Modernizacja rozrywki: umasowienie kina jako praktyki kulturowej w Łodzi do 1939 roku
The Modernization of Entertainment: The Popularization of Cinema as a Cultural Practice in Łódź Until 1939

Author(s): Łukasz Biskupski
Subject(s): Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Cultural history, Local History / Microhistory
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Łódź; mass culture; history of cinema; film screening; mediatization of entertainment
Summary/Abstract: The text shows how, on the scale of one city, the large-industrial Łódź, the modernization of the commercial entertainment landscape took place, in which cinema took a dominant place. This process had aspects such as mediatization, centralization of content production and broadening the scope of influence. The commercialization of the invention of the cinematograph meant that the landscape of urban entertainment was quickly dominated by cinema, pushing to the margin earlier entertainments for which the panopticon and variete formats were the most representative. From a technical novelty, cinema has transformed into an archetypal modern mass media. Łódź, a large industrial center typical of modernity, also quickly became a "City of Attractions" with a rich popular cultural offer, among which cinemas increasingly dominated. The key elements of the process of massification of this form of entertainment have been described, illustrating how, during the first 40 years of the 20th century, the cinematograph evolved from a technological curiosity to a mass cultural practice that can be called cinephilia.

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