The Moving Picture World, W. Stephen Bush and the American Reception of European Cinema Practices, 1907–1913

Abstract

First published in 1907, The Moving Picture World (MPW) was a leading film industry trade journal through most of the silent era. It was aimed primarily at exhibitors and committed to elevating the status of the moving picture house in North America through a strategy of ‘cultural uplift’.’ As such, it devoted many articles to improving the quality of both the films and their exhibition. In an earlier essay, one of the authors of the present chapter traced the reception of British exhibition practices in MPW. 2 This essay seeks to do something similar by examining how Europe in general served as a figure for legitimizing a certain image of what the moving picture business in America should look like, with a particular emphasis on how this affected the musical practice in American theaters. This essay begins with a general overview of the coverage of European exhibition practices in MPW before 1913 and then concentrates on explicating a long trip W. Stephen Bush, an editor for the paper, took through Europe in April, May and June of 1913.