The Making of American Audiences: From Stage to Television, 1750–1990 (Cambridge Studies in the History of Mass Communication)

In The Making of American Audiences, Richard Butsch provides a comprehensive survey of American entertainment audiences from the colonial period to the modern day. Providing coverage of theatre, opera, vaudeville, minstrelsy, movies, radio and television, he examines the evolution of audience practices as each genre supplanted another as the primary popular entertainment. Based on original historical research, this volume exposes how audiences made themselves through their practices - how they asserted control over their own entertainments and their own behaviour. Importantly, Butsch articulates two long-term processes: pacification and privatization. Whereas during the nineteenth century, overactive audiences represented a threat to civic order through their unruly behaviour, in the twentieth century, audiences have become more passive, dependent upon and controlled by media messages. This timely study serves as an important contribution to communication research, as well as American cultural history and cultural studies. Half-title 3 Series-title 4 Title 5 Copyright 6 Contents 7 Acknowledgments 9 Introduction: Participative Public, Passive Private? 13 From Active to Passive 15 Overactive Audiences 17 Defenseless Audiences 18 Audience and Performer 19 Inattention and Embedded Entertainment 21 Public to Private 24 Public, Participative, and Collective 25 From Politics to Consumption 26 From Theater to Home 28 A Note on My Choice of Entertainments 29 1 Colonial Theater, Privileged Audiences 32 Audiences of Gentry 34 Dramatic Protests 37 2 Drama in Early Republic Audiences 44 “No Inconsiderable Part of the Entertainment” 47 Federalists, Republicans, and Artisans 50 3 The B’Hoys in Jacksonian Theaters 56 B’Hoys: A Market, a Youth Culture, an Icon 57 B’Hoys at the Theater 61 Riots 64 4 Knowledge and the Decline of Audience Sovereignty 69 Street Wisdom, Incorporation, and the Demise of Sovereignty 70 “Taste”: Knowledge as Cultural Capital 73 “Fashion” at the Opera 75 5 Matinee Ladies: Re-gendering Theater Audiences 78 For Male Amusement 80 Dramas for the Family: Domestication 83 Taming the Audience: De-masculinization 84 The Matinee: Women as an Audience that Mattered 86 Changing Gender Roles 88 Women at Evening Performances 90 Gender Shift, Status Reversal 92 6 Blackface, Whiteface 93 Whiteness and Blacks 94 Minstrelsy: Class, Race, and Gender 95 Tears and Laughter 96 Free of Moral Criticism 98 Minstrel Audiences 99 Pursuing Respectability 101 Working-Class Fun? 103 Postwar Minstrelsy 105 7 Variety, Liquor, and Lust 107 Early Variety: The 1860s Concert Saloon 108 Variety to Vaudeville 115 8 Vaudeville, Incorporated 120 Audience Demographics 126 Manipulating the Audience 127 Small-Time Audiences 130 9 “Legitimate” and “Illegitimate” Theater around the Turn of the Century 133 The Fashionable Female Audience 134 Good Gallery Gods 138 “Mellowdrammer” Audiences 141 Italian Theater 143 Yiddish Theater 144 On the Road: Ten-Twenty-Thirty 148 10 The Celluloid Stage: Nickelodeon Audiences 151 From Kinetoscope to Nickelodeon 152 Nickelodeon Demographics 153 A Mass Medium 158 Working-Class Audiences, Autonomous Publics 159 Changing Habits, for Better or Worse 162 Children, Movies, and Reformers 163 11 Storefronts to Theaters: Seeking the Middle Class 170 Low-Brow/High-Brow 174 Where Did the Working Class Go? 175 The 1920s Movie Audience: A Nonissue 177 Reform Discourse in the 1920s 178 Sound Silences the Audience 180 Depression Cutbacks and Audience Construction 181 12 Voices from the Ether: Early Radio Listening 185 The Euphoria of 1922 186 Saturating the Market 187 Amateurs, DXers, and Simple Listeners 188 DX Hounds 189 “Listeners-in” 190 Gendering the Listener 192 Foolish Father and His Radio 194 Women’s Equality in Radio 195 Listening Habits 198 Listeners Organize! 201 13 Radio Cabinets and Network Chains 205 No Place Like Home 207 Radio Comes of Age in the Depression 208 Market Research Constructs an Audience 208 Send in Those Letters! 211 Daytime Listening 212 “Other” Audiences 216 Individuation 217 14 Rural Radio: “We Are Seldom Lonely Anymore” 220 “An Essential Marketing Tool” 221 An Ear to the World 222 My Friend on the Radio 225 A Community Resource 228 Community or Privatization? 230 15 Fears and Dreams: Public Discourses about Radio 231 Commercial Concerns 232 Cultural Uplifters 235 Against Uplift: Leave Us Alone 239 The High-Brow Listener Speaks, 1930 242 From Culture to Counting: Early Effects Research 243 16 The Electronic Cyclops: Fifties Television 247 Watching Together: The Communal Phase 250 “Come-ona My House” 252 Watching versus Listening to Jack Benny 255 Let’s Stay Home and Watch TV 258 Television and Suburbia 259 The Electronic Hearth: The Constructed Family 261 From Hearth to Rec Room 262 Impact on Activities Outside the Home 263 17 A TV in Every Home: Television “Effects” 264 Cultural Critics 265 Worries about Children 267 Negative Cultural Capital 270 Audience Research and the Construction of Cultural Capital 271 “Children are Watching”: Class Patterns of Child-Rearing 273 The Passive Viewer and Inatttentive Audiences 275 Resistance in the Era of Conformity 277 18 Home Video: Viewer Autonomy? 