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A grindhouse or action house is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows
low-budget A low-budget film or low-budget movie is a motion picture shot with little to no funding from a major film studio or private investor. Many independent films are made on low budgets, but films made on the mainstream circuit with inexperienced o ...
horror, splatter, and
exploitation film An exploitation film is a film that seeks commercial success by capitalizing on current trends, niche genres, or sensational content. Exploitation films often feature themes such as suggestive or explicit sex, sensational violence, drug use, nudi ...
s for adults. According to historian David Church, this theater type was named after the "grind policy", a film-programming strategy dating back to the early 1920s that continuously showed films at cut-rate ticket prices that typically rose over the course of each day. This exhibition practice was markedly different from the era's more common practice of fewer shows per day and graduated pricing for different seating sections in large urban theatres, which were typically
studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...
-owned.


History

Due to these theaters' proximity to controversially sexualized forms of entertainment like
burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.
, the term "grindhouse" has often been erroneously associated with burlesque theaters in urban entertainment areas such as
42nd Street 42nd Street most commonly refers to: *42nd Street (Manhattan), a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan It may also refer to: *42nd Street (film), ''42nd Street'' (film), a 1933 American Warner Bros. musical film with lyri ...
in New York City, where bump and grind dancing and
striptease A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper", "exotic d ...
were featured. In the film ''
Lady of Burlesque ''Lady of Burlesque'' (also known as ''The G-String Murders'' and in the UK, ''Striptease Lady'') is a 1943 American musical comedy mystery film directed by William A. Wellman, produced by Hunt Stromberg, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Mi ...
'' (1943) one of the characters refers to one such burlesque theatre on 42nd Street as a "grindhouse," but Church points out the primary definition in the ''
Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...
'' is for a movie theater distinguished by three criteria: # Shows a variety of films, in continuous succession # Low admission fees # Films screened are frequently of poor quality or low (artistic) merit Church states the first use of the term "grind house" was in a 1923 ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' article, which may have adopted the contemporary slang usage of "grind" to refer to the actions of barkers exhorting potential patrons to enter the venue. Double, triple, and "all night" bills on a single admission charge often encouraged patrons to spend long periods of time in the theaters. The milieu was largely and faithfully captured at the time by ''
Sleazoid Express ''Sleazoid Express'' (1980–1985, and later editions) was the house journal of the exploitation film scene in New York circa 1964-1985. Founded as a one-sheet (later to expand to four to six pages) by Bill Landis, an NYU graduate, projection ...
'', an exploitation aficionado magazine that ran in the 1980s. Because grindhouse theaters were associated with a lower class audience, grindhouse theaters gradually became perceived as disreputable places that showed disreputable films, regardless of the variety of films – including subsequent-run Hollywood films – that were actually screened. Similar second-run screenings are held at
discount theater Discount theaters, also known as dollar theaters, dollar movies, second-run theaters, and sub-run theaters, are movie theaters that show motion pictures for reduced prices after those films depart first-run theaters. Originally, they would receiv ...
s and
neighborhood theatre Predating multiplex movie theatres, neighborhood theatres were the colloquial name given to smaller movie theatres located in local neighborhoods, as opposed to the large movie palaces located in downtown areas. Neighborhood theatres were mostly ...
s; the distinguishing characteristics of the "grindhouse" are its typical urban setting and the programming of first-run films of low merit, not predominantly second-run films which had received wide releases.


Television pressure

The introduction of television greatly eroded the audience for local and single-screen movie theaters, many of which were built during the cinema boom of the 1930s. In combination with
urban decay Urban decay (also known as urban rot, urban death or urban blight) is the sociological process by which a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. There is no single process that leads to urban decay. ...
after
white flight The white flight, also known as white exodus, is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the Racism ...
out of older city areas in the mid to late 1960s, changing economics forced these theaters to either close or offer something that television could not. In the 1970s, many of these theaters became venues for
exploitation film An exploitation film is a film that seeks commercial success by capitalizing on current trends, niche genres, or sensational content. Exploitation films often feature themes such as suggestive or explicit sex, sensational violence, drug use, nudi ...
s, such as adult
pornography Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...
and sleaze, or slasher horror, and dubbed
martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; ...
films from Hong Kong.


Content

Films shot for and screened at grindhouses characteristically contain large amounts of sex, violence, or bizarre subject matter. One featured genre were "roughies" or
sexploitation film A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit se ...
s, a mix of sex, violence and
sadism Sadism may refer to: * Everyday sadism, the derivation of gratification from the physical pain or humiliation of another person * Sadomasochism, the giving or receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliatio ...
. Quality varied, but low budget production values and poor print quality were common. Critical opinions varied regarding typical grindhouse fare, but many films acquired
cult following A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...
and critical praise.


Decline

By the mid 1980s,
home video Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...
and cable movie channels threatened to render the grindhouse obsolete. By the end of the decade, these theaters had vanished from Los Angeles's
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...
and
Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It runs through the Hollywood, East Hollywood, Little Armenia, Thai Town, and Los Feliz districts. Its western terminus is at Sunset Plaza Drive in the Hollyw ...
, New York City's
Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...
and San Francisco's Market Street. Another example was the Jolar Theater in Nashville, Tennessee, on lower Broadway, which was active until it burned down on April 14, 1978. By the mid-1990s, these particular theaters had all but disappeared from the United States. Excerpts from ''Sleazoid Express'' were compiled into a book of the same title by authors Bill Landis and Michelle Clifford; the book discusses various exploitation subgenres as well as New York City's
42nd Street 42nd Street most commonly refers to: *42nd Street (Manhattan), a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan It may also refer to: *42nd Street (film), ''42nd Street'' (film), a 1933 American Warner Bros. musical film with lyri ...
grindhouses themselves.


Gallery

File:IN THE HEART OF MIDTOWN MANHATTAN-42ND STREET BETWEEN 7TH AND 8TH AVENUES - NARA - 549872.jpg, Grindhouse marquees along 42nd St (New York City, 1973) File:Broadway Theater and Commercial District, 300-849 S. Broadway; 8.3.jpg,
Million Dollar Theater The Million Dollar Theatre at 307 S. Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles is one of the first movie palaces built in the United States. It opened in 1917 with the premiere of William S. Hart's '' The Silent Man''. It's the northernmost of the col ...
in Los Angeles (2012), marquee advertising ''
Mickey One ''Mickey One'' is a 1965 American neo noir crime film starring Warren Beatty and directed by Arthur Penn from a script by Alan Surgal. Plot After incurring the wrath of the Mafia, a stand-up comic (Warren Beatty) flees Detroit for Chicago. He s ...
'' and ''
Blast of Silence ''Blast of Silence'' is a 1961 American neo-noir film written and directed by, and starring Allen Baron, with Molly McCarthy, Larry Tucker, and Peter H. Clune in supporting roles. Set during Christmastime, it follows a hitman who returns to ...
'' File:SF Theatre cinema.jpg, Theaters in San Francisco (1956) File:Portage Theater.jpg, Portage Theatre in Chicago (2007)


See also

*
Adult movie theater An adult movie theater is a euphemistic term for a movie theater dedicated to the exhibition of pornographic films. Adult movie theaters show pornographic films primarily for either a respectively heterosexual or homosexual audience. For the pat ...


Citations


General and cited references

* *


External links


Grindhouse Cinema Database

The Grindhouse Schoolhouse: Exploring Classic Adult Cinema


by Eddie Muller and Daniel Faris.
Grindhouse.com
* {{Exploitation film Cinemas and movie theaters in the United States Exploitation films Film genres History of film