| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold: Horror Films and the American Movie Business, 1953–1968. By Kevin Heffernan. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004. viii, 323 pp. Cloth, $79.95, ISBN 0-8223-3202-7. Paper, $22.95, ISBN 08223-3215-9.)

When the Paramount decision in 1948 legally separated film companies from their long-standing ownership of movie theaters, Hollywood faced the conundrum of how to maintain its economic livelihood when exhibitors were no longer required to project its wares. Evolving market forces dictated the necessity of reconsidering how to attract audiences, particularly the emerging body of teenage consumers whose rapacious appetite for shock and sensationalism distinguished them from their parents. Savvy producers took advantage of emerging technological innovations, such as 3-D projection and wide-screen cinematography, and ran increasingly aggressive advertising campaigns in order to clean up at the box office. They recognized that getting spectators out of their homes and away from the allure of the new-fangled phenomenon of "free" television required providing them with images and narratives that deviated from the everyday. More and more, garish advertising campaigns luridly suggested some kind of transgressive stimulation so as to jolt the public out of its lethargy.

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