Showing papers in "Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television in 2008"
Journal Article•
19 citations
TL;DR: The relationship between the BBC and Indian listeners has been one of love and hate as discussed by the authors. Love for the professional competence and hate as it represented the voice of a colonial empire. Even during the...
Abstract: The relationship between the BBC and Indian listeners has been one of love and hate. Love for the professional competence and hate as it represented the voice of a colonial empire. Even during the ...
15 citations
TL;DR: Tallents as mentioned in this paper wrote of the need to "project" England overseas: to define "Englishness" before other countries took the initiative, and to create a version of Englishness suitable, and desirable, for international consumption.
Abstract: In 1932, Stephen Tallents wrote of the need to ‘project’ England overseas: to define ‘Englishness’ before other countries took the initiative. Scotland, Wales and Ireland merited a mention in the ‘Dedication’, but were otherwise unapologetically subsumed within ‘Englishness’. Such a projection of the nation, its politics, society, culture and belief systems, would be essential, according to Tallents, for the maintenance of ‘peace itself’. Since the end of the First World War, Britain had lost the initiative in overseas propaganda. The rise of totalitarianism in Europe, making use of sophisticated communication techniques, posed a challenge to such complacency. Even so, there was a concern to couch propaganda in terms of ‘publicity’, as promoting and ‘projecting’ England/Britain rather than as discrediting other countries. Tallents was explicit about the need to create a version of Englishness suitable, and desirable, for international consumption. His own personal list of ‘institutions and excellencies’ worthy of projection included ‘Piccadilly . . . Big Ben and Princes Street, Edinburgh’, ‘English servants’ and ‘the arts of gardening and of tailoring’. England, wrote Tallents, urgently needed to ‘master the art’ of casting such images ‘worthily upon the screen’. In December that same year, with ‘British prestige at stake’ in the field of external broadcasting, the BBC officially launched their shortwave Empire Service.
14 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an historical account of radio programs developed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) resulting in West Indian immigration to England during the 1940s and 1950s is given.
Abstract: This article provides an historical account of radio programs developed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) resulting in part from West Indian immigration to England during the 1940s and ...
13 citations
TL;DR: The decade immediately following the end of the Second World War was the last period in which the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) could realistically consider itself to possess, if not compl... as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The decade immediately following the end of the Second World War was the last period in which the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) could realistically consider itself to possess, if not compl...
13 citations
TL;DR: In December 2007, the BBC World Service celebrated 75 years of broadcasting overseas: from the first transmission on the original Empire Service to the explosion in foreign language services induce... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In December 2007, the BBC World Service celebrated 75 years of broadcasting overseas: from the first transmission on the original Empire Service to the explosion in foreign language services induce...
12 citations
TL;DR: The experience of the Second World War demonstrated the influence and importance of overseas broadcasting both in its own right and as an adjunct to wider government strategies as discussed by the authors. But it had also shown,
Abstract: The experience of the Second World War demonstrated the influence and importance of overseas broadcasting both in its own right and as an adjunct to wider government strategies. It had also shown, ...
12 citations
TL;DR: The transatlantic slave trade has been minimal in British television and radio for the past 50 years as discussed by the authors, from occasional references in documentaries or period dramas, the media has been silent.
Abstract: Representations on British television and radio of the transatlantic slave trade have been minimal over the past 50 years. From occasional references in documentaries or period dramas, the media me...
11 citations
Journal Article•
10 citations
TL;DR: The progress made in the development of television gives us reason to believe that television will soon become of as great cultural importance as broadcasting is at present as mentioned in this paper and that television is not merely a future business for a few manufacturers and businessmen but that television concerns everybody in Germany, the Deutsche Reichspost has taken up to the rule itself all matters concerning television.
Abstract: The progress made in the development of television gives us reason to believe that television will soon become of as great cultural importance as broadcasting is at present. Realizing that television is not merely a future business for a few manufacturers and businessmen but that television concerns everybody in Germany, the Deutsche Reichspost has taken up to the rule itself all matters concerning television. Being at that time encouraged by the impulses rising from the national socialistic idea, the development of television was encouraged with the aim to bring these valuable means of communication to as complete a state as possible and to place it as soon as it may be at the service of the whole nation.
9 citations
TL;DR: The BBC World Service (BBCWS) functions with a deep and intriguing tension at the heart of its activities as discussed by the authors, and is subject to the changing priorities and concerns of the UK government.
Abstract: The BBC World Service (BBCWS) functions with a deep and intriguing tension at the heart of its activities. Funded directly by the FCO, the BBCWS is subject to the changing priorities and concerns o...
TL;DR: The BBC has been a pragmatic ethical engineer adjusting the pressures in the British and World political system since 1927 as discussed by the authors, and it is an engineer because adjustments and occasionally great corrections have to be made: the machine re-calibrated according to changing sensibilities, changing circumstances, mutating values, political realities and fundamental shifts in audience's desires.
