Filmkultur och nöjesliv i Örebro 1897-1908

Sammanfattning: Åsa Jernudd: Movies and Entertainment in Örebro 1897-1908This dissertation is a historical study of film exhibition in the context of emerging popular entertainment in Örebro, a medium-sized town in Sweden, 1897 to 1908. It argues that since 80% of the population resided in towns and rural areas around 1900, studying the impact of film culture in a town setting is essential for an understanding of early film culture in Sweden. The local press is used as primary source of marketing schemes, venues and programming policies as well as of cultural debate and conflict.Across Europe, theatres and fairgrounds were the preferred venues of traveling exhibitors of film shows. In Örebro, however, film exhibition preferably took place in the ‘respectable’ halls of voluntary organizations. Of special importance to local film culture were two working class societies: the liberal Arbetareföreningen (AF) and the labor-based Arbetarekommun (AK) ― albeit in different ways. AF, which embraced reformist ideals, owned the most popular venue for film exhibition and transformed their hall into a movie theater in 1907. AK encouraged the working class population to spend leisure time (and money) on popular forms of cheap entertainment by opening an amusement park in town and by frequently organizing bazaars, funfairs and variety shows. Socio-cultural conflict was concentrated to the fairground around the turn of the century and later turned to AK’s bazaars and funfairs. The emerging film culture influenced opinion in the big cities of Sweden, yet in Örebro it only received sporadic public attention.In stark contrast to the situation in the big cities, the transformation of itinerant film exhibition to permanent forms was a gradual and relatively inconspicuous process in Örebro that took place in the shadow of AK’s more obtrusive culture of cheap amusements. Three movie theatres opened in 1907 and were accepted by the town’s public with relative ease.