Old West, New Audiences: Wildlife Documentaries, Non-Theatrical Exhibition, and the Us Wilderness Culture Industry, 1928–1930

Abstract

In the 1920s and 1930s, Oregon conservationist and filmmaker William L. Finley toured the United States with films he co-produced that featured the wildlife and wild spaces of the western United States. Using Finley’s ‘Camera Hunting on the Continental Divide’ tour of 1930 as a case study, I explore the cultural context and media ecosystem in which it existed; one that included the bifurcation of filmic exhibition practices, growing a commercial synergy led by film spectatorship, and the post-industrial, 20th century commodification and construction of American ‘wilderness’.