List Price: $ 35.00
Price: $ 35.00
Feature
Overview
A surge of immigration in the United States in the 1920s coincided with burgeoning developments in entertainment鈥攊ncluding cinema. As people from Latin America settled in the U.S. in growing numbers, movie houses sprang up in areas where these populations were concentrated. The advent of talkies in the 1930s propelled the Spanish-speaking movie industry into high gear. As the U.S. entered World War II, films from Mexico dominated the market, creating a culture of Mexican cinema that offered entertainment, a reflection of native values and customs, and a link to the homeland. A study of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema reveals much about the development of Latin American popular culture in the U.S.
This book is a richly detailed look at Mexican cinema鈥檚 boom years in the United States, 1920 to 1960. It draws upon a treasure trove of files from Clasa-Mohme, Inc., a major distributor of Mexican films in the United States, that the author stumbled across while browsing for old movie posters. Chapters focus on the appeal of Mexican cinema and the venues that evolved where Hispanic populations were centered: Los Angeles and Pomona Valley, California; New York City; El Paso, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; and the Rio Grande Valley. The theaters, distributors, audience demographics, popular and critical reception of the films, and the stars all receive attention. Included are lists of theaters in California, Texas and cities in other states that exhibited Mexican films between 1920 and 1960.
April 17th, 2011 on 9:33 am
Mexican Movies,
聽聽
One of the best learning tools on the market for Mexican Cinema lovers. This is the foundation of the Hispanic Film Industry. Rogelio Jr. is a genius!
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|April 17th, 2011 on 9:58 am
First book in tackling this subject; excellent and well documented.,
Though the distribution and exhibition of Mexican cinema was widespread in the United States since the early 1930s until the 1980s, it has been only incidentally mentioned in books and research papers about Spanish speaking people in this country (with a few exceptions, such as the unpublished dissertation by Amy Beer, Ph.D., about Mexican cinema and the New York Spanish speaking audiences).
It is understandable when one knows how difficult it is to find reliable information about this subject. Only a strongly determined researcher would undertake this challenge.
Fortunately, this researcher happened to be Rogelio Agras谩nchez Jr., whose personal and professional background qualified him to the pursuit. Member of a family with a more than eighty-year experience in the film industry, Agras谩nchez grew up among film producers, distributors, and actors. He was able to meet -and to interview- powerful people in the industry, such as Gregorio Wallerstein, Ra煤l de Anda, Miguel Zacar铆as, Richard Dunlap, and many others. He also had the opportunity to follow his father’s deals with distributors in the United States, and to interview sales executives that worked for the three major Mexican film distributing companies in the United States. Moreover, Agras谩nchez himself had a short experience as a Spanish film exhibitor in Texas.
On the other hand, his professional training as a historian, under the guidance of noted scholar Dr. Nettie Lee Benson at the University of Texas in Austin, has been a relevant asset for his work.
“Mexican Movies in the United States…” comprises part of the results of several years of research. This book was meant as an introduction to the distribution and exhibition of Mexican cinema in this country between 1920 and 1960.
The scope of this volume, according to its author, was to bring to light the importance of Mexican cinema among Spanish speaking audiences in the United States, and since my point of view he has reached his goal. In reading this book one is first surprised to learn that Mexican silent movies were in fact exhibited in this country. Then, how Mexican sound films found an interesting and wide market niche and the fact that, at some point, about 600 venues exhibited Mexican films all over the United States -from humble tents to movie palaces-. It is a well documented account of the history of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema as experienced by traders and audiences in this country, and how its decline began at the end of the 1950s. The author emphasizes the fact that Mexican cinema was a powerful link between Spanish speaking audiences and their cultural roots.
The research for this book included a thoroughly reading of more than 3,000 documents from the Clasa-Mohme Inc. files. Clasa-Mohme was one of the three major distributors of Mexican movies in the United States, the others being Azteca Films Inc., and Columbia Pictures. Other archival sources were consulted, such as the Karl Hoblitzelle’s Interstate Theatre Circuit files. The scanning of more than 40 periodicals addressed to Spanish speaking people in the United States was very important too. Some of these newspapers spanned several decades, and yielded relevant data. Trade magazines and publications add to the list of valuable sources for this volume.
The book does not cover all the geographic areas in which Spanish speaking people concentrated between 1920 and 1960, and the author does not pretend to have done so. There are regions, such as the Chicago-Gary area, that are to be studied yet.
`Mexican Movies in the United States’ consists of a presentation by the prestigious scholar and author Carl Mora; an excellent introduction; several chapters, each one devoted to a different geographic area: Los Angeles, the Pomona Valley (California); New York City; El Paso, San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley (Texas), and the conclusion. The book includes an extensive listing of movie theatres along the United States that exhibited Mexican movies, according to the records of the film distributing companies, trade publications, and official records.
If you know the Agras谩nchez’s books about Mexican movie posters, do not expect this book to be similar. This one is a historical work, well researched and well done. Illustrations are B&W, and the book not being printed on coated paper -as the others were- make them less luscious. Moreover, many of these illustrations are archival material, not works of art. Their value is not lesser, though: these images are part of the memory of the Spanish speaking people lives and culture in this country.
‘Mexican Movies in the United States…’ is a valuable addition to the study of Spanish speaking people in this country.
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|April 17th, 2011 on 10:08 am
Should be called “Mexican Movies in Texas”,
Agrasanchez’ Mexican movie poster compilation books are superb, but this book certainly isn’t. It isn’t very well structured, has too many factual errors, and focuses primarily on distribution and exhibition in Texas. This is because the author based most of the book on old files that came from a defunct San Antonio distributor of Mexican movies. Interesting, but still disappointment. Definitely not worth $45.
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