Grindhouse

2025-05-11T22:33:03Z

2601:547:CC00:1B00:F401:7EF1:2A48:49A9:

{{Short description|Low-budget movie theater that shows mainly exploitation films}}
{{For|the film|Grindhouse (film)}}
{{More citations needed|date=November 2014}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}
[[File:42nd St, NYC, Lyric Theatre, 1985.jpg|thumb|right|280px|[[42nd Street (Manhattan)|42nd Street]] in 1985 [[Times Square]], showing the [[Lyric Theatre (New York City, 1903)|Lyric]], one of several grindhouses at the time]]

A '''grindhouse''' or '''action house'''<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=afsiAQAAQBAJ&q=%22action+house%22+cinema&pg=PT38|title=Dictionary of Jargon (Routledge Revivals)|first=Jonathon|last=Green|date=October 2, 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317908173|via=Google Books}}</ref> is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows [[Low-budget film|low-budget]] horror, [[splatter film|splatter]], and [[exploitation film]]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 [[Film studio|studio]]-owned.

== History ==
Due to these theaters' proximity to controversially sexualized forms of entertainment like [[American burlesque|burlesque]], the term "grindhouse" has often been erroneously associated with burlesque theaters in urban entertainment areas such as [[42nd Street (Manhattan)|42nd Street]] in New York City,<ref name=Church-11>{{cite journal |author=Church, David |title=From Exhibition to Genre: The Case of Grind-House Films |journal=Cinema Journal |volume=50 |number=4 |date=Summer 2011 |pages=1–25 |url=https://www.academia.edu/6632128 |access-date=March 24, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511194513/http://www.academia.edu/6632128/From_Exhibition_to_Genre_The_Case_of_Grind-House_Films |archive-date=May 11, 2018 |doi=10.1353/cj.2011.0053}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Church, David |url=https://www.academia.edu/6632405 |title=Grindhouse Nostalgia: Memory, Home Video, and Exploitation Film Fandom |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |date=2015 |access-date=March 24, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511194513/http://www.academia.edu/6632405/Grindhouse_Nostalgia_Memory_Home_Video_and_Exploitation_Film_Fandom |archive-date=May 11, 2018 }}</ref> where [[Grinding (dance)|bump and grind]] dancing and [[striptease]] were featured.<ref name="grindhouse">{{cite web|url=http://www.grindhouse.com |title=Grindhouse |access-date=September 10, 2014 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100805062644/http://www.grindhouse.com/ |archive-date=August 5, 2010}}</ref> In the film ''[[Lady of Burlesque]]'' (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]]'' is for a movie theater distinguished by three criteria:<ref name=Church-11 />

# 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 (magazine)|Variety]]'' article,<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Two-a-Day Policy Failure in Canadian Grind Houses |author= |date=December 6, 1923 |magazine=Variety |page=19}}</ref> which may have adopted the contemporary slang usage of "grind" to refer to the actions of [[Barker (occupation)|barkers]] exhorting potential patrons to enter the venue.<ref name=Church-11 />

Double, triple, and "all night" bills on a single admission charge often encouraged patrons to spend long periods of time in the theaters.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/autobiography-channel/2010/feb/17/life-on-downtowns-grindhouse-theater-row-1978-1982/# |title=Last of the all-nighters – My life on downtown's Grindhouse Theater Row in the 70s and 80s |author=Sanford, Jay Allen |date=February 17, 2010 |newspaper=San Diego Reader |access-date=March 24, 2017 |quote=I spent my first night in [[San Diego]] sleeping in the back row of '''the Cabrillo Theater'''.<br />{{pad|1.0em}}In that pre-[[Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego|Gaslamp]], pre-[[Multiplex (movie theater)|multiplex]] [[Downtown San Diego|downtown]] of 1978 or so, half a dozen wonderfully eclectic – if mildly disreputable – late night movie houses operated within a few blocks of each other. Each grindhouses was a colorful oasis, plopped down in the middle of a seedy urban sprawl perfectly suited to the sailors on shore leave and porn aficionados that comprised much of its foot traffic.<br />{{pad|1.0em}}A couple of bucks got you a double or triple bill, screened ‘round the clock in cavernous single-screen movie theaters harkening back to Hollywood's golden age, rich in cinematic history and replete with big wide aisles and accommodating balconies. Horton Plaza had the '''Carbillo''' ''[sic]'' and the '''Plaza Theater, both''' operated by Walnut Properties, whose owner Vince Miranda maintained a suite at the '''Hotel San Diego''' (which he also owned). |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170325024521/http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/autobiography-channel/2010/feb/17/life-on-downtowns-grindhouse-theater-row-1978-1982/ |archive-date=March 25, 2017 }}</ref> The milieu was largely and faithfully captured at the time by ''[[Sleazoid Express]]'', an exploitation aficionado magazine that ran in the 1980s.

Because grindhouse theaters were associated with a [[American lower class|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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2007/04/this_old_grindhouse.html |title=This Old Grindhouse |author=Hendrix, Grady |date=April 6, 2007 |website=Slate |access-date=March 24, 2017 |quote=Because grindhouse theaters were nasty places, full of nasty people, and most of us wouldn't be caught dead in one. The few folks who were there for the actual movies were either poverty tourists or cinephiles who didn't notice anything except the flickering screen, and, in many cases, their cinephilia had burned out their sense of discrimination, because a lot of the movies that showed in grindhouses were bad. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170325030908/http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2007/04/this_old_grindhouse.html |archive-date=March 25, 2017 }}</ref> Similar second-run screenings are held at [[discount theater]]s and [[neighborhood theatre]]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]] after [[white flight]] 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]]s,<ref name="grindhouse"/> such as adult [[Pornographic film|pornography]] and sleaze, or [[slasher film|slasher]] horror, and dubbed [[Martial arts film|martial arts]] [[Hong Kong action cinema|films from Hong Kong]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.fangoria.com/features/94-fango-lifestyle/4154-cult-couture-the-grind-house.html|title=Cult Couture: THE GRIND-HOUSE|magazine=Fangoria|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091014094105/http://www.fangoria.com/features/94-fango-lifestyle/4154-cult-couture-the-grind-house.html|archive-date=October 14, 2009}}</ref>

===Content===
{{Main|Exploitation film}}

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]]s, a mix of sex, violence and [[Sadomasochism|sadism]]. 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]] and critical praise.

