Movie-Going in Atlanta
Dana White, Professor of Urban Studies in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, and Matthew Bernstein, Associate Professor of Film Studies, announce the publication of their special "Movie-Going in Atlanta" issue of Atlanta History: A Journal of Georgia and the South.
The special issue brings together essays written by White, Bernstein, and three graduate students--Randy Gue, Gordon Jonbes, and Pat Murdock--as part of a larger project of White and Bernstein's on "Segregated Cinema in a Southern City: Atlanta 1895-1996." White and Bernstein have collaborated on this project for three years under a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities in support of their research. They plan to publish their research in a book.
The issue of Atlanta History features new and original research in film history and Atlanta history. Matthew Bernstein writes about the opening night for Gone with the Wind in his essay "Selznick's March: The Atlanta Premiere of Gone with the Wind." Randy Gue examines the early years of movie-going in Atlanta with "Nickel Madness: Atlanta's Storefront Movie Theaters, 1906-1911." An earlier "Old South" film is the subject of Gordon Jones's essay "So Red the Rose: Atlanta's Gone with the Wind that Wasn't." And in "The Lone 'Lady Censor': Christine Smith Gilliam and the Demise of Film Censorship in Atlanta, Pat Murdock looks at the last and arguably the most controversial movie censor in Atlanta. Dana White provides context for these essays in his "Movie-Going Metropolis." The issue is also lavishly illustrated with photographs of the Gone with the Wind premiere, old movie houses, movie stills, and the notorious censor board.
Atlanta History is available from the Atlanta History Center at 130 West Paces Ferry Road in Buckhead.
In addition to the special issue, White and Bernstein are currently teaching a course called Segregated Cinema and are planning an exhibit in Schatten Gallery, Woodruff Library, in early 2000 titled "Selling Race: Cinematic Poster Art, from Race Films to Blaxploitation."