CALIFORNIA S'I'ATE UNIVERSI'f.'Y, .NORTHRIDGE 'l'HE USE OF THE COMMON·-·HiA.GE REFERENCE IN THE A:r.lliRICAN COMIC THEA'l'R}!: 1 1.925-1970, AS RELA'l'ED TO THE GROWTH OF '1'IIE C0r1II:.UNICATIONS HEIHA A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction c.>f t:he requiremen.ts for the degree of t-1a.r:::ter of A:rts in Theatre by Ronald Feinberg ............ August, 1977 The Thesis of Ronald Feinberg approvP.d: California State University, Northridge ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ,,,jl LIST OF CHARTS, TABLES AND GRAPHS tv ABSTRACT v I. INTRODUCTION . • • . • • . 1 II. THE USE OF COMt40N-H1AGE REFERENCES, 1925-1970 . 0 0 0 • • • 0 • • 0 • • 12 III. THE tllEDIA--BROADCASTING, PUBLISHING ili~D COI~lERCIAL DISPLAY, 1925-1970 63 IV. SUMY~RY AND CONCLUSIONS 82 NOTES • 95 BIBLIOGRAPHY 105 A. Plays 105 B. General Works 108 APPENDIX 111 iii LIST OF CHARTS, TABLES AND GRAPHS Page A. Charts for Theatre Seasons 1925-26 • 14 1935-36 • 20 1945-46 • 27 1955-56 30 1960-61 • 36 1965-66 • • 43 1970-71 • 52 ~rotals 61 B. Tables and Graphs I. Broadcas·ting Stations and Cable 'Eelevision Systems, 1925-1970 . 66 II. Households with Sets and Cable Households, 1925~1970 . 66- III. Newspapers 1925-1970 . 71 IV. Periodicals 1925-1970 . 71 v. Standardized Poster Advertising and Outdoor Advertising Revenue . 75 VI. .Hot ion Picture Th(~atres a.nd Weekly Attendance . 78 VII. Graph of Media Audience Growth and Common~ Irnage Use • • • • • 89 iv ABSTRACT THE USE OF THE COMMON-IMAGE REFERENCE IN THE AMERICAN COMIC THEATRE, 1925-1970, AS RELATED TO THE GROWTH OF THE COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA by Ronald Feinberg Master of Arts in Theatre This study is designed to examine one area of inter­ action between the primary creator in the theatre, the playwright, and the mass communications explosion, as exemplified by The Media. The investigation of this possible interaction centers on the use by the playwright of the common-image reference, ·which is a special type of topical reference. One kind. of common·- image reference, called the image~required reference, demands a specific shared visual image to complete the thought and provide understanding~ The other kind, which carries specific visual connotations but does not absolutely require the audience to visualize a particular shared.image, is called the iiDage-enhanced reference. v The study concentrates on the parallel development of the media and the American comic theatre during the period between 1925 and 1970, a period of substantial media growth which also produced a body of popular comedies likely to reflect topical awareness. Selected comedies are studied for numbers a.nd rate of use of common-image references and selected media components are examined for indications of growth in size and in audience. The survey of both subjects, sampled first at 10-year and then at 5-year intervals, reveals considerable grow-th in media activity on the one hand, and an increase in the rate of cornmon·-image reference use on the other. Since there is a surprisingly small number of refer­ ences throughout the survey, no direct relationship can be shown between the two phenomena. Because of the number of references used that directly rela·te to mo-tion pictures and television, further investigation of this particular subject might indicate some relationship between these media components and common image use, but such an indica­ t.ion vwuld depend on an examination of a more comprehensive sc.mpling of all types of plays. vi Chapter I INTRODUCTION The playwright, besides telling a story and structur- ing the dramatic action on the stage, is able to conjure complicated visual images for his audience with words. The fields of Agincourt are painted with exquisite care by Shakespeare in the words of Henry V's Chorus. The play- wright, like the novelist and the poet, makes wide use of this magic conjuring of places and things; the country churchyard, the foggy moors, the lonely expanse of open sea, a battle, a brothel, heaven and hell and everything in between can all be drawn in words, and each individual reader or audience member can "see" in response his own personal answering mental image. When the playwright makes a topical allusion, he is evoking a different kind of response from his audience. Instead of painting word pictures for individual image- making, he seeks a more uniform response, by calling upon shared knowledge of events or people or places or things. That this unifying topicality is a helpful tool is con- firmed by the consistent use of topical references throughout theatrical literature. A translator of Aristophanes observes that often it [the Parabasis] was made the vehicle for special appeo.l to the sympathetic consider;­ ation of the spectators for the play and its l. - 2 merits. These ·' parabases, ' so characteristic of the