Hollywood v. Hard Core: How the Struggle Over Censorship Created the Modern Film Industry

Book Description

"When it comes to censorship in Hollywood, the bottom line is theticket line. That's the central message in Jon Lewis's provocativeand insightful investigation of the movie industry's history ofself-regulation.…Lewis shows that Hollywood films are a triumph ofcommerce over art, and that the film industry has consistently usedinternal censorship and government-industrial collusion to guaranteethat its cash flow is never seriously threatened."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"…an accomplished, comprehensive, and provocative new history ofcensorship and the American film industry…And what of the perennialtussles between politicos and the film industry? All show business,suggests Lewis, make-believe veiling the real power structure that hasnothing to do with morals, let alone art (it would be interesting toget his take on the recent marketing brouhaha and its relationship tothe recent threatened actors and writers strikes). A staggering sagaworthy itself of a Hollywood movie, Hollywood v. Hardcore is filmhistory at its most illuminating and intense."
--The Boston Phoenix

"As provocative as his sometimes X-rated subject matter, film scholar Lewis detects an intimate relationship between the seemingly strange bedfellows of mainstream Hollywood cinema and hardcore pornography. From postal inspector Anthony Comstock to virtue maven William Bennett, from the Hays Office that monitored the golden age of Hollywood to the alphabet ratings system that labels the motion pictures in today's multiplex malls, Lewis's wry, informative, and always insightful study of American film censorship demonstrates that the most effective media surveillance happens before you see the movie. Hollywood v. Hard Core is highly recommended for audiences of all ages."
--Thomas Doherty, author of Pre-Code Hollywood

"Jon Lewis weaves a compelling narrative of how box office needs-rather than moral strictures-have dictated the history of film regulation. Telling the complex and fascinating story of how Hollywood abandoned the Production Code and developed the ratings system and then telling the even more compelling story of how the X rating became a desirable marketing device when hard core pornography became popular, Hollywood v. Hard Core reveals a great deal about the true business of censorship."
--Linda Williams, author of Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible"

"This is a fascinating account, both entertaining and scholarly."
—Journal of the West

In 1972, The Godfather and Deep Throat were the two most popular films in the country. One, a major Hollywood studio production, the other an independently made "skin flick." At that moment, Jon Lewis asserts, the fate of the American film industry hung in the balance.

Spanning the 20th century, Hollywood v. Hard Core weaves a gripping tale of censorship and regulation. Since the industry's infancy, film producers and distributors have publicly regarded ratings codes as a necessary evil. Hollywood regulates itself, we have been told, to prevent the government from doing it for them. But Lewis argues that the studios self-regulate because they are convinced it is good for business, and that censorship codes and regulations are a crucial part of what binds the various competing agencies in the film business together.

Yet between 1968 and 1973 Hollywood films were faltering at the box office, and the major studios were in deep trouble. Hollywood's principal competition came from a body of independently produced and distributed films--from foreign art house film Last Tango in Paris to hard-core pornography like Behind the Green Door--that were at once disreputable and, for a moment at least, irresistible, even chic. In response, Hollywood imposed the industry-wide MPAA film rating system (the origins of the G, PG, and R designations we have today) that pushed sexually explicit films outside the mainstream, and a series of Supreme Court decisions all but outlawed the theatrical exhibition of hard core pornographic films. Together, these events allowed Hollywood to consolidate its iron grip over what films got made and where they were shown, thus saving it from financial ruin.

Customer Reviews:

Provocative Title, Thorough Study.......2003-01-16

Jon E. Lewis has written an interesting book in Hollywood v. Hard Core, although it does not entirely live up to or prove its subtitle, How the Struggle Over Censorship Created the Modern Film Industry, it often comes close. The climax of the book focuses on the battles of the late sixties and early seventies but its vision is much larger and encompasses film history from its origins until the battles at the beginning of this new millenium. He promises heroes and villains and he delivers them and even combines one person (Jack Valenti) in both roles, depending on who is talking about him, of course. The book is always fascinating as it ranges over the history of film and the author always makes the economics clear and central to the debate (something left to the side in most histories of film censorship.) Particularly interesting and illuminating is the section on the McCarthy period. A recommended read.

Book Description

Three years after the Summer of Chaos, Sara Dunstan, adoptive mother of Steel Brightblade, hears rumors that the Knights of Takhisis are regathering in the evil city of Neraka. Although still branded a renegade by the Dark Knights, she travels to Neraka with the blue dragon, Cobalt, to learn the truth. There she discovers the knights are not only rebuilding under the leadership of General Mirielle Abrena, but they have imminent plans to return to war.

