LAUSR

This article examines the impact of the Spanish Influenza of 1918 on the film industry through a focus on Detroit’s response to the pandemic. Beyond just the major economic hit felt by the industry – with much of U.S. production, distribution, and exhibition coming to a standstill for months – the pandemic catalyzed a debate over the role of cinema in society. On one side of this debate were those who saw movie theaters as little more than venues for mass entertainment, and therefore easily closed in the face of a health crisis. On the other side were those who argued that cinema was now a respectable institution, and therefore one that might be used for educational purposes in the fight against influenza. Through this debate over whether to regulate theaters or use them to educate the public, the respectability gained by the industry over the transitional era of the past decade was put on trial, with the last vestiges of the nickelodeon era threatening to return.