SHARED PLEASURES :A HISTORY OF MOVIE PRESENTATION IN THE UNITED STATES

SHARED PLEASURES :A HISTORY OF MOVIE PRESENTATION IN THE UNITED STATES Douglas Gomery (The University of Wisconsin Press, $15.95) This fact-packed business history of American motion-picture exhibition from the peep show and nickelodeon to the multiplex and VCR reminds us that the theaters, not the studios, were the primary money-makers for the Big Five-Fox, Paramount, Loew's/MGM, Warner Bros., and RKO-that dominated the movie industry until the 1950s. Serious film buffs will treasure the book's many nug-gets of offbeat information, even if more casual readers are put off by the academic prose. B+ -Wendy Smith