279 Cable versus Broadcast 280 VCR and Consumer Power 282 The Videodisc Fiasco 283 Culture Wars over Viewer Time and Attention 284 Time-Shifting: Consumer Programming 285 Zapping: Nightmare for Advertisers 286 Remote Control versus Audience Flow 286 The Decline of Mass Medium Television? 287 Conclusion 289 19 Conclusion: From Effects to Resistance and Beyond 292 Reconsidering Resistance 294 Women Viewers 297 Embeddedness and Inattention 299 Embeddedness and the Disappearing Audience 300 Fandom: Resistance or Incorporation? 302 An Array of “Resistances” 304 Appendix: Availability, Affordability, Admission Price 307 Notes 315 Introduction: Participative Public, Passive Private? 315 Chapter 1. Colonial Theater, Privileged Audiences 318 Chapter 2. Drama in Early Republic Audiences 321 Chapter 3. The B’Hoys in Jacksonian Theaters 324 Chapter 4. Knowledge and the Decline of Audience Sovereignty 327 Chapter 5. Matinee Ladies: Re-gendering Theater Audiences 329 Chapter 6. Blackface, Whiteface 334 Chapter 7. Variety, Liquor, and Lust 338 Chapter 8. Vaudeville, Incorporated 342 Chapter 9. “Legitimate” and “Illegitimate” Theater Around the Turn of the Century 345 Chapter 10. The Celluloid Stage: Nikelodeon Audiences 351 Chapter 11. Storefronts to Theaters: Seeking the Middle Class 357 Chapter 12. Voices from the Ether: Early Radio Listening 363 Chapter 13. Radio Cabinets and Network Chains 370 Chapter 14. Rural Radio: “We Are Seldom Lonely Anymore” 376 Chapter 15. Fears and Dreams: Public Discourses About Radio 379 Chapter 16. The Electronic Cyclops: Fifties Television 385 Chapter 17. A TV in Every Home: Television “Effects” 390 Chapter 18. Homevideo: Viewer Autonomy? 394 Chapter 19. Conclusion: From Effects to Resistance and Beyond 398 Appendix: Availability, Affordability, Admission Price 404 Selected Bibliography 405 Archives 405 Newspapers and Magazines 406 General: Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Sources 406 General: Twentieth-Century Sources 408 Stage: Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Sources 415 Stage: Twentieth-Century Sources 417 Mass Media 426 Index 443 In The Making of American Audiences, Richard Butsch provides a comprehensive survey of American entertainment audiences from the colonial period to the present. Govering theater, minstrelsy, vaudeville, movies, radio, and television, he examines the evolution of audiences as each genre supplanted another as the primary popular entertainment. Based on original historical research, this volume exposes how audiences made themselves through their practices, and how they were made by contemporary discourses. During the nineteenth century, active audiences were represented as unruly and a threat to civic order, while in the twentieth century, audiences have been protrayed as passive and controlled by media messages. At the same time, dispersal of audiences from theaters to their homes by radio and television has made entertainment a private experience rather than a public occasion, and has severed the connection between audience practices and collective action. This timely study serves as an important contribution to communication research, as well as to American cultural history and cultural studies.

In The Making of American Audiences, Richard Butsch provides a comprehensive survey of American entertainment audiences from the Colonial period to the present. Providing coverage of theater, opera, vaudeville, minstrelsy, movies, radio and television, he examines the evolution of audience practices as each genre supplanted another as the primary popular entertainment. Based on original historical research, this volume exposes how audiences made themselves through their practices—how they asserted control over their own entertainments and their own behavior.

"In The Making of American Audiences, Richard Butsch provides a comprehensive study of American entertainment audiences from the colonial period to the present. Covering theater, minstrelsy, vaudeville, movies, radio, and television, he examines the evolution of audiences as each genre supplanted another as the primary popular entertainment. Based on original historical research, this volume exposes how audiences made themselves through their practices, and how they were made by contemporary discourses."--Jacket Providing coverage of theater, opera, vaudeville, minstrelsy, movies, radio and television, this book examines the evolution of audience practices as each genre supplanted another as the primary popular entertainment. Based on original historical research, this volume exposes how audiences made themselves through their practices -- how they asserted control over their own entertainments and their on behavior.