{"product_id":"9780813553245","title":"The Battle for the Bs: 1950s Hollywood and the Rebirth of Low-Budget Cinema","description":"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe emergence of the double-bill in the 1930s created a divide between A-pictures and B-pictures as theaters typically screened packages featuring one of each. With the former considered more prestigious because of their larger budgets and more popular actors, the lower-budgeted Bs served largely as a support mechanism to A-films of the major studios—most of which also owned the theater chains in which movies were shown. When a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court antitrust ruling severed ownership of theaters from the studios, the B-movie soon became a different entity in the wake of profound changes to the corporate organization and production methods of the major Hollywood studios.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Battle for the Bs\u003c\/i\u003e, Blair Davis analyzes how B-films were produced, distributed, and exhibited in the 1950s and demonstrates the possibilities that existed for low-budget filmmaking at a time when many in Hollywood had abandoned the Bs. Made by newly formed independent companies, 1950s B-movies took advantage of changing demographic patterns to fashion innovative marketing approaches. They established such genre cycles as science fiction and teen-oriented films (think \u003ci\u003eDestination Moon\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eI Was a Teenage Werewolf\u003c\/i\u003e) well before the major studios and also contributed to the emergence of the movement now known as underground cinema. Although frequently proving to be multimillion-dollar box-office draws by the end of the decade, the Bs existed in opposition to the cinematic mainstream in the 1950s and created a legacy that was passed on to independent filmmakers in the decades to come.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rutgers University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47110125256944,"sku":"9780813553245","price":25.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780813553245_p0.jpg?v=1763750299","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780813553245","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}