At The Picture Show

When one thinks of the USA, one thinks of the large cities, but also of the small towns that make up so much of our culture. This is why the first chapter of At the Picture Show was so interesting. The emphasis on small town America’s relationship with the movies at the turn of the century is an extremely important one not only in understanding the way movies have progressed, but also in understanding small towns’ relationships with the world. Living in Middlebury, we see the focus on local business and production that is rampant in small New England towns. The town’s petition against the building of a Starbucks because it would be competition to local shops is a great example. This concentration on local businesses is what made people like Bert and Fannie Cook, as described in the first chapter of Kathryn Fuller’s book, successful in their endeavors to bring the movies to the smaller audiences of non-urban America. They used their personal connections with the people, as well as their support for small town societies, to get a leg up on their competition.

This is a clear indicator of how different it is to start a business like a movie theater in a small town and a big city. Still, movies are an interesting case because of how quickly the phenomenon spread in rural and urban areas alike. Within a year of the introduction of motion pictures on the big screen, it was becoming a popular form of entertainment that was in demand all over the country. Even small towns, that had typically been considered conservative or less open to the arts, were introducing film into their dialogue. Though it didn’t originally appeal to the upper and middle classes in small towns, it still gained a huge audience as both a commodity and just a medium of entertainment. I find this incredible because it shows us just how much film has influenced us into thinking differently, and Fuller’s stories give us an idea how a medium so popular today started off in the eyes of Americans more than 100 years ago.

Boundaries of Participation

I would have loved to have been alive during the days of musical performances during film screenings. When I was about 10 years old, I went to a screening of two Charlie Chaplin films at the Walter Reade Theater in NYC, and there was a live trio playing ragtime music as well as music choreographed by Chaplin himself. This added a more personal connection to the film that I cannot explain. Then again, it probably wasn’t as intense at the time because it wasn’t an uncommon occurrence and the audiences were accustomed to the music being played on the stage in front of the screen.

It’s interesting how everyone bought into screenwriting as a “get rich quick” scheme. People always think that they can easily find their way into the movie business. Many young people today are convinced that they will be superstars or famous directors in a couple of years. The media is such a lucrative business with so much mass appeal that it is easy for people to be sucked into the idea that they can make it big in Hollywood. People are still moving there by the thousands every year to see if they can make it on the screen or on set. Though some people do make it, as Fuller points out in the case of Ida Damon, it’s very interesting to actually read how many scripts were sent in and how few are chosen to be on the screen. Sometimes, the media gives false hope of the possibility of stardom which captivates audiences into being more interactive with the industry, despite the difficulty of making it.