Frustrated and seeking answers, Sara jounreys to the Tomb of the Last Heroes in Solace. At the tomb, she receives an answer she never expected, which inspires a new order that could help the people of Ansalon to survive the dark days ahead.

Mary H. Herbert is the author of the best-selling Dark Horse series.

Customer Reviews:

Good read. Suprisingly entertaining........2007-08-14

I was suprised at how good this book was. It's very well written and I look forward to reading more from Mary Herbert.

Probably my favorite out of the bridges of time series.

Mediocre at best.......2007-01-17

I finished this book 2 days ago after letting it sit in my library for nearly 3 years. I have to say that I find the book uncompelling and simple. I mean, with the word "simple", that the charecters have no depth at all, when the author needs a person, boom, he/she's there.

What disappointed me most was the dragon Cobalt. I understand that dragons can be fond of their riders (and don'T get me wrong I've been reading DL for quite some time now) but this one is just childish. Almost as if he's a pet. He is lacking depth as well. The main plot of the book is unclear until the last 60 or so pages. The reader has no idea what the book's all about.

But, the book takes hold of the reader now and then. Some parts of the book is definitely exiciting but all in all not a very good effort on Herbert's part.

Decent, but nothing to rave about.......2003-08-13

Unlike the first book in this series (Chris Pierson's SPIRIT OF THE WIND), this book doesn't have a compelling plot that draws the reader into the book. There is a bare semblance of a plot, but nothing truly engaging. It's about Sara Dunstan's (Steel Brightblade's foster mother) infiltration of the regrouped Knights of Takhisis. Herbert tells this story with no real goal observable to the reader. There is an ultimate goal of the book, but it's really just to set up a story element that will appear in subsequent books in the Dragonlance universe.

The big redeeming quality of this book is the character of Sara Dunstan. Readers were first introduced to her in Weis & Hickman's THE SECOND GENERATION and we saw more of her in their DRAGONS OF SUMMER FLAME. This book fleshes here character out much more than those two did. Since the book is told from her point of view, we get to observe the various facets of her character. This is important since I get the feeling that she will be playing a larger role down the road, possibly in Weis & Hickman's War of Souls trilogy (which I have yet to read).

The writing in the book was solid, although the supporting characters all seemed pretty one dimensional. The new general of the Knights of Takhisis was kind of interesting and it would be neat to see her fleshed out in another book at some point. Herbert does a good job of telling the story and getting to the point where the necessary things (I don't want to ruin things for people who haven't read it yet) are established for use in later books. I just wasn't engrossed in the story since there wasn't much of a plot to get involved in. Decent book and Dragonlance fans might find it useful in understanding these new concepts that I'm not mentioning. If you're not a completist, though, you can probably skip it and not miss out on much.

Absolutely Amazing!.......2003-06-24

What a wonderful Book. I recieved it, and read it cover to cover all in the same day! I don't usually do that, but what a damn good book.

This story is centered around Sara Dunstan, whom is still grieving over her adopted son Steel Brightblade three years after the summer of chaos. In the begining, she is living as a exile from the Knights of Tahkisis, and is pretty miserable. Then she starts having some dreams that call to her for help. Eventually, she sets out to find the source of the dreams and comes upon a wounded and riderless blue dragon whom she nurses back to health.

Thats all I'm telling you about this book. But It was page turning. I just added Mary H Herbert, to the list amazing Dragonlance storytellers, right under Richard A Knaack, whom we all know is the best. I Cannot wait to learn more about the "Leigon Of Steel" which is founded in the end of this work!

By Huma's Shield, this was a Fantastic Book!

The second book intresting from the first page.......2002-01-03

Like i wrote in the title this has been on of the first dragonlance's beautiful books from the very first page.
This could be only my opinion, but if you like dragons stories this is your book....even if i can't tell you this is the best, for sure it is very good story filled by action and quite linear plot, easy and pleasant to read.
It's explain someting about dragon riders,dragon training and dark knights.
Read it and enjoy!

