{"product_id":"stagestruck-filmmaker-david-mayer-9781587297908","title":"Stagestruck Filmmaker: D. W. Griffith \u0026 the American Theatre","description":"An actor, a vaudevillian, and a dramatist before he became a filmmaker, D. W. Griffith used the resources of theatre to great purpose and to great ends. In pioneering the quintessentially modern medium of film from the 1890s to the 1930s, he drew from older, more broadly appealing stage forms of melodrama, comedy, vaudeville, and variety. In \u003ci\u003eStagestruck Filmmaker\u003c\/i\u003e, David Mayer brings Griffith's process vividly to life, offering detailed and valuable insights into the racial, ethnic, class, and gender issues of these transitional decades. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCombining the raw materials of theatre, circus, minstrelsy, and dance with the newer visual codes of motion pictures, Griffith became the first acknowledged artist of American film. \u003ci\u003eBirth of a Nation\u003c\/i\u003e in particular demonstrates the degree to which he was influenced by the racist justifications and distorting interpretations of the Civil War and the Reconstruction era. Moving through the major phases of Griffith's career in chapters organized around key films or groups of films, Mayer provides a mesmerizing account of the American stage and cinema in the final years of the nineteenth century and the first three decades of the twentieth century. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eGriffith's relationship to the theatre was intricate, complex, and enduring. Long recognized as the dominant creative figure of American motion pictures, throughout twenty-six years of making more than five hundred films he pillaged, adapted, reshaped, revitalized, preserved, and extolled. By historicizing his representations of race, ethnicity, and otherness, Mayer places Griffith within an overall template of American life in the years when film rivaled and then surpassed the theatre in popularity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e David Mayer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1587297906\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781587297908\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Iowa Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/01\/2009\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 10.60h x 6.60w x 1.00d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChronicle of Higher Education\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/03\/2009 pg. 17\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/01\/2009\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eReference and Research Bk News\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/01\/2009 pg. 268","brand":"David Mayer","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48065723433215,"sku":"9781587297908","price":49.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_50d5078d-513e-4fc6-8c6f-6dbff575eede.jpg?v=1768676832","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/stagestruck-filmmaker-david-mayer-9781587297908","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}