===Decline===
By the mid 1980s, [[home video]] and [[Cable television|cable movie channels]] threatened to render the grindhouse obsolete. By the end of the decade, these theaters had vanished from Los Angeles's [[Broadway (Los Angeles)|Broadway]] and [[Hollywood Boulevard]], New York City's [[Times Square]] and San Francisco's [[Market Street (San Francisco)|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.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Empson |first1=Frank |title=Nashville Then: The Jolar Cinema fire on Lower Broadway in 1978 |url=https://www.tennessean.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2018/04/20/nashville-then-the-jolar-cinema-fire-on-lower-broadway-in-1978/34084479/ |website=The Tennessean |access-date=23 May 2022}}</ref>

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 (Manhattan)|42nd Street]] grindhouses themselves.

==Gallery==
<gallery heights="200" widths="200">
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]] in Los Angeles (2012), marquee advertising ''[[Mickey One]]'' and ''[[Blast of Silence]]''
File:SF Theatre cinema.jpg|Theaters in San Francisco (1956)
File:Portage Theater.jpg|Portage Theatre in Chicago (2007)
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Adult movie theater]]

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

== General and cited references ==
* {{Cite book |author=Church, David |date=2015 |title=Grindhouse Nostalgia: Memory, Home Video and Exploitation Film Fandom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c0IkDQAAQBAJ |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-9910-0 |access-date=March 24, 2017}}
* {{Cite book |editor1=Fisher, Austin |editor2=Walker, Johnny |date=2016 |title=Grindhouse—Cultural Exchange on 42nd Street, and Beyond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VUuvDAAAQBAJ |location=New York City |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-6289-2747-4 |access-date=March 24, 2017}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary}}
* [http://www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/Main_Page Grindhouse Cinema Database]
* [http://grindhouseschoolhouse.blogspot.com The Grindhouse Schoolhouse: Exploring Classic Adult Cinema]
* [http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/18/18_grind.html A review of ''Grindhouse: The Forbidden World of "Adults Only" Cinema''], by Eddie Muller and Daniel Faris.
* [http://www.grindhouse.com/ Grindhouse.com]
* {{Cite web |author= |title=The Original Grindhouse Theatres. Located On 42nd Street, New York |url=http://www.grindhousetherapy.com/the-original-grindhouse-theatres-on-42nd-street-new-york/ |website=Grindhouse Therapy |access-date=March 24, 2017}}

{{Film genres}}
{{Exploitation film}}

[[Category:Cinemas and movie theaters in the United States]]
[[Category:Exploitation films]]
[[Category:Film genres]]
[[Category:History of film]]

Rude Awakening

2025-05-11T17:53:37Z

2601:547:CC00:1B00:F401:7EF1:2A48:49A9: /* Other */

'''Rude Awakening''' may refer to:

== Film and television ==
* ''Pochardiana ou le Rêveur éveillé'', (''Rude Awakening'' in English), (1908) a film directed by [[Georges Méliès]]
* ''Rude Awakening'' (1975), a short film directed by [[Warren Sonbert]]
* "Rude Awakening" (1980), an episode in the ''[[Hammer House of Horror]]'' TV Series
* [[Rude Awakening (film)|''Rude Awakening'' (film)]] (1989), a film directed by David Greenwalt and Aaron Russo
* [[Rude Awakening (TV series)|''Rude Awakening'' (TV series)]] an American TV series from 1998 – 2001
* ''[[Rude Awakenings]]'', a New Zealand TV series from 2007

== Music ==
* [[Rude Awakening (Andy Irvine album)|''Rude Awakening'' (Andy Irvine album)]], a 1991 album by Irish folk musician Andy Irvine
* [[Rude Awakening (Prong album)|''Rude Awakening'' (Prong album)]], a 1996 album by American metal band Prong
* [[Rude Awakening (Megadeth album)|''Rude Awakening'' (Megadeth album)]], a 2002 live album by American heavy metal band Megadeth
* "Rude Awakening #2", a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival on the album ''[[Pendulum (Creedence Clearwater Revival album)|Pendulum]]''
* "Rude Awakening", a song by AG on his album ''[[The Dirty Version]]''
* "Rude Awakening", a song by Status Quo on their album ''[[Thirsty Work]]''
* "Rude Awakening", a song by Michael Schenker Group on their album ''[[The Unforgiven (album)|The Unforgiven]]''
* Rude Awakening, a 1990 debut album for [[The Rude Boys]]

==Other==
* ''Rude Awakening'', a gallery show by [[John S. Boskovich]] inspired by the band Rude Awakening
* ''[[Forbidden Broadway: Rude Awakening]]'', a 2007 off-Broadway revue
* ''[[The Rude Awakening]]'', a 1998 album by the Cocoa Brovaz
* ''[[The Rude Awakening Show]]'', a radio show
* ''They Hunger 3: Rude Awakening'', a video game
* The Rude Awakening, a wrestling move performed by [[Rick Rude]]

{{disambiguation}}

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Grindhouse

Rude Awakening