The Red Rooster Scare: Making Cinema American, 1900-1910

by Richard Abel

Only once in cinema history have imported films dominated the American during the nickelodeon era in the early years of the twentieth century, when the Pathé company's "Red Rooster" films could be found "everywhere." Through extensive original research, Richard Abel demonstrates how crucial French films were in making "going to the movies" popular in the United States, first in vaudeville houses and then in nickelodeons.

Abel then deftly exposes the consequences of that popularity. He shows how, in the midst of fears about mass immigration and concern that women and children (many of them immigrants) were the principal audience for moving pictures, the nickelodeon became a contested site of Americanization. Pathé's Red Rooster films came to be defined as dangerously "foreign" and "alien" and even "feminine" (especially in relation to "American" subjects like westerns). Their impact was thwarted, and they were nearly excluded from the market, all in order to ensure that the American cinema would be truly American.

The Red Rooster Scare offers a revealing and readable cultural history of American cinema's nationalization, by one of the most distinguished historians of early cinema.

Genres: Film, History, Nonfiction

324 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Richard Owen Abel (born 1941) is Professor Emeritus of International Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Michigan.

Reviews

[Leonard Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

The early days of the motion picture industry, like a lot of nascent capitalist enterprises, were a wild and lawless time. The most popular films during the early period of the art form’s explosive growth, were all made by French manufacturers, and in order to break this hold, American companies (including those run by master swindler Thomas Edison) tried a variety of tactics, including making film a “family” amusement, creating frivolous legislation, and presenting the French industry as alien and vaguely immoral. This book is heavily academic (it’s at least half endnotes) but it’s still a pretty fascinating look at the clawing competition that shaped the birth of an art form and industry we more or less take for granted today, as well as a realization of how completely (and quickly!) technology and trade transformed the American landscape.

[Lena · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book takes a fairly interesting period in film history and draws it out rather tediously. I found the writing to be quite dull and a bit repetitive, and the author relies far too much on documents of "proof" that are entirely unnecessary to prove his very basic points. Nearly every other page includes an advertisement from a trade magazine showing essentially the same thing- that Pathe presented his films as high quality entertainment- without much analysis of these provided examples. I wish there had been more to this book.

[Buckey Grimm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting look at the early days of the U.S Motion Picture as an industry, and the effect that Pathe' prominence in the industry had on the developing United States Film Business. Richard Abel's work is well researched and his ability to relate how Pathe's entrance and efficiency of operation affected the U.S. market during this rise of the Industry is handled quite expediently.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched with a provocative thesis that emphasizes the importance of Pathé in early American film history. I don't think it's fair to call Abel's writing 'dry'; it's historical research published in an academic press, you're not going to get Thomas Friedman or whatever. The only thing that stood out for me was the final chapter examining the role Westerns played in early American cinema, which seems like it could've (should've?) been it's own article (or even its own book).

[Greta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting account of the history of Pathe in the US film market between 1900 and 1910. With their high volume output, high technical and artistic quality, they apparently a big factor in supplying product for the nickelodeon boom and their films were popular with audiences. The American industry fought back by marginalizing them through them through trade agreements and suits, and by branding them in the industry press as "foreign," with vulgar and sensational content unsuitable to American audiences, and even insufficiently "virile." He also sees the boom in dime-novel style westerns (as opposed to the Indian films, which he thinks appealed to women and immigrants) as part of the strategy of the American industry to define a properly "American" cinema more in concert with white male values. He makes a convincing argument.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book discusses how Pathe Freres dominated filmmaking in the 1900s, and how American film became distinctly "American" primarily because of competition to knock Pathe from the top. I was unfamiliar with this whole aspect of American cinema, and it was interesting to learn how something that seems so indirect can really put a distinctive stamp on filmmaking.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like another alluded to, this book should've been interesting; the subject itself is. But the writing is beyond dry. I'm not saying this book doesn't have quality research in it; I'm sure Abel's insights are actually quite good, and I certainly wouldn't be qualified to say his research isn't. But this was simply not an engaging read.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I was going to try and finish this, since we only read the first half for class, but that doesn't appear to be happening any time soon. Really interesting account of the role of Pathe, the French film company, in the formation of the American film industry.