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The emergence of the double-bill in the 1930s created a divide between A-pictures and B-pictures as theaters typically screened packages featuring one of each. With the former considered more prestigious because of their larger budgets and more popular actors, the lower-budgeted Bs served largely as a support mechanism to A-films of the major studios—most of which also owned the theater chains in which movies were shown. When a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court antitrust ruling severed ownership of theaters from the studios, the B-movie soon became a different entity in the wake of profound changes to the corporate organization and production methods of the major Hollywood studios.

 

In The Battle for the Bs, Blair Davis analyzes how B-films were produced, distributed, and exhibited in the 1950s and demonstrates the possibilities that existed for low-budget filmmaking at a time when many in Hollywood had abandoned the Bs. Made by newly formed independent companies, 1950s B-movies took advantage of changing demographic patterns to fashion innovative marketing approaches. They established such genre cycles as science fiction and teen-oriented films (think Destination Moon and I Was a Teenage Werewolf) well before the major studios and also contributed to the emergence of the movement now known as underground cinema. Although frequently proving to be multimillion-dollar box-office draws by the end of the decade, the Bs existed in opposition to the cinematic mainstream in the 1950s and created a legacy that was passed on to independent filmmakers in the decades to come.

 

Table of Contents

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  1. Cover
  2. p. c
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  1. Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
  2. pp. i-vi
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  1. CONTENTS
  2. pp. vii-viii
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  1. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  2. pp. ix-xii
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  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-18
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  1. Chapter 1
  2. pp. 19-42
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  1. Chapter 2
  2. pp. 43-66
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  1. Chapter 3
  2. pp. 67-102
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  1. Chapter 4
  2. pp. 103-130
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  1. Chapter 5
  2. pp. 131-163
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  1. Chapter 6
  2. pp. 164-200
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  1. Chapter 7
  2. pp. 201-216
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  1. NOTES
  2. pp. 217-248
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  1. INDEX
  2. pp. 249-262
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