Mavi Boncuk |
The Turkish Cinema in the Early Republican Years : US Diplomatic Documents on Turkey II
Analecta Isisiana: Ottoman and Turkish Studies English
By Rifat N. Bali
This work is a compilation of various documents covering the state of the Turkish movie industry in the 1930s. The lengthiest report found here is one prepared in 1933 by Eugene Hinkle titled "The Motion Picture in Modern Turkey". It is a study of the movie theaters, their clientele and the popularity of the imported movies in Turkey.i Documents on two movies
1. Document concerning Fox Films inc. Filming atatürk
2. Document concerning the turkish movie "The Awakening of a Nation"
ii - Eugene M. Hinkle[1], "the motion picture in modern turkey", july 1, 1933
iii - Department of State's appraisal of Eugene M. Hinkle's report
iv - Document concerning motion pictures in izmir
Publication 2007 / İstanbul
2007 200 p.
ISBN13 978-975-428-336-5
REPRINT
Publisher Gorgias Press
Edition Statement Reprint
ISBN10 1617191388
ISBN13 9781617191381
[1] " EDITED NOTES This book, the second in a series of publications concerning documents retrieved from the National Archives and Records Administration premises at College Park, Maryland, concerns a report prepared by Eugene M. Hinkle, Third Secretary of the American Embassy in Ankara. According to Wallace Murray, Chief of the State Department's Division of Near Eastern Affairs, this and other similar reports such as the one concerning the conditions concerning the rise and functioning of Turkish cinema was the result of the efforts of G. Howland Shaw's Chargé d'Affaires ad interim, "to occupy the time of the Embassy staff at Istanbul and Ankara when the regular work of those Missions run low." Although Wallace Murray appreciated the quality of the research and commended Hinkle for that, yet he was not fully sure whether the time devoted to preparing reports actually produced anything of use to the State Department.
Nevertheless, while the present report, which covers a very narrow section of the life of Turkish society in the early 1930s might not have been of a great use to the State Department at the time, it is today of great interest to scholars and researchers of the Turkish Republic, about whose internal history in the first decades of its existence there remain large lacunae. As evidence of this lack of field research, it should be pointed out that, in the 76 years since Hinkle first submitted his report there has been no study or research whatsoever that would compare with it. Both the present gaps in our knowledge and the vivid and detailed descriptions that the report contains about the young republic and its attempts to use sport and physical education as a medium for the process of modernization and westernization make this material of inestimable value to the social scientist and quite possibly of interest to the lay reader as well.
The State Department's evaluation of the report is also included in this book." RIFAT N. BALI
SEE ALSO: AMERICAN CINEMA AND POPULAR REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN INEARLY REPUBLICAN TURKEY A Master's Thesis by MÜZEYYEN KARABAĞ
Women’s Memory: The Problem of Sources
edited by Fatma Türe, Birsen Talay Keşoğlu
EXCERPTS
AMERICAN CINEMA AND POPULAR REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN IN EARLY REPUBLICAN TURKEY
A Master's Thesis
by MÜZEYYEN KARABAĞ
THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY iHSAN DOĞRAMACI BiLKENT UNIVERSITY
ANKARA September 2013
Eugene M. Hinkle, second secretary of the American Embassy in Ankara, in
his report, The Motion Picture in Modern Turkey, gave a detailed analysis of Turkish
adolescents and traced movies influential aspects in 1933 with his interviews. He
detected this interest of the young in the Turkish Republic. The report was not
published because the Turkish people might interpret as "offensive" though the
Motion Pictures wanted to publish it. Eugene M. Hinkle explained "history of the
movie" in Turkey dating back to 1901, and he named the film theatres in Istanbul.
He categorized the movies into their topics and where they were produced. He tried to
analyze the audience. His report showed the interviews of 920 school children (both in
primary and secondary schools), living in Ankara. Questions included if they kept
dreaming of the movie stars in their daily lives, who they loved most, if they were
awakened by the movies, how many times they went to the movies, whether they cried
while watching, whether they wanted to travel, etc. He also interviewed with 20 young
people in Istanbul and 8 of them were female, aged between 15-22. From their replies,
one could understand that some of them imitated the movie stars in their manners, in
their hair, clothing styles, and read the movie magazines. Movie stars occupied a big
space in their lives. He suggested that in Turkey, movies had a striking effect to
"bring the west to the east." Comparing Turkey with other American and European
cities, he found the effects of movies in Turkey wider, much more powerful and
influential on the individual because of the low level of material comfort in relation to
goods and services available in Turkey contradicted with what movies presented. He
commented that this led people in Turkey attribute more meaning to movies and they
had great impact on the individual.20 He suggested that some scenes could be
interpreted by Turks as "erotic" because of the cultural differences, while in Europe
and America those scenes would be interpreted as ordinary.21
….