Average customer rating:

Legacy of Steel
Mary Herbert
Manufacturer: Wizards of the Coast
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000O5X8JQ

AFS chairman's welcome: the legacy of leadership. (95th AFS Casting Congress): An article from: Modern Casting

Average customer rating:

AFS chairman's welcome: the legacy of leadership. (95th AFS Casting Congress): An article from: Modern Casting
Jerry Agin
Manufacturer: American Foundrymen's Society, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Modern Casting, published by American Foundrymen's Society, Inc. on April 1, 1991. The length of the article is 609 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: AFS chairman's welcome: the legacy of leadership. (95th AFS Casting Congress)
Author: Jerry Agin
Publication: Modern Casting (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 1991
Publisher: American Foundrymen's Society, Inc.
Volume: v81 Issue: n4 Page: p47(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Bridges of Time Series (Dragon Lance), Books 1 -5/ Spirit of the Wind, Chris Pierson; Legacy of Steel, Mary H. Herbert; the Silver Stair, Jean Rabe; the Rose and the Skull, Jeff Crook; Dezra's Quest, Chris Pierson (Bridges of Time Series, volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Average customer rating:

Bridges of Time Series (Dragon Lance), Books 1 -5/ Spirit of the Wind, Chris Pierson; Legacy of Steel, Mary H. Herbert; the Silver Stair, Jean Rabe; the Rose and the Skull, Jeff Crook; Dezra's Quest, Chris Pierson (Bridges of Time Series, volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Mary Herbert, Jean Rabe, Jeff Crook, Chris Pierson Chris Pierson
Manufacturer: TSR / Dragon Lance
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UCUHI8

A Father's Legacy to His Daughters, Mrs, Chapone's Letter to a New-Married Lady and Education, A Fairy Tale by Miss Talbot

Average customer rating:

A Father's Legacy to His Daughters, Mrs, Chapone's Letter to a New-Married Lady and Education, A Fairy Tale by Miss Talbot
John (Dr.) & Chapone, (Mrs.) Gregory
Manufacturer: Printed for John Sharpe
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
ASIN: B000K5U5PU

John Fritz, 1822-1913: His role in the development of the American iron and steel industry and his legacy to the Bethlehem community

Average customer rating:

John Fritz, 1822-1913: His role in the development of the American iron and steel industry and his legacy to the Bethlehem community
Lance E Metz
Manufacturer: Annie S. Kemerer Museum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Legacy Of Steel : An Exclusive Look At James Keating's Riddle Of Steel Training Camp

Average customer rating:

Legacy Of Steel : An Exclusive Look At James Keating's Riddle Of Steel Training Camp

Manufacturer: Paladin Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00009KH27

Average customer rating:

Living Legacy
Steel Pulse Cslyr 54341
Manufacturer: LIGHTYEAR RECORDS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

General | Books on Cassette | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
ASIN: 6305529191

Average customer rating:

Miss Stuart's legacy,
Flora Annie Webster Steel
Manufacturer: Macmillan and Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00087T4JS

Amazon.com

All stock-market investors embrace the motto "Buy low, sell high." Few act accordingly, however, for to do so would require that we go against the crowd, buying stocks that are out of favor and selling Wall Street's darlings. Powerful psychological forces prevent us from pursuing a contrarian investment strategy, although it consistently beats the market, according to David Dreman, a seasoned money manager and long-time columnist for Forbes magazine. One of the Street's best-known and most articulate contrarians, Dreman has updated his 1982 investment classic, Contrarian Investment Strategies, using recent research on investor psychology. His revised book combines proven techniques for selecting undervalued stocks with fresh insights on how to defy, and thereby profit from, the popular fears or enthusiasms of the moment.

Dreman pays only cursory attention to a company's business fundamentals in deciding whether to invest in it. Instead he looks for stocks trading at below-market multiples of per-share earnings, cash flow, book value, or dividend yield. Historically, Dreman claims, stocks that are cheap by any of these measures have tended to outperform the market average, although this is disputed by those who believe the stock market is efficient and therefore impossible to beat except by accident. Dreman devotes many pages to debunking their research. He offers a new refinement of his low-price strategy, which involves picking the cheapest stocks within industries, to create a diversified, contrarian portfolio.

Contrarian Investment Strategies: The Next Generation is full of practical and provocative advice, but some of its most interesting passages delve into the abstruse findings of cognitive psychology. This research has proven that we are woefully inadequate as intuitive statisticians. Interpreting data to make predictions about the probability of future events, we consistently make the same mistakes. For example, we exaggerate the likelihood that current trends will continue, even when they are historically exceptional. (Logic dictates that trends are more likely to regress toward the mean.) This fallacy explains why most Wall Street insiders were gloomiest about stocks in 1981, after six years of falling prices, just before the beginning of the greatest bull market ever. Is today's widespread optimism among investors a reason for caution? Dreman thinks so.

