engleski

The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Lion's Ominous Roar: (New) Technologies and the Disappearing Profession of Silent Movie Theatre Musicians in Croatia of the Early 1930s

In the proposed paper the author tries to interpret rapid and radical changes brought by the introduction of the sound film technology into Zagreb movie theatres at the final years of the 1920s. The beginning of the decade saw first concentrated efforts of (mainly) orchestra musicians at establishing a framework for united struggle and negotiation of their labour rights. Significant segment of membership of the newly established Musicians’ Alliance of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes consisted of the musicians employed by the silent movie theatres. The negotiation of their labour rights proved to be the most challenging task of the Alliance even before the introduction of sound film, which―despite the membership’s initial belief that the new fad will be of short breath―in the end led to complete disappearance of the profession of silent movie theatre musician, causing considerable rise in the number of unemployed musicians in search of paid labour. The interpretation of the challenges that the introduction of new technologies can pose to the conditions of work and labour rights of professional musicians, which the author will offer in the proposed paper, is based on two central sources―the first one, consisting of articles published in the official newspaper of the Alliance Jugoslavenski muzičar, being enriched by the second one, gathered from excerpts of graphic autobiography of outsider artist Marija Novaković, offering a rare insight into the personal reflections on the intricacies of everyday life of silent movie theatre musician.

Music Labour Markets ; Power Struggles ; Political Activism ; Technology ; Music Labour

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