ABSTRACT
Roadshowing was a common practice in the distribution and exhibition of major motion pictures in America from the early 1910s to the early 1970s. Intended to launch them as special attractions with the trappings of live theatre productions, roadshow presentation was well suited to some films, less so to others. The nature of roadshowing varied over time as it was adapted to changing market conditions and different kinds of product, but when ideally matched to the right picture, it conferred both profitability and prestige. Two films directed by Charles Chaplin for release through United Artists, City Lights (1931) and The Great Dictator (1940), had an ambivalent relationship to roadshowing: UA disputed whether the former could be considered a roadshow at all, and the latter was more successful when presented as a general release. But UA’s North American distribution of Laurence Olivier’s Shakespeare adaptation Henry V (1944) demonstrated an innovative approach to roadshowing, which turned the film into a major box-office hit despite its apparently rarefied appeal. Its success also influenced the handling of many subsequent films aimed at specialised audiences.
