Conclusion

As might be said about any research project whose scope is centered around looking at multiple facets of an industry as large as that of motion pictures, there can be no singular definitive conclusion to be made. Rather, there are a number of different inferences that can be derived from the data that has been collected.

For example, my thesis that “war films” appeared more frequently in the Campus Theatre’s programming schedule following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December, 1941 has been proven accurate. The rapid increase in films depicting war and it's consequences is clear. But what does this information tell us? It speaks volumes about the state of American media consumption and the need for something to “make sense” of all the tragedy and despair occurring in the world during that time. It stands to reason that film studios were producing these films at a higher rate than before the bombing as American involvement in the international conflict became heightened.

Still, data is simply data at the end of the day. The genre of these films does not tell us what types of themes or formal developments were being conveyed in this sudden surge of films featuring social realities that became more prominent after the war’s escalation. The fact that the actor Fred MacMurray appeared on the Campus Theatre screen 17 times in the span of 5 years is interesting but the data I have collected cannot tell the full story of why this was the case. Was the manager, Oscar Stiefel, friends with MacMurray? Was there a MacMurray fan club in Lewisburg during this time that threatened to boycott the Campus Theatre if they didn’t get their fix of the handsome Illinois native? These questions are completely hypothetical but they put on display a number of factors that could have influenced a number of things that the data set simply does not reveal.

The sociological implications of the supply-demand structure of motion picture production tells us that comedy and war films resonated with an American audience. In terms of the block booking and blind selling system, major studios were taking advantage of small, independent theaters with the Campus Theatre being a prime example. Still, there is infinitely more to be uncovered about this time period and the ways in which film production ties in to the new reality of loss and chaos caused by the World War II.

I plan on continuing this research for some time in an attempt to reveal as much as my current resources will allow on the history of Hollywood, Lewisburg and by extension America during these five years.