“Riffraff” On the Waterfront: A Critical Analysis of Labor Imagery on the Imagined Docks of the Hollywood Dream Factory, 1934–1937

Open Cultural Studies

Judd Jonathan¹ 

[1] Department of Art and Communication, College of Mount Saint Vincent, 6301 Riverdale Ave, Bronx, New York 10471, United States of America;

关键词: great-depression;    labor history;    visual culture;   

DOI  :  10.1515/culture-2020-0139

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

At the height of the Great Depression, the American Labor Movement was ascendant as union strongholds and the belief in the power of collective action and labor solidarity were re-asserted. The energy and activism along the west-coast waterfront fomented the resurgent movement. With the revitalization of the International Longshoremen’s Union in 1933 came a succession of events that captured the American populace’s attention, including mass demonstrations and coast-wide general strikes. With this surge of events on the west-coast waterfront, from 1934 to 1937, there was a corresponding flurry of imagery disseminated to the American populace using the west-coast waterfront as a constant backdrop. Thus, an examination of the issues posed and the reality suppressed by this imagery is a crucial part of understanding how collective action and union organization exist in American visual culture. A critical evaluation of the specific ways that these Hollywood portrayals do damage to the image and perception of organized labor will allow for a confrontation with the structures of power upheld and held in tension through the dissemination of these films. This study will involve a close analysis of the following films: Fog over Frisco, Wharf Angel, Waterfront Lady, Barbary Coast, Frisco Kid, San Francisco and Mannequin.

【 授权许可】

Unknown