Now Playing: Early Moviegoing and the Regulation of Fun

by Paul Moore

Locates the origins of the mass audience and the emergence of everyday moviegoing in the culture of cities.Using Toronto as a case study, and focusing on a period from the opening of the first theaters showcasing moving pictures in 1906 to the end of World War I, Now Playing locates the origins of our present-day mass audience in the culture of cities. Paul S. Moore examines the emergence of everyday moviegoing and its regulation through neglected details like fire safety, newspaper ads, serial films, and amusement taxes, connecting them to more familiar themes of studio ownership of theaters, censorship, and journalism. In Toronto—a foreign city inside the American mass market—patriotism ultimately comes to the fore as civic forms of showmanship turn the simple act of “going to the movies” into a form of citizenship.Paul S. Moore is Assistant Professor in Sociology and in the Graduate Program in Communication and Culture at Ryerson University in Toronto.

260 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 18, 2009

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.