Perfuming devices, purifying discourses: The American trade press’ fight against filthy theaters and foul air.

Abstract

This article focuses on the guidelines, products and devices that were promoted in the American film trade press to improve sanitary conditions in early movie theaters. During the first years of the nickelodeon boom, film exhibitors seemed not to have cared much about the lack of hygiene and proper ventilation in their venues. Until 1910/11, the film trade papers also ignored the problem. However, in the context of growing public concern about health risks in movie theaters, they began to educate film exhibitors about the importance of keeping their theaters clean and fresh. At the same time, the number of advertisements for sanitary products and ventilation systems increased. In the fight against germs and bad air the editorial copy and the advertisements frequently reinforced each other. A close analysis of the trade press’ discourse on hygiene revealed that it was not merely a concern about public health and attracting a better class of patrons. In accordance with their earlier response to the public debates about the moral dangers that the cinema held for its patrons, the trade papers used the campaign for ‘sanitary theatres’ to blame foreign elements in the industry for not conforming to American norms of respectability. In particular, they framed immigrant nickelodeon managers and their audiences as filthy. Thus the trade press aligned itself once more with the ongoing and often virulent debate over assimilation, which was rooted in a growing anxiety about the mass influx of migrants from Eastern and Southern Europe.