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{{Short description|Low-budget movie theater that shows mainly exploitation films}} |
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{{For|the film|Grindhouse (film){{!}}''Grindhouse'' (film)}} |
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⚫ | A '''grindhouse''' or '''action house'''<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=afsiAQAAQBAJ&q=%22action+house%22+cinema&pg=PT38|title=Dictionary of Jargon (Routledge Revivals)|first=Jonathon|last=Green|date=October 2, 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317908173|via=Google Books}}</ref> is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows [[Low-budget film|low-budget]] horror, [[splatter film|splatter]], and [[exploitation film]]s for adults. According to historian David Church, this theater type was named after the "grind policy", a film-programming strategy dating back to the early 1920s which continuously showed films at cut-rate ticket prices that typically rose over the course of each day. This exhibition practice was markedly different from the era's more common practice of fewer shows per day and graduated pricing for different seating sections in large urban theatres, which were typically [[Film studio|studio]]-owned. |
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⚫ | A '''grindhouse''' or '''action house'''<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=afsiAQAAQBAJ& |
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== History == |
== History == |
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Due to these theaters' proximity to controversially sexualized forms of entertainment like [[American burlesque|burlesque]], the term "grindhouse" has often been erroneously associated with burlesque theaters in urban entertainment areas such as [[42nd Street (Manhattan)|42nd Street]] in |
Due to these theaters' proximity to controversially sexualized forms of entertainment like [[American burlesque|burlesque]], the term "grindhouse" has often been erroneously associated with burlesque theaters in urban entertainment areas such as [[42nd Street (Manhattan)|42nd Street]] in New York City,<ref name=Church-11>{{cite journal |author=Church, David |title=From Exhibition to Genre: The Case of Grind-House Films |journal=Cinema Journal |volume=50 |number=4 |date=Summer 2011 |pages=1–25 |url=https://www.academia.edu/6632128 |access-date=March 24, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511194513/http://www.academia.edu/6632128/From_Exhibition_to_Genre_The_Case_of_Grind-House_Films |archive-date=May 11, 2018 |doi=10.1353/cj.2011.0053}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Church, David |url=https://www.academia.edu/6632405 |title=Grindhouse Nostalgia: Memory, Home Video, and Exploitation Film Fandom |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |date=2015 |access-date=March 24, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511194513/http://www.academia.edu/6632405/Grindhouse_Nostalgia_Memory_Home_Video_and_Exploitation_Film_Fandom |archive-date=May 11, 2018 }}</ref> where [[Grinding (dance)|bump and grind]] dancing and [[striptease]] were featured.<ref name="grindhouse">{{cite web|url=http://www.grindhouse.com |title=Grindhouse |access-date=September 10, 2014 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100805062644/http://www.grindhouse.com/ |archive-date=August 5, 2010}}</ref> In the film ''[[Lady of Burlesque]]'' (1943) one of the characters refers to one such burlesque theatre on 42nd Street as a "grindhouse," but Church points out the primary definition in the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' is for a movie theater distinguished by three criteria:<ref name=Church-11 /> |
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# Shows a variety of films, in continuous succession |
# Shows a variety of films, in continuous succession |
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# Low admission fees |
# Low admission fees |
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# Films screened are frequently of poor quality or low (artistic) merit |
# Films screened are frequently of poor quality or low (artistic) merit |
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Church states the first use of the term "grind house" was in a 1923 ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' article,<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Two-a-Day Policy Failure in Canadian Grind Houses |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date= |
Church states the first use of the term "grind house" was in a 1923 ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' article,<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Two-a-Day Policy Failure in Canadian Grind Houses |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=December 6, 1923 |magazine=Variety |page=19}}</ref> which may have adopted the contemporary slang usage of "grind" to refer to the actions of [[Barker (occupation)|barkers]] exhorting potential patrons to enter the venue.<ref name=Church-11 /> |
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Double, triple, and "all night" bills on a single admission charge often encouraged patrons to spend long periods of time in the theaters.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/autobiography-channel/2010/feb/17/life-on-downtowns-grindhouse-theater-row-1978-1982/# |title=Last of the all-nighters |
