Hokum The Early Sound Slapstick Short and Depression-Era Mass Culture [Paperback]

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.
 
Hokum!is the first book to take a comprehensive view of short-subject slapstick comedy in the early sound era. Challenging the received wisdom that sound destroyed the slapstick tradition, author Rob King explores the slapstick short’s Depression-era development against a backdrop of changes in film industry practice, comedic tastes, and moviegoing culture. Each chapter is grounded in case studies of comedians and comic teams, including the Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, and Robert Benchley. The book also examines how the past legacy of silent-era slapstick was subsequently reimagined as part of a nostalgic mythology of Hollywood’s youth.

Rob Kingis Associate Professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts and author of the award-winningThe Fun Factory: The Keystone Film Company and the Emergence of Mass Culture.

“Hokum!makes such a valuable contribution to historiography in its ability to fill a hole in contemporary film history, increasing our understanding of both the (perceived) narrowed place of the comedy film short in the 1930s and the production and reception of slapstick comedy during that era.”—Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, Professor of Radio-Television-Film, University of Texas at Austin

“As the wild antediluvian southern Bolivian oyster calls to its mother (get the book to get the joke), so does Rob King call on scholars to abandon their preconceptions about the fate of slapstick cinema. With solid research, jewel-like prose, and plenty of wry humor (to wit the oyster), he convincingly busts the myths and chases away the nostalgia for silent film comedy. InsteadlC&