It seems our brains are hard-wired to underperform the market. That's why few investors can keep to a contrarian approach. Dreman recommends buying stocks when prices fall, the worse the panic the better. But that requires overriding powerful instincts.

Besides reflecting Dreman's wide reading in finance, psychology, and history, his book also displays his sometimes windy and self-important writing style. At 464 pages, the book is not a quick read. But its intellectual depth and thoroughly tested advice make many other investment books look paltry and superficial by comparison. Serious, independent investors will find it rewarding. --Barry Mitzman

Book Description

David Dreman's name is synonymous with the term "contrarian investing," and his contrarian strategies have been proven winners year after year. His techniques have spawned countless imitators, most of whom pay lip service to the buzzword "contrarian," but few can match his performance. His Kemper-Dreman High Return Fund has been the leader since its inception in 1988 -- the number one equity-income fund among all 208 ranked by Lipper Analytical Services, Inc. Dreman is also one of a handful of money managers whose clients have beaten the runaway market over the past five, ten, and fifteen years.

Now, as the longest bull market in the history of the stock market winds down, there is increasing volatility and a great deal of uncertainty. This is the climate that tests the mettle of the pros, the worries of the average investor, and the success of David Dreman's brilliant new strategies for the next millennium.

Contrarian Investment Strategies: The Next Generation shows investors how to outperform professional money managers and profit from potential Wall Street panics -- all in Dreman's trademark style, which The New York Times calls "witty and clear as a silver bell." Dreman reveals a proven, systematic, and safe way to beat the market by buying stocks of good companies when they are currently out of favor. At the heart of his book is a fundamental psychological insight: investors overreact. Dreman demonstrates how investors consistently overvalue the so-called "best" stocks and undervalue the so-called "worst" stocks, and how earnings and other surprises affect the best and worst stocks in opposite ways. Since surprises are a way of life in the market, Dreman shows you how to profit from these surprises with his ingenious new techniques, most of which have been developed in the nineties. You'll learn:

Why contrarian stocks offer extra protection in bear markets, as well as delivering superior returns when the bull roars.
Why a high dividend yield is just as important for the aggressive investor as it is for "widows and orphans."
Why owning Treasury bills and government bonds -- the "safest investments" for centuries -- is like being fully margined at the top of the 1929 market.
Why Initial Public Offerings are a guaranteed loser's game.
Why you should avoid Nasdaq ("the market of the next hundred years") like the plague.
Why crisis, panic, and even market downturns are the contrarian investor's best friend.
Why the chances of hitting a home run using the Street's best research are worse than being the big winner in the New York State Lottery.

Based on cutting-edge research and irrefutable statistics, David Dreman's revolutionary techniques will benefit professionals and laymen alike.

Customer Reviews:

One of the few investments books that proves its arguments.......2007-09-28

I was bummed out before I read this book- had just read A Random Walk Down Wall Street and had become a believer in a)the efficient market hypothesis and b)the inability to beat the market over the long term.

Then comes this book. Chapter by chapter, Dreman dissects efficient market arguments that I saw as fact and showed that they were folly. Dreman states that the market is not efficient because investors are many times not rational. In fact, they are predictably irrational. And then Dreman gives data to prove this. He presents research to show that investing in a certain way allows you to beat the market.

And he gives more research and data. And more, and more. Some people will complain that this is boring and overwhelming, but he does so to prove the validity of his methods. I've read many investment books, and usually an author will give his guidelines for picking stocks, with return numbers taken at a certain point in time, and holding stocks for a certain period, and maybe a few other stipulations. And in the end, I never trusted the author enough to invest any real money in his strategy.

Not so with Dreman. The wealth of research convinced me that Dremans methods were not datamining and were not limited to certain market environments.

Its the most imporant investing book I have read. Dremans method is very similiar to value investing preached by a number of other famous investors. The difference is that Dreman proves to you through his research that value investing works. Everybody addicted to Mad Money and Jim Cramer needs to give this book a peek.

Value Investing Handbook.......2006-08-30

Dreman makes a persuasive case here that the financial experts and analysts as well as the average investor are terrible in predicting which way the stock market is going. If you want to beat the market, you need to do the opposite of everyone else, by investing in currently out-of-favor value stocks with low P/E ratios.