Double, triple, and "all night" bills on a single admission charge often encouraged patrons to spend long periods of time in the theaters.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/autobiography-channel/2010/feb/17/life-on-downtowns-grindhouse-theater-row-1978-1982/# |title=Last of the all-nighters – My life on downtown's Grindhouse Theater Row in the 70s and 80s |author=Sanford, Jay Allen |date=February 17, 2010 |newspaper=San Diego Reader |access-date=March 24, 2017 |quote=I spent my first night in [[San Diego]] sleeping in the back row of '''the Cabrillo Theater'''.<br />{{pad|1.0em}}In that pre-[[Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego|Gaslamp]], pre-[[Multiplex (movie theater)|multiplex]] [[Downtown San Diego|downtown]] of 1978 or so, half a dozen wonderfully eclectic – if mildly disreputable – late night movie houses operated within a few blocks of each other. Each grindhouses was a colorful oasis, plopped down in the middle of a seedy urban sprawl perfectly suited to the sailors on shore leave and porn aficionados that comprised much of its foot traffic.<br />{{pad|1.0em}}A couple of bucks got you a double or triple bill, screened ‘round the clock in cavernous single-screen movie theaters harkening back to Hollywood's golden age, rich in cinematic history and replete with big wide aisles and accommodating balconies. Horton Plaza had the '''Carbillo''' ''[sic]'' and the '''Plaza Theater, both''' operated by Walnut Properties, whose owner Vince Miranda maintained a suite at the '''Hotel San Diego''' (which he also owned). |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170325024521/http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/autobiography-channel/2010/feb/17/life-on-downtowns-grindhouse-theater-row-1978-1982/ |archive-date=March 25, 2017 }}</ref> The milieu was largely and faithfully captured at the time by ''[[Sleazoid Express]]'', an exploitation aficionado magazine that ran in the 1980s,. |
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Because grindhouse theaters were associated with a [[American lower class|lower class]] audience, grindhouse theaters gradually became perceived as disreputable places that showed disreputable films, regardless of the variety of films |
Because grindhouse theaters were associated with a [[American lower class|lower class]] audience, grindhouse theaters gradually became perceived as disreputable places that showed disreputable films, regardless of the variety of films – including subsequent-run Hollywood films – that were actually screened.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2007/04/this_old_grindhouse.html |title=This Old Grindhouse |author=Hendrix, Grady |date=April 6, 2007 |website=Slate |access-date=March 24, 2017 |quote=Because grindhouse theaters were nasty places, full of nasty people, and most of us wouldn't be caught dead in one. The few folks who were there for the actual movies were either poverty tourists or cinephiles who didn't notice anything except the flickering screen, and, in many cases, their cinephilia had burned out their sense of discrimination, because a lot of the movies that showed in grindhouses were bad. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170325030908/http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2007/04/this_old_grindhouse.html |archive-date=March 25, 2017 }}</ref> Similar second-run screenings are held at [[discount theater]]s and [[neighborhood theatre]]s; the distinguishing characteristics of the "grindhouse" are its typical urban setting and the programming of first-run films of low merit, not predominantly second-run films which had received wide releases. |
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===Television pressure=== |
===Television pressure=== |
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The introduction of |
The introduction of television greatly eroded the audience for local and single-screen movie theaters, many of which were built during the cinema boom of the 1930s. In combination with [[urban decay]] after [[white flight]] out of older city areas in the mid to late 1960s, changing economics forced these theaters to either close or offer something that television could not. In the 1970s, many of these theaters became venues for [[exploitation film]]s,<ref name="grindhouse"/> such as adult [[Pornographic film|pornography]] and sleaze, or [[slasher film|slasher]] horror, and dubbed [[Martial arts film|martial arts]] [[Hong Kong action cinema|films from Hong Kong]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.fangoria.com/features/94-fango-lifestyle/4154-cult-couture-the-grind-house.html|title=Cult Couture: THE GRIND-HOUSE|magazine=Fangoria|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091014094105/http://www.fangoria.com/features/94-fango-lifestyle/4154-cult-couture-the-grind-house.html|archive-date=October 14, 2009}}</ref> |
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===Content=== |
===Content=== |
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{{ |
{{Main|Exploitation film}} |
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Films shot for and screened at grindhouses characteristically contain large amounts of |
Films shot for and screened at grindhouses characteristically contain large amounts of sex, violence, or bizarre subject matter. One featured genre were "roughies" or [[sexploitation film]]s, a mix of sex, violence and [[Sadomasochism|sadism]]. Quality varied, but low budget production values and poor print quality were common. Critical opinions varied regarding typical grindhouse fare, but many films acquired [[cult following]] and critical praise. |
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===Decline=== |
===Decline=== |
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By the |
