"A Ripple of Mirth, Feminine in Sound": Female Audiences and the Rise of Feature Comedy

This article examines how female audiences shaped the development of feature-length comedy in the American film industry during the 1910s. Worrying that women were alienated by forms of humor thriving in shorts, producers redesigned comedy for the feature. I argue that female audiences' centrality as a commercial force helped determine the direction of featurelength comedy. I also call into question standard histories of silent comedy that either ignore the shift or dismiss it as an acquiescence to genteel tastes. Such a characterization overlooks the degree to which comedies designed to appeal to women reflected and contributed to modern popular culture.