Title: Stars in the aisles: cinema usherettes, identity and ideology
Abstract:Stars in the Aisles: Cinema Usherettes, Identity and Ideology This paper presents a study of the cinema usherette and her significant role within the cinema industry, particularly during the 1930s-195...Stars in the Aisles: Cinema Usherettes, Identity and Ideology This paper presents a study of the cinema usherette and her significant role within the cinema industry, particularly during the 1930s-1950s, and highlights how the presence of this cinema worker was pivotal to the success of the cinema industry. It will show how the cinema usherette was expected to become a part of the picture palace’s dream world; she stood at the threshold between the real world and the movies. Whilst numerous scholarly studies have explored and surveyed the history of cinema identity and its resultant standardisation through analyses of Hollywood exhibition practices, economic and technological innovations and the Hollywood Star system (Gomery, D, Dyer, R et al), little academic research (Hark, I, R) has been undertaken on the way the cinema workforce operated within this; in particular, that of the cinema usherette. She is synonymous with the identity of the cinema but has been overlooked in cinema studies, film history and women’s history. Drawing from research from oral history interviews with former cinema usherettes, audience memories, and archival research in the form of objects, text, photographs and film, this paper explains how the cinema usherette was crucial in maintaining this constant desire.Read More
Publication Year: 2017
Publication Date: 2017-05-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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