Abstract: ‘Plain, bitter, ugly, foul, unchristian, immoral truth’, as Friedrich Nietzsche observed, is what really matters. The BBC has been a pragmatic ethical engineer adjusting the pressures in the British and World political system since 1927. Set up as a ‘pubic service’, the discovery at any historical moment of what this might mean has been the bedrock of its value to our personal and collective lives, and at the same time an elegantly simple mechanism of being held accountable to its citizen-audience. The BBC is a moral regulator, not because that is its purpose but because that is the effect of its conversations with British and international public life, if it gets it right. It is ethical because it has principles that keep public life decent. They have to be continually re-learnt, re-applied and re-assessed, but the aim is to report to the many constituencies it relates to accounts of events that are accurate, and more demandingly, truthful. It is pragmatic because to do this it is buffeted by many pressures, it is assailed by many conflicting interests and it at times accommodates one or the other of the interests that seek to influence it: up to a point. It is pragmatic because the value of the exercise, in a very empirical British way is not in the claims that it makes but in the quotidian output over the years. It is an engineer because adjustments and occasionally great corrections have to be made: the machine re-calibrated according to changing sensibilities, changing circumstances, mutating values, political realities and fundamental shifts in audience’s desires. The interaction with the social and political environment constantly evolves. The BBC and the BBC World Service (BBCWS) are ‘pragmatic, ethical engineers’ not because the BBC
TL;DR: Asquith's griping made no impact in Hollywood, but it points to the cultural sensitivities that attended my subject for this article, the proliferation of ‘runaway’ Hollywood productions in Britain during the 1950s.
Abstract: As President of the Association of Cinematographers and Allied Technicians, Asquith might have been expected to welcome the employment opportunities provided by large-scale Hollywood production in Britain. Instead, his comments reveal a more nationalistic agenda. Hollywood’s expansion into Britain, he seems to suggest, threatened to take Britain’s history away from the British people. The American film industry had been putting British and especially English history on film for the best part of 50 years, but the large-scale production of these films within Britain itself seemed to provoke a new and greater anxiety. It seems unlikely that Asquith’s griping made any impact in Hollywood, but it points to the cultural sensitivities that attended my subject for this article, the proliferation of ‘runaway’ Hollywood productions in Britain during the 1950s. Of course, this process was by no means unprecedented. Several Hollywood studios set up British production units in the early 1930s in order to meet the quota
TL;DR: With These Hands as discussed by the authors is a historical documentary drama that tells the story of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) through the eyes of a garment worker who applies for benefits under the union's retirement fund.
Abstract: ‘A New Kind of Entertainment Thrill!’ ‘The powerful . . . personal . . . passionately true story of a man whose heart and hands helped forge a great chapter in our history!’ So read the promotional material for the film, With These Hands, made in 1950 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU). Union President David Dubinsky had pushed for the production of a movie that would recount the history of the union and explain—for members and the general public—the vital services and goals of the trade union movement. The resulting 50-minute film was a historical documentary drama that told the story of the ILGWU through the eyes of a garment worker who applies for benefits under the union’s retirement fund. As he fills out the paperwork, he flashes back 40 years to the union’s early developments: to the ‘great revolt’ of 1910, the infamous Triangle Waist Company factory fire in 1911, the internal battle with Communists during the 1920s, and the dramatic expansion of the union during the New Deal era. The film debuted at the union’s Jubilee Convention held in Atlantic City in May 1950. Soon thereafter it opened at a commercial theater in New York City and later played in Chicago. American audiences subsequently viewed the film in union meeting halls, educational institutions, or on local television stations. ILGWU officials made the film available for showings to foreign trade unionists under the auspices of the Department of State and the U.S. Information Agency. With These Hands was neither the first nor the last film produced by American labor unions in the post-World War II era. But it represented one of organized labor’s most successful efforts, as Elizabeth Fones-Wolf has suggested in a similar context,
TL;DR: The idea of the film star is closely associated with the idea of glamour, beauty, sexuality, wealth, and exciting and privileged existence of the star as mentioned in this paper, and few qualities are more closely bound up with the movie star than glamour.
Abstract: Few qualities are more closely bound up with the idea of the film star than glamour. The fame, beauty, sexuality, wealth and exciting and privileged existence of the star are attributes that the pu...
TL;DR: On July 1, 1924, major movie exhibitors in Japan initiated a boycott of Hollywood films as discussed by the authors, which was one of the manifestations of the anti-American movement, triggered in response to the 1924 Tokyo Olympics.
Abstract: On July 1, 1924, major movie exhibitors in Japan initiated a boycott of Hollywood films. This boycott was one of the manifestations of the anti-American movement, triggered in response to the 1924 ...
TL;DR: The BBC World Service in its first incarnation, when it was the Empire Service, and when it explicitly sought to reach only one diaspora, the British Empire's 'white populati... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: This article discusses the BBC World Service in its first incarnation, when it was the Empire Service, and when it explicitly sought to reach only one diaspora, the British Empire's ‘white populati...
TL;DR: The people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front line for almost two decades and can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country, and this great continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Real, lasting peace in Europe can never be achieved so long as one German out of four is denied the right to unite their families and their nation . . . When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country—and this great continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front line for almost two decades.
