Poverty Row

Summary

Poverty Row is a slang term used to refer to Hollywood films produced from the 1920s[1] to the 1950s by small (and mostly short-lived) B movie studios. Although many of them were based on (or near) today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did not necessarily refer to any specific physical location, but was rather a figurative catch-all for low-budget films produced by these lower-tier studios.

Many of the films of Poverty Row were Westerns, including series such as Billy the Kid, starring Buster Crabbe, from Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), comedy/adventure series[2] such as those featuring the Bowery Boys (Monogram Pictures)[3] and detectives such as The Shadow. The films were characterized by low budgets,[4] casts made up of minor stars or unknowns, and overall production values betraying the haste and economy with which they were made.[5]

Studios edit

While some Poverty Row studios had a brief existence, releasing only a few films,[6] others operated on more or less the same terms as—if on a vastly different scale from—major film studios such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros., and Paramount Pictures.

The most successful and longest-lived of such lower-tier companies maintained permanent lots (and many standing sets that dedicated moviegoers could frequently recognize), had both cast and crew under contract, and had a more varied output than smaller firms.

Studios of this type edit

Lower-tier studios edit

The smallest studios, including Tiffany Pictures, Sam Katzman's Victory, Mascot and Chesterfield, often packaged and released films from independent producers, British "quota quickie" films, or borderline exploitation films such as Hitler, Beast of Berlin[13] to supplement their own limited production capacity. Sometimes the same producers would found a new studio when the old one failed, such as Harry S. Webb and Bernard B. Ray's Reliable Pictures and Metropolitan Pictures.

Some organizations such as Astor Pictures[14] and Realart Pictures[15] began by obtaining the rights to re-release older films from other studios before producing their own films.

Comparison with other studios edit

The Big Five majors
The Little Three majors
Poverty Row (top four of many)
Non-majors

Decline edit

The breakup of the studio system (and its restrictive chain-theater distribution network, which left independent movie houses eager for seat-filling product from the Poverty Row studios) following 1948's United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. decision, and the advent of television were among the factors that led to the decline and ultimate disappearance of "Poverty Row" as a Hollywood phenomenon.[16]

See also edit

Further reading edit

  • Davis, Blair (2012). The Battle for the Bs: 1950s Hollywood and the Rebirth of Low-Budget Cinema. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-5324-5.
  • Dick, Bernard F. (19 October 2021). The Merchant Prince of Poverty Row: Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-9614-5.
  • Fernett, Gene (1973). Hollywood's Poverty Row, 1930–1950. Satellite Beach, FL: Coral Reef Publications.
  • Lewis, Jack C. (2002). White Horse, Black Hat: A Quarter Century on Hollywood's Poverty Row. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-1-4617-3108-5.
  • Pitts, Michael R. (2005). Poverty Row Studios, 1929–1940: An Illustrated History of 55 Independent Film Companies, with a Filmography for Each. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-2319-4. OCLC 891667311.
  • Stephens, E.J.; Wanamaker, Marc (2014). Early Poverty Row Studios. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4396-4829-2.
  • Read, Robert (August 2010). A Squalid-Looking Place: Poverty Row Films of the 1930s. McGill University. Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Art History and Communication Studies; Film scholarship has generally assumed that the low-budget independent film studios, commonly known as Poverty Row, originated in the early sound-era to take advantage of the growing popularity of double feature exhibition programs. 
  • Brennan, Paul. The Origins of Taboo: Controversial Topics in Cinema originating in Poverty Row. academia.edu.

References edit

  1. ^ Film History of the 1920s - Filmsite.org
  2. ^ Down and Dirty in Gower Gulch|UCLA Film & Television Archive
  3. ^ Cheap thrills|Film|The Guardian
  4. ^ Reel Life: the peculiar virtues of poverty row
  5. ^ POVERTY ROW FROM UCLA|Cinematheque
  6. ^ Preserving Poverty Row: Q&A with Scott MacQueen|UCLA Film & Television Archive
  7. ^ Bernstein, Matthew (1 July 1995). "Review: The Merchant Prince of Poverty Row: Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures by Bernard F. Dick". Film Quarterly. 48 (4): 51–52. doi:10.2307/1213587. JSTOR 1213587. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
  8. ^ The Top 20 'Monogram Pictures' Movies - Flickchart
  9. ^ The Dirt-Cheap Lost Classics of Poverty Row Filmmakers, Restored at MOMA|The Village Voice
  10. ^ Detour (1945)|The Criterion Collection
  11. ^ My streaming gem: why you should watch Detour|Film|The Guardian
  12. ^ 1945|Oscars.org
  13. ^ Project MUSE - The "B" Movie Goes to War in Hitler, Beast of Berlin (1939)
  14. ^ Astor Pictures: A Filmography and History of the Reissue King, 1933-1956 - Google Books
  15. ^ Realart Pictures Inc.|BFI
  16. ^ Low-budget dross and brilliance|Film|The Guardian