Surveying the Landscape of Prologues, 1919–1920
摘要
This chapter analyzes the increase in stage prologues, especially in the two years after the Great War. Exhibitor producers now included not only Franklin, McClintock, Rothapfel, and Grauman but also John Wenger, Joseph Plunkett, and Edward Hyman in New York and Jack Callicott in Los Angeles. The analysis extracts a set of typologies defining most prologues, from single, double, and triptych stage sets to rural, urban, and exotic playlets, along with fashion shows. It also examines prologues for the same feature film in different movie theaters, even in small towns. And it establishes the appearance of “contrastive” prologues that did not harmonize with the feature films shown. Exhibitors exerted a high degree of creativity in mounting stage prologues, and audiences were enthusiastic. That enthusiasm was due to the visual spectacle of a stage set and the physical presence of performers’ bodies and voices, the latter of which were absent in feature films on the screen.