Code 32 Critics and the Women's Film 35 The Women's Film and Its Audience: The Other Side of the Screen 36 The Women's Film in the 1940s 43 Notes 44 Chapter 2: DIVIDED AND UNITED: AMERICAN WOMANHOOD ON THE HOMEFRONT 49 The Legacy of the Great Depression 50 War Breaks Out 51 The Home Front 51 Recruiting Women Workers: The Promotional Campaigns 52 American Women Respond to the War Crisis 53 The "Other Rosies": Unexpected Mobility 57 Still Unequal: Resistance to Sexual Equality at Work 58 The Childcare and Community Services Controversy 62 IX
The list of books you might like