To his credit, Dreman correctly forecast the big market crash of 2000-2002. Published in 1998, Dreman here observed that the market of the late 90's was way overpriced and that a major correction was in the works. He was correct, although the crash was 2 years off when this was published.

His whipping boy in this book, as in almost every other investing book on the shelves, is the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). But in truth, his investing strategy does not contradict EMH. In its simplest form, EMH argues that, statistically speaking, the past movements of a stock have no significant relationship to its future movements. Dreman indeed agrees with this, and the assertion has never been disproved.

Dreman has lots of fun poking fun at the assertion of EMH that investors are rational and that current stock prices reflect all known information about the company. But the claim that investors are rational is not really controversial: all it adds up to is that investors seek to maximize returns and avoid losing money. Investors may act for poor reasons, but there is always a reason for the movement of a stock. There are good and poor reasons, but those only emerge in hindsight.

Dreman also says that Beta is completely worthless as a measure of risk and returns, and that may be true for individual stocks, but for mutual funds it's very useful. The Beta for a small-cap fund will be significantly higher than a large-cap value fund, and investors are generally rewarded for taking on that risk, at least in the long run.

All but the most extreme forms of EMH accept that stocks may be undervalued or overvalued *in the short run.* In the long run, the market is in fact completely rational. If it wasn't, there would be no point in investing in the market at all, since stock movements would be completely random. And if there are temporary irrationalities in stock prices, then it follows that investors can profit from those under- or overvaluations. Some theorists argue that it's not wise to try to beat the market, but most EMH theorists advocate a value strategy identical to Dreman's. See for example Larry Swedroe's excellent "The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You'll Ever Need."

A must-read.......2006-08-22

I have read this book three times now, and intend to do so again. Dreman is obviously an outstanding investor, and his strategies flesh out and arguably "modernize" the techniques used by the noted fundamental investor Benjamin Graham, who was the mentor to Warren Buffett (although, I might add, this book does not emphasize the study of financial statements, which is something Benjamin Graham did in painstaking detail).

Dreman's approach is most notable because of his use of investor psychology and his forceful rejection of the efficient market hypothesis. Instead, Dreman cites any number of studies and examples to support his main thesis: investors over-react to events, and those over-reactions create opportunities for savvy investors to make money. His approach involves a two-part strategy: first, preserve capital, and second, take advantage of market over-reactions to profit. His point is that the market is like a casino, but one in which the odds can favor a knowledgeable investor. In other words, no one can guarantee that a particular stock will do well, but over time, investors who follow a contrarian strategy will outperform the market generally.

Dreman's approach to investing is notably different than much of what is considered "conventional" wisdom within the financial markets (for a good contrasting view, read "Expectations Investing" by Rappaport and Mauboussin). In particular, Dreman takes the position that experts err predictably and often, and that humans base decisions on a minute portion of the information thrown at them. In this respect, his skepticism differs notably from some other authors (example: Mauboussin in "More than What You Know").

From this, he demonstrates how buying low p/e, high yielding, low price/book, and low price/free cash flow stocks results in higher-than-average returns. Dreman shows how favored stocks tend to underperform the market, while out-of-favor companies tend to outperform. However, reappraisal can happen slowly, even glacially.

I found this book to be both enjoyable and informative, and it inspired me to read a couple books about behavioral finance (Paulos, "A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market" and Belsky and Gilovich "Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them").

In all, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in investing. A few other recommendations (other than those listed above) include:

Klarman - "Margin of Safety" (out of print)
Whitman - "The Aggressive Convervative Investor" and "Value Investing"
Greenblatt - "You Can be a Stock Market Genius" (horrible title, great book)
Graham - "Security Analysis" and "the Intelligent Investor"

Each of these books sets forth a somewhat different approach to investing, but at the core, each of them shares a skepticism of the principals underlying the efficient market hypothesis.

pretty good book.......2006-03-16

The author is very knowledgeable on the subject but his prose could use some improvement - its hard to read more then 1-2 hrs at a time.

The proof is in the puddin.......2006-03-11

Dreman does it again by reconfirming the findings he first penned before the huge bull market kicked off in the early eighties. Somehow through that whole era of wild dealmaking and internet pyrotechnics the strategies remained valid. Not only does the author make the often dry data highly readible with his
wit and humor, but I'll add that David Dreman's position as one of the great contributors to investment theory and literature is tremendously undervalued.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books