City Boys

Beginning with "The Public Enemy", produced by Warner Bros in 1931, James Cagney established a new cultural type on the American screen and in the world's imagination. That "type", later developed by Humphrey Bogart and John Garfield, was the urban tough guy - small, wiry, savvy and street-smart. Often presented as a gangster, newspaper reporter or private eye, the "city boy" seemed the quintessential product of urban America, although he was more a model for his audience than a mirror of social actuality. While blending the stories of the professional and political lives of Cagney, Bogart and Garfield into one narrative, Robert Sklar probes the cultural forces that produced this cultural icon and examines its power over masculine self-definition. Cagney and Bogart, whose legends have grown over time, and Garfield, whose work has been unfortunately neglected, are portrayed here in relation not only to their films and their screen personnas but also to their working environment. Sklar gives a real sense of the intensity with which each of them struggled to control his own work in the face of the power of Warner Bros, whose effort to produce socially conscious movies did not prevent it from exploiting its stars. The book also describes the involvement of the three stars with political causes and their response to attacks mounted by powerful right-wing elements against "leftists" in the entertainment industry.

ISBN 0691047952   DEWEY edition DC20 ISBN13 9780691047959 (What's this?)   Pages 344 Publisher Princeton University Press   Volumes 001 Imprint Princeton University Press   Weight (grammes) 710 Format Hardback   Published in New Jersey Publication date 01 Jul 1992   Height (mm) 230 Non-book description xiii, 311 p., 22 p. of plates :   Width (mm) 163 Library of Congress PN1995.9.M   Spine width (mm) 28 DEWEY 791.43028092273   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate

		List of Illustrations
		Preface
Pt. I		City Boys Go National
1		A Society of Ragamuffins		3
2		Roughneck Sissy and Charming Boy		11
3		The Private Enemy		29
Pt. II		City Boys as Hollywood Types
4		Baby Face		57
5		The Studio Labyrinth		76
6		Pushcarts and Patriotism		104
Pt. III		City Boys in War and Cold War
7		Heroes without Uniforms		133
8		Ordinary Guys and Private Eyes		153
9		American Dopes		177
Pt. IV		City Boys Grow Older
10		A Street Boy's Honor		203
11		He Didn't Stand Still		227
12		Top of the World		252
		Acknowledgments		279
		Abbreviations Used in Notes and Sources		281
		Notes		283
		Sources		291
		Index		299

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