ABSTRACT
What can the digital generation of f ilm history add to past analog methods? This chapter revisits the ‘chaser theory’ through searches in digital databases of historic newspapers. Did filmed actualities and attractions really act as mere ‘chasers’ on vaudeville bills? Charles Musser’s debate with Robert Allen in 1984 remains a touchstone of American film history. In principle, digital search results allow the structure of mass practices to be visualized, following Franco Moretti’s call for ‘distant readings’ of textual relations, against ‘close readings’ of canonical texts. This chapter offers two visualizations of digital searches of historic newspapers across North America and focuses on the adoption of ‘local views’ by itinerant picture shows after the supposed end of the ‘chaser’ period.