Aristophanic comedy, are conceived in the brightest and wittiest vein, and abound in topical allusions and personal hits that must have constituted them perhaps the most telling part of the whole performance.l Naturally, the potential for using shared knowledge as a sort of shorthand, to convey ideas to the theatre audience, is dependent in part on the quan·tity of common knowledge possessed by that audience. This study will center upon ·the development of yet another semantic device, the common-image reference, employed by the playwright to evoke a specific response from his audience. It is an even more sophist.icated verbal shorthand that depends on C1 combination of specific pictures on the one hand and specific information on the other. In other words, the playwright paints a picture by making a topical allusion. He calls upon a ready-made visual image already planted in the spectator's mind. The sort of common knm-vledge ·this device requires is essen- tially visual in nature, and is always dependent on the availability of specific visual images to the audience. Therefore, increased use of this device is likely to be a direct function of drastically increased dissemination of visual images, such as has been made possible by the advanceme~t of science and technology in the past fifty years. The effects of·communications technology on every a,J:"ea of human cornmerce have been a source of much conjecture and 3 what seems to be limitless research. Mid-twentieth century Americans have not only been bombarded by what we have all come to know as The Media; we have been bombarded with talk about the bombardment. This study is designed to examine one small area of interac·tion between the primary creator in the theatre, the playwright, and the mass communications explosion, as exemplified by The Media. The investigation is devoted to examining the rela­ tionship between developments in communications that have led to an efficient and all-pervasive system for image delivery (television, radio, motion pictures, magazines, newspapers, outdoor advertising and all of the advertise­ ment contained therein) , and the use by playwrights of the resul-ting :-:;hared gallery of specific portraits for commun­ ic:a·tion. The sophisticated verbal shorthand tha·t is made possible by this interrelationship depends, as suggested above, on a combination of specific pictures on the one hand and specific information on the other, corning together in what viill hereafter be called a "coilli-non image." It is a high-speed analogical portraiture, in which the writer relies not only on common knowledge but on conunon visual images, supplied by the media and shared by his audience. Ronald Peacock calls this shorthand "common-image reference," a device wherein " ••• the writer relies, not on a common language, but on a common-image reference." 'l'he image referred to must be so familiar that its mention 4 11 ••• secures vividness instantaneously so long as the 2 reference is known." Insofar as the common image referred to is necessarily well known, it is topical, but this study is concerned only with the image-sharing process. It considers two kinds of references which use this device: those requiring ·the audience to supply a specific image, without which the thought is no-t complete nor the meaning clear, and those which invite specific visual connotations ·that may enhance the meaning, but do not depend totally on the audience's ability to see a particular specific shared picture in order to make their point. For purposes of distinc~ion, the former will be termed image-required references and the latter image-enhanced references. ::n order ·to observe the interaction of image delivery systems growing out of the expansion of the media, and the playwright's use of the resulting proliferation of avail- able shared image references on the part of his audience, this study will concentrate on the parallel development of the media and ·the American comic theatre during the period between 1925 and 1970. The comic theatre has been chosen for this study because comic authors from Aristophanes to Jules Feiffer appear to be more devoted to commenting on the fashions and foibles of their own times than their more serious dramatic contemporaries. One can trace this interest in the current scene through Jonson, Sheridan and Sha•.v, to name only a fer.v. 5 Since the 1920's, when commercial radio broadcasting be9an in the United States, the growth of the communica­ tions media has been so rapid it suggests a trigonometric formula like the Richter seismic scale. The media, including the broadcasting industry, newspapers, motion pictures and advertising, have grown in influence to ·the point where their reactions and effects are frequently a first. consideration, not only in the commercial life of the United States, but in the market place of ideas as well.