The Drunken Journalist: The Biography of a Film StereotypeScarecrow Press, 2000 - 200 pages "No other human problem," a critic once remarked, "seems to have afflicted movie newspapermen more often than drinking." Howard Good's latest book analyzes the stereotype of the hard-drinking journalist, with the goal of discovering why it exists and how it operates in films. Early chapters consider whether there is a historical basis for the stereotype of the hard-drinking journalist;while later chapters deal with films from across the decades, including the 1980s and 1990s. They identify the fate of the romantic couple as a major--if not the major--concern of silent films featuring drunken journalists; explore the many and often conflicting meanings associated with drinking in the 1930s, the so-called "golden age of newspaper films"; and discuss the influence of Alcoholics Anonymous on such newspaper films of the 1940s and 1950s as Welcome Stranger and Come Fill the Cup. The concluding chapter points out that the dominant culture has frequently marginalized subgroups--for example, Native Americans and Irish immigrants--by stereotyping them as drunks, and theorizes that the stereotype of the hard-drinking journalist signals ambivalence not only about drinking, but also about the effects of the press on American life. Written in the clear, incisive style for which Good is known, this book offers illuminating new interpretations of classic newspaper films from The Front Page to All the President's Men. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the implications of popular culture for how we think and live. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 16
Page 84
... alcoholism films.45 Coinciding with the " rediscovery " of alco- holism as a disease by Alcoholics Anonymous and the Yale Center of Alcohol Study , the films of this era cast alcoholism in medical terms and presented AA as an option for ...
... alcoholism films.45 Coinciding with the " rediscovery " of alco- holism as a disease by Alcoholics Anonymous and the Yale Center of Alcohol Study , the films of this era cast alcoholism in medical terms and presented AA as an option for ...
Page 153
... alcoholic who has hired several reformed lushes for his staff . When the managing editor complains that " this place is begin- ning to look like a branch of Alcoholics Anonymous , " Lew replies that ex - drunks make the best ...
... alcoholic who has hired several reformed lushes for his staff . When the managing editor complains that " this place is begin- ning to look like a branch of Alcoholics Anonymous , " Lew replies that ex - drunks make the best ...
Page 168
... Alcoholism and Alcoholics Anonymous in U.S. Films , 1945–1962 : The Party Ends for the ' Wet Generation , ' ” Journal on Studies of Alcohol 50 ( July 1989 ) : 370 . 3. Joan Curlee - Salisbury , " Perspectives on Alcoholics Anonymous , " in ...
... Alcoholism and Alcoholics Anonymous in U.S. Films , 1945–1962 : The Party Ends for the ' Wet Generation , ' ” Journal on Studies of Alcohol 50 ( July 1989 ) : 370 . 3. Joan Curlee - Salisbury , " Perspectives on Alcoholics Anonymous , " in ...
Common terms and phrases
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