[ecrea] New book: Independent Stardom: Freelance Women in the Hollywood Studio System

*Independent Stardom***

*Freelance Women in the Hollywood Studio System***

/Emily Carman/

//

    "Carman upends conventional wisdom in this valuable and informative
historical study of the business practices of freelance actresses during
the 1930s."—/Publishers Weekly/

During the heyday of Hollywood’s studio system, stars were carefully
cultivated and promoted, but at the price of their independence. This
familiar narrative of Hollywood stardom receives a long-overdue shakeup
in Emily Carman’s new book. Far from passive victims of coercive
seven-year contracts, a number of classic Hollywood’s best-known
actresses worked on a freelance basis within the restrictive studio
system. In leveraging their stardom to play an active role in shaping
their careers, female stars including Irene Dunne, Janet Gaynor, Miriam
Hopkins, Carole Lombard, and Barbara Stanwyck challenged Hollywood’s
patriarchal structure.

Through extensive, original archival research, Independent Stardom
uncovers this hidden history of women’s labor and celebrity in
studio-era Hollywood. Carman weaves a compelling narrative that reveals
the risks these women took in deciding to work autonomously.
Additionally, she looks at actresses of color, such as Anna May Wong and
Lupe Vélez, whose careers suffered from the enforced independence that
resulted from being denied long-term studio contracts. Tracing the
freelance phenomenon among American motion picture talent in the 1930s,
Independent Stardom rethinks standard histories of Hollywood to
recognize female stars as creative artists, sophisticated businesswomen,
and active players in the then (as now) male-dominated film industry.

University of Texas Press

Texas Film and Media Studies Series

December 2015 236pp 37 b&w photos 9781477307816 PB £17.99 now only
£14.39* when you quote *CSL116DWFP* when you order

http://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/Book/52719/Independent-Stardom

*Dirty Words and Filthy Pictures***

*Film and the First Amendment***

/Jeremy Geltzer Foreword by Alex Kozinski/

//

    "An important reference book for scholars of the law and
cinema."—Kirkus Reviews

 From the earliest days of cinema, scandalous films such as The Kiss
(1896) attracted audiences eager to see provocative images on screen.
With controversial content, motion pictures challenged social norms and
prevailing laws at the intersection of art and entertainment. Today, the
First Amendment protects a wide range of free speech, but this wasn’t
always the case. For the first fifty years, movies could be censored and
banned by city and state officials charged with protecting the moral
fabric of their communities. Once film was embraced under the First
Amendment by the Supreme Court’s Miracle decision in 1952, new problems
pushed notions of acceptable content even further.

/Dirty Words & Filthy Pictures/ explores movies that changed the law and
resulted in greater creative freedom for all. Relying on primary sources
that include court decisions, contemporary periodicals, state censorship
ordinances, and studio production codes, Jeremy Geltzer offers a
comprehensive and fascinating history of cinema and free speech, from
the earliest films of Thomas Edison to the impact of pornography and the
Internet. With incisive case studies of risqué pictures, subversive
foreign films, and banned B-movies, he reveals how the legal battles
over film content changed long-held interpretations of the Constitution,
expanded personal freedoms, and opened a new era of free speech. An
important contribution to film studies and media law, Geltzer’s work
presents the history of film and the First Amendment with an
unprecedented level of detail.

University of Texas Press

February 2016 384pp 122 b&w photos 9781477307434 PB £20.99now only
£16.79* when you quote *CSL116DWFP* when you order

http://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/Book/52729/Dirty-Words-and-Filthy-Pictures


*UK Postage and Packing FREE, Europe £4.50, RoW £4.99*

*(PLEASE QUOTE REF NUMBER:****CSL116DWFP*** *for discount) *

*To order a copy please contact Marston on +44(0)1235 465500 or email
**(direct.orders /at/ marston.co.uk)* <mailto:(direct.orders /at/ marston.co.uk)>

*or visit our website: *

http://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/

*where you can also receive your discount*

*Price subject to change.

  **Offer excludes the USA, South America and Australia.

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