TL;DR: In 1993, as part of efforts to commemorate the 40th anniversary of KGAN-TV in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, veteran KGAN reporter and then de facto station historian Cary J. Hahn sought to produce a series o...
Abstract: In 1993, as part of efforts to commemorate the 40th anniversary of KGAN-TV in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, veteran KGAN reporter and then de facto station historian Cary J. Hahn sought to produce a series o...
TL;DR: A century ago, a London publisher brought out a romantic novel called Three Weeks, a book that prompted a scandal that was to reverberate for almost 30 years as discussed by the authors, the story of a brief love affair between Paul Verdayne, an aristocratic young man, and a mysterious "queen-like" older woman, a "lady in black" from an unnamed far-off country, who "illuminated [the young] man's soul, and drew it on to noble things".
Abstract: A century ago, a London publisher brought out a romantic novel called Three Weeks, a book that prompted a scandal that was to reverberate for almost 30 years. Three Weeks is the tale of a brief love affair between Paul Verdayne, an aristocratic young man, and a mysterious ‘queen-like’ older woman, a ‘lady in black’ from an unnamed far-off country, who ‘illuminated [the young] man’s soul, and drew it on to noble things’. While the story of the romance is told in the tasteful, if sometimes overblown, style characteristic of romantic writing of its period, looked at today it is not at all difficult to see why Three Weeks caused such upset (it was apparently even banned at Eton). The plot on its own was challenging enough: aside from the age difference between the two protagonists, it is the woman who initiates the relationship and guides her younger lover through his sentimental education. But it is the way the story is told, that made (and in many ways continues to make) the novel exceptional. In the first place, the settings—the decor, the clothes, and so on—are described in the fullest detail and offer the most extraordinarily rich evocation of the sensuousness and tactility of furnishings, textiles, and such. In the book’s most famous scene, Paul is summoned to the lady’s rooms for the first time. Here he finds her reclining on a tiger-skin rug, wearing ‘some strange clinging garment of heavy purple crepe, its hem embroidered with gold, one white arm resting on the beast’s head’. While updated versions of passages of this kind might be familiar enough to readers of today’s ‘sex and shopping’ sagas, it is perhaps not the sort of thing one would normally expect to find in romantic fiction written in the early years of the last century. Also, Three Weeks is comparatively heavy on mise-en-scène and light on action.
TL;DR: At the 42nd New York Film Festival in 2004, an enthusiastic audience viewed a selection of propaganda films rarely seen in the USA as discussed by the authors, including "Selling Democracy" and "Welcome Mr. Marshall".
Abstract: At the 42nd New York Film Festival in 2004, an enthusiastic audience viewed a selection of propaganda films rarely seen in the USA. The exhibit, ‘Selling Democracy—Welcome Mr. Marshall. Films of th...
TL;DR: The exhibition of B-movies on television in the early 1950s is an area that has largely gone unnoticed in most literature surrounding the origins of television as mentioned in this paper, and the most thorough account of it can be found in this book.
Abstract: The exhibition of B-movies on television in the early 1950s is an area that has largely gone unnoticed in most literature surrounding the origins of television. Perhaps the most thorough account of...
TL;DR: The British Broadcasting Corporation's sound archives contains a despatch by war correspondent Frank Gillard describing the sights encountered during an inland drive from the Normandy beachhead in the early 1940s as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The British Broadcasting Corporation's sound archives contains a despatch by war correspondent Frank Gillard describing the sights encountered during an inland drive from the Normandy beachhead in ...
TL;DR: In this paper, a set of thoughts, memories and observations are presented to stimulate thought and to present some ideas for you to think about, but this is not an attempt at sociological or political analy...
Abstract: What follows is a set of thoughts, memories and observations. I hope to stimulate thought and to present some ideas for you to think about. This is not an attempt at sociological or political analy...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors interviewed Major Hatch USMCR (Retired) on the phone, over a year prior to his death, at his home of 40+ years in Alexandria, Virginia.
Abstract: I interviewed Norman (Norm) T. Hatch on November 15, 2007 at his home of 40-plus years in Alexandria, Virginia. When I first spoke to Major Hatch USMCR (Retired) on the phone, over a year prior to ...
TL;DR: MGM planned but aborted a film project about an American engineer working at, first, a steel factory and, finally, a dam in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s.
Abstract: MGM planned but aborted a film project about an American engineer working at, first, a steel factory and, finally, a dam in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. The film project spanned three years...
TL;DR: A notably early example of a developed theorization of television, "Currents in art and the Radio-Eye" was written during the period of the initial successful experiments in the transmission of mov...
Abstract: A notably early example of a developed theorization of television, ‘Currents in art and the Radio-Eye’ was written during the period of the initial successful experiments in the transmission of mov...
TL;DR: Esfir Shub as discussed by the authors was the first female director to write both critical texts on cinema and then practically apply these in her own films, and her syncretism of cinema theory and praxis c...
Abstract: Esfir Shub (1894–1959) was the first female director to write both critical texts on cinema and then practically apply these in her own films.1 As such, her syncretism of cinema theory and praxis c...