By the mid 1980s, [[home video]] and [[Cable television|cable movie channels]] threatened to render the grindhouse obsolete. By the end of the decade, these theaters had vanished from Los Angeles's [[Broadway (Los Angeles)|Broadway]] and [[Hollywood Boulevard]], New York City's [[Times Square]] and San Francisco's [[Market Street (San Francisco)|Market Street]]. Another example was the Jolar Theater in Nashville, Tennessee, on lower Broadway, which was active until it burned down on April 14, 1978.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Empson |first1=Frank |title=Nashville Then: The Jolar Cinema fire on Lower Broadway in 1978 |url=https://www.tennessean.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2018/04/20/nashville-then-the-jolar-cinema-fire-on-lower-broadway-in-1978/34084479/ |website=The Tennessean |access-date=23 May 2022}}</ref> |
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By the mid- |
By the mid-1990s, these particular theaters had all but disappeared from the United States. Excerpts from ''Sleazoid Express'' were compiled into a book of the same title by authors Bill Landis and Michelle Clifford; the book discusses various exploitation subgenres as well as New York City's [[42nd Street (Manhattan)|42nd Street]] grindhouses themselves. |
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==Homage== |
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The [[Robert Rodriguez]] film ''[[Planet Terror]]'' and the [[Quentin Tarantino]] film ''[[Death Proof]]'', which were released together as ''[[Grindhouse (film)|Grindhouse]]'' in 2007, were created as an homage to the cinematic genre. A movie with a mock-trailer in Grindhouse, ''[[Machete (2010 film)|Machete]]'' (also by Rodriguez), was subsequently made into its own feature-length film, with care to include the scene from the Grindhouse trailer (originally filmed as a trailer of a movie that did not/would never exist). The Canadian release of Grindhouse included one additional faux-trailer, "[[Hobo With a Shotgun]]", that was also subsequently made into a feature-length film. Similar films such as ''[[Chillerama]]'', ''[[Drive Angry]]'' and ''[[Sign Gene]]'' have appeared since. [[S. Craig Zahler]]'s film ''[[Brawl in Cell Block 99]]'' is a modern example of the genre, along with his 2018 noir film ''[[Dragged Across Concrete]]''. |
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''[[Red Dead Revolver]]'', ''[[The House of the Dead: Overkill]]'', ''[[Wet (video game)|Wet]]'', ''[[Shank (video game)|Shank]]'', ''[[Rage (video game)|RAGE]]'' and ''[[Shadows of the Damned]]'' are several examples of video games that serve as homages to the grindhouse movies. |
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The author Jacques Boyreau released the book ''Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box'' in 2009 about the history of the genre.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/34797/attend-portable-grindhouse-the-lost-art-vhs-box-launch-party-seattle|title=Attend the Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box Launch Party in Seattle|author=Heather Buckley|publisher=DreadCentral|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091205035551/http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/34797/attend-portable-grindhouse-the-lost-art-vhs-box-launch-party-seattle|archive-date=2009-12-05}}</ref> The field is also the focus of the 2010 documentary ''[[American Grindhouse]]''. Additionally, authors Bill Landis and Michelle Clifford released ''Sleazoid Express,'' both an homage to the various grindhouses within Times Square, but also a history of the various genres that each theater featured. |
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The [[Syfy]] TV show ''[[Blood Drive (TV series)|Blood Drive]]'' takes inspiration from grindhouse, with each episode featuring a different theme. |
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The novel ''[[Our Lady of the Inferno]]'' is both written as an homage to grindhouse films and features several chapters that take place in a grindhouse theater.<ref>[https://diaboliquemagazine.com/fangoria-presents-to-reissue-our-lady-of-the-inferno/ Lee, Izzy. Fangoria Presents to Reissue Our Lady of the Inferno]</ref> |
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The anime ''[[Seis Manos]]'' has a similar premise as grindhouse films of a kung fu story taking place in 1970's Mexico and is shown with a similar grainy film filter and simulated projection miscues. |
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==Gallery== |
==Gallery== |
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<gallery heights=" |
<gallery heights="200" widths="200"> |
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File:IN THE HEART OF MIDTOWN MANHATTAN-42ND STREET BETWEEN 7TH AND 8TH AVENUES - NARA - 549872.jpg|Grindhouse marquees along 42nd St (New York City, 1973) |
File:IN THE HEART OF MIDTOWN MANHATTAN-42ND STREET BETWEEN 7TH AND 8TH AVENUES - NARA - 549872.jpg|Grindhouse marquees along 42nd St (New York City, 1973) |
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File:Broadway Theater and Commercial District, 300-849 S. Broadway; 8.3.jpg|[[Million Dollar Theater]] in Los Angeles (2012), marquee advertising ''[[Mickey One]]'' and ''[[Blast of Silence]]'' |
File:Broadway Theater and Commercial District, 300-849 S. Broadway; 8.3.jpg|[[Million Dollar Theater]] in Los Angeles (2012), marquee advertising ''[[Mickey One]]'' and ''[[Blast of Silence]]'' |
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</gallery> |
</gallery> |
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== |
==See also== |
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* [[Adult movie theater]] |
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== Citations == |
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== General and cited references == |
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{{wiktionary}} |
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{{Wiktionary}} |
