In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

1918 Movies, Propaganda, and Entertainment JAMES LATHAM The war remains far and away the most prominent and important news story. In some ways, however, this year in American life is as ordinary as any other. Most people and organizations go about their daily business as usual, with little fanfare, while some receive public attention. Edwin Armstrong , for example, is credited with developing an electronic circuit that dramatically improves radio reception. Emma Banister becomes the first female sheriff in Texas, and probably in the whole country. Newsworthy events range in interest from the international to the local, with obscure places sometimes gaining widespread attention, as when the small town of Codell, Kansas, is again hit by a tornado for the third consecutive year on 20 May. The news covers the usual kinds of curiosities, innovations, triumphs , and tragedies. In the area of transportation, for example, the first regular domestic airmail service begins, General Motors acquires Chevrolet, and a train crash in Nashville, Kentucky, kills 101 people and injures even more. Some noteworthy events will become more significant over time, for instance Babe Ruth leading the American League in home runs for the first time while his team, the Boston Red Sox, wins the World Series in what for eighty-six years would seem the last time. American arts and culture continue to develop around the country on various levels, including their mass distribution, and receive varied recognition by the public and critics. The year’s architectural innovations include the Hallidie Building in San Francisco, which becomes the first building to have an exterior wall made entirely of glass. In music, with the phonograph now an established mass medium, some 100 million records are sold worldwide , with Enrico Caruso and Al Jolson among the most popular artists. In literature, My Antonia becomes the final novel in Willa Cather’s prairie trilogy , and possibly her greatest work. Booth Tarkington’s new novel The Magni ficent Ambersons will go on to win the Pulitzer Prize. And Edgar Rice Burroughs publishes Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, another in his series of 204 popular adventure novels. This popularity extends to the movies, with Tarzan of the Apes (released in January) becoming one of the year’s topgrossing films. Among the hundreds of films released this year, most come and go at local theaters with relatively little fanfare or lasting impact. Some of the year’s more popular or critically notable films include Mickey (August, starring Mabel Normand); Salomé (October, starring Theda Bara); The Forbidden City (August, starring Norma Talmadge); Cecil B. DeMille’s The Whispering Chorus (March), Old Wives for New (May), and The Squaw Man (December); The Married Virgin (December, with a young Rudolph Valentino); and The Birth of a Race (December). Fatty Arbuckle directs and co-stars with protégé Buster Keaton in some comedy shorts including Out West (January) and The Cook (September). Harold Lloyd stars with “Snub” Pollard and Bebe Daniels in over two dozen shorts, including Kicking the Germ out of Germany (July). Some of this year’s other notable films are discussed below: Stella Maris (January); Blue Blazes Rawden (February); Hearts of the World (March); The Blue Bird (March); The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin (March); The Sinking of the Lusitania (July); and Shoulder Arms (October). Familiar stars remain the commercial center of the industry, from Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Charlie Chaplin to Gloria Swanson, Larry Semon, Olive Thomas, Marguerite Clark, Pearl White, Sessue Hayakawa, and Tom Mix. Marion Davies appears in Cecilia of the Pink Roses (June), the first film backed by her lover, the media mogul William Randolph Hearst. Erich von Stroheim achieves notoriety as “The Man You Love to Hate” by playing evil Germans. Unlike stars, most directors work anonymously, though some, like D. W. Griffith, Thomas H. Ince, Cecil B. DeMille, and Maurice Tourneur, are touted as great artists. And some stars, like Chaplin and William S. Hart, begin directing their own films. Their projects take shape amid a transition of power from the mostly East Coast–based studios of the Motion Picture Patents Company (the MPPC, or Edison Trust) to the Independent studios whose production facilities are increasingly located in Southern California. Following a Supreme Court antitrust ruling, the Edison Trust disbands. Member studios like Thanhouser, Selig Polyscope, and even the Edison studio go out of business or are absorbed by other companies. Edison releases its last feature in February : a war drama entitled The Unbeliever in which von Stroheim plays...

Share