A primarily American institution (though it appeared in other countries, such as Japan and Italy), the drive-in theater now sits on the verge of extinction. During its heyday, drive-ins could be found in communities - both large and small. Some of the larger theaters held up to 3,000 cars and were often filled to capacity on weekends. The history ...
Once the major Hollywood studios got over their loathing of television as an entertainment medium, they moved quickly to dominate both domestic and international programming. In the United States, the eight major studios controlled an overwhelming majority of all programming by the early 1950s. Their efforts in foreign markets were not quite so ...
The relationship of Hollywood and television, initially turbulent, has ultimately been profitable from the first sally in what was expected to be a war of attrition, up through the soliciting of movies by major networks, independent stations, basic cable networks, premium cable channels, pay-per-view systems and even the corner video store.When ...
Rock is a music of rebellion against authority, and has consequently frightened and outraged people throughout its forty-year history. Anti-Rock is the first book to detail the objections of rock's detractors. Critics from parents to religious groups, industry executives to scientists, government spokesmen to eccentric crusaders, have all ...
Though the history of tipping can be traced to the Middle Ages, the practice did not become widespread until the late 19th century. Initially, Americans reviled the custom, branding it un - American and undemocratic. The opposition gradually faded away and tipping became an American institution. The government was fairly quick to recognize tips as ...
Each year, men spend an enormous amount of time and money searching for a cure to male pattern baldness. Numerous psychological assessments indicate that the reasons behind their futile efforts are sound: attitudes toward bald men are overwhelmingly negative.From the first torturous attempts at hair implants early in this century to the faddish, ...
Shoplifting: A Social History looks at the activity of shoplifting for the last 140 years: the types of people singled out as the principal offenders, retailers' ambivalent responses to the activity, selective prosecution, the utilization of high-tech antitheft devices, and suing shoplifters to recover costs. Also examined are media accounts which ...
In 1907, the editor of The New York Times wrote, "Employers, naturally, look to the young. A man or woman of advanced years is too apt to be given to old-fashioned ways of doing things, and open to suspicion of having the unforgivable fault, in modern business, of slowness." Age discrimination has existed throughout the 20th century, sometimes in ...
This work traces the history of the vending machine from its inception to its current place in popular American culture, with the eight chapters covering significant eras. Successes and failures of the machines, economic factors influencing the popularity (or lack thereof) of vending machines, and the struggle of the industry to become a dominant ...
The polygraph, most commonly known as the lie detector, was created and refined by academics in university settings with support from a few early police agencies. This work is a history of the polygraph, from the experimental work of the late 1800s that led directly to its creation, until the present. It covers early lie detectors and their ...
Perhaps the single medium in which women have been consistently treated as equal to men is the American judicial system. Although the system has met with enormous public condemnation, equality under the law has justified the legal execution of nearly six hundred American women since 1632.This book profiles the lives and cases of selected women ...
Hippocrates, one of history's earliest known physicians, once asserted, "Walking is man's best medicine." Over the last three centuries, people have endorsed walking for a variety of reasons - health among them. Before the 1700s, people walked as an essential part of their lifestyle. With the coming of the transportation revolution - and the ...
This work traces the history of the jukebox from its origins in the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Alva Edison in the 1880s up to its relative obscurity in the year 2000. The jukebox's first twenty years were essentially experimental because of the low technical quality and other limitations. It then practially disappeared for a quarter ...
The use of endorsements and testimonials to sell anything imaginable is a modern development, though the technique is centuries old. Before World War I, endorsement ads were tied to patent medicine, and were left with a bad reputation when that industry was exposed as quackery. The reputation was well earned: claims of a product's curative powers ...
The number of overweight and obese Americans has been rising exponentially in recent years, and as a result the United States now has one of the highest rates of obesity in the developed world. Now a leading public health problem for Americans, obesity is a regular topic for nightly news programs, scientific or medical study, and intense public ...
The suntan experienced a profound change in the last century. Considered a mark of the lower class for hundreds of years, tanning became a fad in the early 1920s and remains popular today. The tan, though, was much more than a matter of fashion, enjoying at first a boost from the medical establishment. Opinions ranging from hard science to ...
This is the history of advertising in motion pictures from the slide ads of the 1890s to the common practice of product placement in the present. Initially, product placement was seen as a somewhat sleazy practice and also faced opposition from the film industry itself; it has grown dramatically in the past 25 years. From Maillard's Chocolates ...
This social history traces the evolution of women's smoking in the United States from 1880 to 1950. From 1880 to 1908, women were not allowed to smoke in public places, with strong opposition based on moral concerns. Most smoking was done by upper class women in the home, at private parties, or at socials. By 1908, women smokers went public in ...
Ticket scalping is as much an American staple as apple pie. Beginning as early as the mid - 1800s, scalpers, known as "sidewalk men," were charging all the traffic would bear for event tickets. Although these speculators were generally viewed as pariah and public opinion was against the practice, legal attempts to limit their activities were far ...
This work offers a detailed history of American actors' attempts to unionize in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Actors' unions of this period faced many struggles, including a heavy industry reliance on the blacklist, severe media attacks on individual actors, and the frequent formation of illegitimate company unions. This work focuses ...
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Cinema Under the Stars: America's Love Affair with Drive-In Movie Theaters
