Description: Here at last is the "true-life story" of the serial, that uniquely American and seemingly indestructible drama form. The serial had its origins in early-day magazines and comic strips and the motion-picture clifthangers whose sequences began enthralling moviegoers in the innocent years before World War I. The author describes the radio adventure serials and domestic "soaps" of the thirties and forties, the transfer to TV of the form in the fifties, and its undiminished success in the sixties and into the seventies, as shown by the popularity of such programs as The Fugitive, Peyton Place, and The For-syte Saga. In tracing the evolution of the serial drama, the author demonstrates how it has been geared to capture and sustain audiences through depression, war, and affluence and how it is today reflecting America's social crises. He points out the wide range in quality of such shows, from the coy bathos of radio's The Romance of Helen Trent to the dramatic appeal of One Man's Family. He also illustrates how such programs have both reflected and influenced the times in which they appeared: how Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy helped mold a whole generation of boys who took Jack's code of honor and patriotism to the battlefields of Europe and the South Pacific; how Our Gal Sunday helped wives and sweethearts endure the loneliness of wartime; how Bob and Ray's satiric Mary Backstage, Noble Wife, helped put a period to the Joseph McCarthy era. Then there are the actors who began or enhanced their careers in the serials -from Orson Welles to Mia Farrow, from Gertrude Berg to Jonathan Frid. Rare is the actor who did not at one time or another do a stint in a serial. This is a book for all aficionados of the serial-and they are many, from all walks of life and intellectual climes. James Thurber was a devoted fan of TV soap opera, and it is reported that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is a regular viewer of Dark Shadows. For the observer of American culture, this book is a journey through twentieth-century traditions and mores. For the student of drama, it is an enlightening account of the evolution of the one truly American drama form. For the reader who sat spellbound in a darkened movie theater on Saturday afternoons or listened fearfully before the big family radio to the whispers of The Shadow, it is an excursion in nostalgia. This is from a “lot” of books donated to our Friends of Spanish Peaks Library District for our quarterly book sale. Proceeds go to our children’s summer programs, adult special programs and staff development. Thanks for looking. I’ll be happy to combine shipping please ask! This book was a previous library book. Stamps, numbers, check out envelope, .. see pictures for detail.
Price: 18.25 USD
Location: Walsenburg, Colorado
End Time: 2024-12-14T03:31:50.000Z
Shipping Cost: 5.38 USD
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Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Binding: Hardcover
Place of Publication: Oklahoma
Language: English
Special Attributes: Dust Jacket, 1st Edition, Illustrated
Author: Raymond Williams Steadman
Region: North America
Publisher: University Of Oklahoma Press - Norman
Topic: Drama
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Subject: Literature & Fiction
Original/Facsimile: Original
Year Printed: 1971