WORKING FOR "THE COMPANY": MANAGING PHILADELPHIA MOVIE THEATRES IN THE 19305–19405

Abstract

^ his foreword to Gregory A, Wallers book Main Street ( ^ Amusements, film historian Charles Musser points out that in recent years, study of American film history has emerged from the doldrums to become a dynamic area of inquiry and a sig nificant contributor to the broader fields of cultural history and American studies. One important strand in this renaissance has been a growing recognition of the importance of film exhibition and moviegoing itself as historical phenomena.1 To understand how moviemaking operated in what is known as the studio era (approximately the 1920s through the 1950s), historians have traditionally focused on Hollywood itself?the soundstages, backlots, stars, and movie moguls. But, as Musser argues, to limit research to the filmmaking process is to miss the larger picture, for it was not merely the production of films which made compa nies such as Paramount and Warner Bros, profitable and power ful?it was their control of film distribution and exhibition as well. As Douglas Gomery points out in his newly revised and