The Stories of Serenade: Nonprofit History and George Balanchine's "First Ballet in America"

Ronny Regev
Working Paper #47, Spring 2012

Abstract: As cinema transformed from a novice form of technology to a full-fledged industry, the major studios in Hollywood developed an influential template for the organization of cultural production. Looking at the people working behind the camera, their beliefs, intents, and practices, my project seeks to understand the apparatus of American entertainers by examining the interaction between the creative personnel in the Hollywood studios from the early teens to the late forties. The featured paper, The Birth of the Auteur – How the Studio Age Kept the Director both in and Under Control, zooms in on the work of those men we associate most with motion pictures. It demonstrated how throughout the period in which production was mostly characterized by standardization and division of labor, directors maintained a relatively high level of autonomy. In addition, it seeks to explain how this limited independence later on helped establish the director’s reputation as the sole creator of the movie.  

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