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* [http://www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/Main_Page Grindhouse Cinema Database] |
* [http://www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/Main_Page Grindhouse Cinema Database] |
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* [http://grindhouseschoolhouse.blogspot.com The Grindhouse Schoolhouse: Exploring Classic Adult Cinema] |
* [http://grindhouseschoolhouse.blogspot.com The Grindhouse Schoolhouse: Exploring Classic Adult Cinema] |
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* [http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/18/18_grind.html A review of ''Grindhouse: The Forbidden World of "Adults Only" Cinema''], by Eddie Muller and Daniel Faris. |
* [http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/18/18_grind.html A review of ''Grindhouse: The Forbidden World of "Adults Only" Cinema''], by Eddie Muller and Daniel Faris. |
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* [http://www.grindhouse.com/ Grindhouse.com] |
* [http://www.grindhouse.com/ Grindhouse.com] |
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* {{ |
* {{Cite web |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=The Original Grindhouse Theatres. Located On 42nd Street, New York |url=http://www.grindhousetherapy.com/the-original-grindhouse-theatres-on-42nd-street-new-york/ |website=Grindhouse Therapy |access-date=March 24, 2017}} |
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{{Film genres}} |
{{Film genres}} |
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{{Exploitation film}} |
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[[Category:Cinemas and movie theaters in the United States]] |
[[Category:Cinemas and movie theaters in the United States]] |
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[[Category:Exploitation films]] |
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[[Category:Film genres]] |
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[[Category:History of film]] |
[[Category:History of film]] |
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[[de:Grindhouse]] |
Latest revision as of 19:48, 27 October 2024
This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2014) |
A grindhouse or action house[1] is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows low-budget horror, splatter, and exploitation films for adults. According to historian David Church, this theater type was named after the "grind policy", a film-programming strategy dating back to the early 1920s which continuously showed films at cut-rate ticket prices that typically rose over the course of each day. This exhibition practice was markedly different from the era's more common practice of fewer shows per day and graduated pricing for different seating sections in large urban theatres, which were typically studio-owned.
History
[edit]Due to these theaters' proximity to controversially sexualized forms of entertainment like burlesque, the term "grindhouse" has often been erroneously associated with burlesque theaters in urban entertainment areas such as 42nd Street in New York City,[2][3] where bump and grind dancing and striptease were featured.[4] In the film Lady of Burlesque (1943) one of the characters refers to one such burlesque theatre on 42nd Street as a "grindhouse," but Church points out the primary definition in the Oxford English Dictionary is for a movie theater distinguished by three criteria:[2]
- Shows a variety of films, in continuous succession
- Low admission fees
- Films screened are frequently of poor quality or low (artistic) merit
Church states the first use of the term "grind house" was in a 1923 Variety article,[5] which may have adopted the contemporary slang usage of "grind" to refer to the actions of barkers exhorting potential patrons to enter the venue.[2]
Double, triple, and "all night" bills on a single admission charge often encouraged patrons to spend long periods of time in the theaters.[6] The milieu was largely and faithfully captured at the time by Sleazoid Express, an exploitation aficionado magazine that ran in the 1980s,.
Because grindhouse theaters were associated with a lower class audience, grindhouse theaters gradually became perceived as disreputable places that showed disreputable films, regardless of the variety of films – including subsequent-run Hollywood films – that were actually screened.[7] Similar second-run screenings are held at discount theaters and neighborhood theatres; the distinguishing characteristics of the "grindhouse" are its typical urban setting and the programming of first-run films of low merit, not predominantly second-run films which had received wide releases.
Television pressure
[edit]The introduction of television greatly eroded the audience for local and single-screen movie theaters, many of which were built during the cinema boom of the 1930s. In combination with urban decay after white flight out of older city areas in the mid to late 1960s, changing economics forced these theaters to either close or offer something that television could not. In the 1970s, many of these theaters became venues for exploitation films,[4] such as adult pornography and sleaze, or slasher horror, and dubbed martial arts films from Hong Kong.[8]
Content
[edit]Films shot for and screened at grindhouses characteristically contain large amounts of sex, violence, or bizarre subject matter. One featured genre were "roughies" or sexploitation films, a mix of sex, violence and sadism. Quality varied, but low budget production values and poor print quality were common. Critical opinions varied regarding typical grindhouse fare, but many films acquired cult following and critical praise.
