Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America

Ross's fascinating history of the early rise and fall of a labor-oriented cinema proves his contention that ""during the first two decades of the twentieth century, movies were as much a potential weapon of working-class resistance as a form of capitalist propaganda."" He impressively backs his claim through a cross-disciplinary approach that joins the methods of film analysis with those of social history: not only has Ross researched hundreds of films--he finds at least 605 between 1905 and 1917 that can be called working class--but he has also investigated nonfilm sources like labor periodicals, union files and government records. He presents this story with a knack for combining the telling detail and the instructive generalization: ""Going to saloons, burlesque houses, or dance halls unchaperoned was unthinkable for `respectable' women of any class. The explosion of movie theaters after 1905 helped redefine public space by [making] city streets... open to everyone, day and night."" His sections on the work of D.W. Griffith, Adolph Zukor and the brothers William and Cecil B. DeMille, among others, further humanize this illuminating book on an era when class struggles appeared on movie screens as never before or since. (Feb.)