History of the American Cinema: The Transformation of Cinema, 1907-1915 [Hardcover]

Eileen Bower (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1990 | Series: History of the American Cinema (Book 2)

Eileen Bowser chronicles the history of the American film business from the days of storefront nickelodeons to the premiere of D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation. The effect of the surroundings--the size of the hall; whether the film was shown alone or along with vaudeville entertainment; and the size, quality, and relevance of the musical background--are all examined for their impact on the filmgoing experience.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A superb and nuanced analysis of the historical context in which films were made, exhibited, and received. . . . Changing narrative forms, acting styles, camera angles, and editing techniques are analyzed in a highly comprehensible manner." -- Stephen J. Ross, American Historical Review

"Impeccable scholarship. . . . [Bowser] answers a great many questions about how film began to define what is now called its language." -- Jeanine Basinger, New York Times Book Review

"There is no equivalent to these books.. . . When Eileen Bowser says that the term 'movie star' was first applied to Florence Turner, the Vitagraph actress, in 1910, you can trust her as you never could trust the journalistic chroniclers of the movies who relied on second-hand sources or memory." -- Kevin Lewis, Film Culture --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Eileen Bowser is former Curator of Film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Charles Scribners & Sons; 1 edition (December 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684184141
• ISBN-13: 978-0684184142
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,625,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thorough examination of American Film History from 1907-1915, June 17, 2002

By 

Bruce Calvert "silent movie collector" (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Transformation of Cinema, 1907-1915 (History of the American Cinema) (Paperback)

Ms. Bowser has written a detailed history of this film period, using her extensive research from early film trade magazines and the court records for the Patent War trial proceedings. The Patent litigation can be very confusing, but she does a good job of pointing out the important highlights. Besides the Patent War, the Patents Company also lost the economic war with the independent film producers and distributors. She describes the rise of the nickelodeon theatres, and the backlash against films by some moral "authorities" of the time. She shows many examples of films where the camera creeped closer to the actors than just a full shot of their body, and the early attempts to tell a story better by editing different shots together. This period was the very beginning of the "star" system. Many studios resisted releasing the names of their actors, but others (including a few licensed producers) were happy to do so. With the coming of feature films came bigger, more elaborate movie palaces. And although Hollywood started booming in this period, films were being made in New York City, New Jersey, Florida, San Antonio, Chicago, Ireland, Cuba, and many other places.

Because this book convers only American films, the reader will miss out on film history being made in Europe and the rest of the world. However, it does explain how Italian spectacles in 1913-1914 influenced certain American filmmakers. And Pathe Freres in France had some influence over distribution patterns in the USA before World War I. The main reason that I didn't give this book 5 stars is that it only describes major films as to their editing techniques or social content. There is no analysis as a whole of major films like THE ITALIAN, MUSKETEERS OF PIG ALLEY and others. Also, short comedies like the Mack Sennett Keystones only have a couple of pages, and Charlie Chaplin (who started working in 1914) and Sidney Drew barely have a mention.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent study of the development of early cinema, July 8, 2005

By 

Barbara (Burkowsky) Underwood (Tumut, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Transformation of Cinema, 1907-1915 (History of the American Cinema) (Paperback)

As a silent film enthusiast I thoroughly enjoyed reading "The Transformation of Cinema" and got a lot out of it. Although the author takes quite a scholarly approach (with extensive notes and bibliography), I found the book to be fairly easy reading throughout, and each chapter, which deals with a separate theme and includes good photos, is just the right length. This book is probably best for the more serious student or enthusiast of early film development, rather than for general reading or information on certain films or people. The author's approach is an overall one, encompassing the mentality and social conditions of the time in the US which influenced the development of cinema, such as, for example, the attitude in the early years that moving pictures were only for the `great unwashed masses' and was looked down upon by middle and upper classes. As a result, influential people concerned with `uplift' in society pushed to make films educational, intelligent and appealing to the more intellectual classes of society. Then there was a backlash as the majority of people preferred to be entertained rather than lectured, and further chapters focus on the changes that took place in filmmaking: moving cameras, lighting, editing, fade-outs and so on. Many films are mentioned as examples, but there is no section devoted to any person or film in particular. Instead, the author takes an all-encompassing approach which shows how people responded to moving pictures in the first place, then how producers and filmmakers responded to the public's reactions, tried to influence the public in various ways, and how all these interactions led to the transformation of nickelodeons into cinemas as we know them today. I found this to be a very good, informative and enlightening approach which was handled well, making this book an important foundation in the understanding and appreciation of moving pictures.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointment, February 5, 2002

By 

Michael Samerdyke (Big Stone Gap, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: History of the American Cinema: The Transformation of Cinema, 1907-1915 (Hardcover)

I came to this book having finished Musser's "The Formation of Cinema," the first volume in this series. Sad to say, this volume is a disappointment.

Yes, there is some good information here, but the author's style is extremely dry, and I found her footnoting style to be very misleading. (She mentioned one film that exists only in fragments in a Soviet film archive in Moscow, and her footnote lists only the original review of the movie in 1914, before there even was a Soviet film archive.) She pursues the topic of the origin of the closeup to death, devoting one whole chapter to whether the camera was 12 feet from the actors or only 9 feet.

Admittedly, the era of the "Patent wars" is confusing, but I think more could have been done to make this era clearer to readers. This is a very weak volume in an extremely good series of books on the American cinema.