Decline
[edit]By the mid 1980s, home video and cable movie channels threatened to render the grindhouse obsolete. By the end of the decade, these theaters had vanished from Los Angeles's Broadway and Hollywood Boulevard, New York City's Times Square and San Francisco's Market Street. Another example was the Jolar Theater in Nashville, Tennessee, on lower Broadway, which was active until it burned down on April 14, 1978.[9]
By the mid-1990s, these particular theaters had all but disappeared from the United States. Excerpts from Sleazoid Express were compiled into a book of the same title by authors Bill Landis and Michelle Clifford; the book discusses various exploitation subgenres as well as New York City's 42nd Street grindhouses themselves.
Gallery
[edit]-
Grindhouse marquees along 42nd St (New York City, 1973)
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Theaters in San Francisco (1956)
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Portage Theatre in Chicago (2007)
See also
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ Green, Jonathon (October 2, 2013). Dictionary of Jargon (Routledge Revivals). Routledge. ISBN 9781317908173 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c Church, David (Summer 2011). "From Exhibition to Genre: The Case of Grind-House Films". Cinema Journal. 50 (4): 1–25. doi:10.1353/cj.2011.0053. Archived from the original on May 11, 2018. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
- ^ Church, David (2015). Grindhouse Nostalgia: Memory, Home Video, and Exploitation Film Fandom. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Archived from the original on May 11, 2018. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
- ^ a b "Grindhouse". Archived from the original on August 5, 2010. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
- ^ "Two-a-Day Policy Failure in Canadian Grind Houses". Variety. December 6, 1923. p. 19.
- ^ Sanford, Jay Allen (February 17, 2010). "Last of the all-nighters – My life on downtown's Grindhouse Theater Row in the 70s and 80s". San Diego Reader. Archived from the original on March 25, 2017. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
I spent my first night in San Diego sleeping in the back row of the Cabrillo Theater.
In that pre-Gaslamp, pre-multiplex downtown of 1978 or so, half a dozen wonderfully eclectic – if mildly disreputable – late night movie houses operated within a few blocks of each other. Each grindhouses was a colorful oasis, plopped down in the middle of a seedy urban sprawl perfectly suited to the sailors on shore leave and porn aficionados that comprised much of its foot traffic.
A couple of bucks got you a double or triple bill, screened 'round the clock in cavernous single-screen movie theaters harkening back to Hollywood's golden age, rich in cinematic history and replete with big wide aisles and accommodating balconies. Horton Plaza had the Carbillo [sic] and the Plaza Theater, both operated by Walnut Properties, whose owner Vince Miranda maintained a suite at the Hotel San Diego (which he also owned). - ^ Hendrix, Grady (April 6, 2007). "This Old Grindhouse". Slate. Archived from the original on March 25, 2017. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
Because grindhouse theaters were nasty places, full of nasty people, and most of us wouldn't be caught dead in one. The few folks who were there for the actual movies were either poverty tourists or cinephiles who didn't notice anything except the flickering screen, and, in many cases, their cinephilia had burned out their sense of discrimination, because a lot of the movies that showed in grindhouses were bad.
- ^ "Cult Couture: THE GRIND-HOUSE". Fangoria. Archived from the original on October 14, 2009.
- ^ Empson, Frank. "Nashville Then: The Jolar Cinema fire on Lower Broadway in 1978". The Tennessean. Retrieved May 23, 2022.
General and cited references
[edit]- Church, David (2015). Grindhouse Nostalgia: Memory, Home Video and Exploitation Film Fandom. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-9910-0. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
- Fisher, Austin; Walker, Johnny, eds. (2016). Grindhouse—Cultural Exchange on 42nd Street, and Beyond. New York City: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-6289-2747-4. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
External links
[edit]- Grindhouse Cinema Database
- The Grindhouse Schoolhouse: Exploring Classic Adult Cinema
- A review of Grindhouse: The Forbidden World of "Adults Only" Cinema, by Eddie Muller and Daniel Faris.
- Grindhouse.com
- "The Original Grindhouse Theatres. Located On 42nd Street, New York". Grindhouse Therapy. Retrieved March 24, 2017.