Hinkle estimated the population of Turkey in
1933 as 13,187,514. He suggested that although towns had cinema houses, their
populations were lower. Therefore he concluded that cinema met with "limited
public." But he also added that it was that public which "compose(d) the important and
progressive element" in Turkey.88
Hinkle classified 27 films shown in Pera, Ġstanbul in 1932 according to their
contents. According to his list, approximately fifty percent of movies depicted "scenes
of passionate love making" whereas over ninety percent of movies had alcohol scenes
in it. He suggested that approximately 80 percent of movies screened characters that
were rich, their depiction of poor ones was less while seventy percent of them showed
luxurious things in movies. Over sixty percent of movies had "suggestive clothing"
scenes whereas over forty percent of movies showed "sexy dancing." Love became the
centre of over seventy percent of movies.96
Eugene M. Hinkle also suggested in 1933 that Turkish adolescents were
interested in collecting pictures of stars. In his report, he mentioned a person's
observation in the shop where it was sold:
In one shop, I found several girls sitting and waiting their turn to see the album
which contained the movie stars. Each girl purchased a couple. On being left
along with the proprietor, he told me that he had sold enough of these postcards in
the past few years to own an apartment house. He said that even boys and girls as
young as 11 bought them and persons as old as 20. He said they were selling
these cards along the Grande Rue De Pera at the rate of 300 to 350 daily.101
Hinkle emphasized that postcards were sold to 5 piasters approximately, as
they did not cost much, they were sold in large numbers. Those pictures were even
framed by the fans. From the interviews made with 211 girls in Ankara lycees, he
concluded that 58 percent of them had pictures of cinema stars. Hinkle commented
that people established personal bonds with those cards by seeing them like friends.102
Hinkle concluded from the interviews that when compared with German, French
and Turkish stars, American stars were more popular among Turkish youth.
He named Greta Garbo, Ramon Novarro, Lillian Harvey, Billie Dove as the most
popular ones.106
Hollywood stars and imitated them.
My favourite stars are Douglas Fairbanks, Jeannette MacDonald, Maurice
Chevalier, Lillian Harvey, Henri Garat, Jean Murat, Harry Cooper, Harold Lloyd
and Mary Glory. ..I would like to look like Marie Bell and would like to be a
movie star if I were to succeed! I like Lillian Harvey's gestures because she is so
graceful and try to smile like her. I would love to dress like stars unfortunately
cannot afford it. As regards beautification, I use some make-up as the average
girl does now and do physical culture to have a nice supple figure as the stars.113
The same girl told that it was the movies that caused her to desire to be wealthy.
Another young women who was 22 years old told that she copied cinema stars
"unconsciously" in the daily life. In addition to this, she envied cinema stars' blond
hair, and "lashes of some of the blue eyed actresses." She tried to apply their beauty
styles in her physical appearence. She was also attracted to the "American films with
the pretty American girls." 114
Hinkle suggested that in Turkey big film theatres started to have
gramophones which played jazz and music from movies. People who were fascinated
by music had time to listen those pieces during intervals from movies.124
Public Instruction and the Minister of Public Hygiene thought about the movies effects
on young people:
There is no doubt that, however, that the government represented by the Minister
of Public Instruction and the Minister of Public Hygiene feels that the movies
have a tremendous influence on the youth of the country, much of which is
detrimental in giving false standards and ideals. The Minister of Public
Instruction in expressing the above sentiments described the effect of the ordinary
movie in Turkey as "pernicious.134
12 years in his report, Family Life in Modern Turkey (1933) noticed "the battle of the
old and new" in Turkey during this westernization process. He pointed out movies as
one of the most important causes for the rising conflicts in Turkish families, because
movies created dissatisfaction with the real life on the younger generation:
No less vivid than the unstable figure of the modern Turkish young man as
presented herein, is the picture of the pretty modern young Turkish girl, who
seems to be a recurrent influence for evil. Where else does she get her ideas of
up-to-date clothes, spending money, dancing partners, and an easy life than from
the widespread gospel of the movies? If the influence of motion pictures is overestimated,
it is only because of the frequent reference there to as an element in the
dissatisfaction of the younger members of the family.140
Eugene M. Hinkle, referring to Shaw's work, said that "of these 44 family quarrels, 7
were due to in part or directly to the movies and one due entirely to the movies."
Those conflicts took place in middle class families most. Hinkle listed family conflicts
due to these reasons caused by the cinema in Shaw's report as: "Young wife seen
coming out of a movie house with her lover,""movies a problem for a conservative
father,""movie going and photos of stars hidden from the mother,""jazz music on
phonographs taken from the movies or dance halls almost breaks up a home of father
and son..."141 Old generation were not in favour of changing habits of the young people.
Hinkle also pointed out that there was a lack of women stars in
Turkey when compared to male actors. Only Feriha Tevfik, the beauty queen of
Turkey was given as an example by him.158
an interview that she read Holivut regularly, and she never missed buying new issues
of the magazine. She desired to be an actress, but she found that she lacked the
qualifications for being a cinema star. She expressed her desire to have the same
outfits of stars, but as they cost a lot, it was impossible for her to buy them. She
added: "the movies dissatisfy me [sic] a good deal with my present life for I desire a
life of love and passion."181 This girl went to the movies regularly and movies created
a discontent with her real life as Hinkle suggested. Stars functioned as role models in
movies, and the Turkish press in offering in depiction of the lives of stars what they
wore, what they used, how they behaved, made this image more powerful in their
minds. Peyami Sefa's novel Sinema Delisi Kız which was first published in
Cumhuriyet as a story section depicted young women's obsession with cinema stars.
Her strong interest in cinema caused conflicts in her family. In one section, the
protagonist of the novel, in order to learn cinema star's current residence, looked for
that information in Holivut magazine. She thought that she would learn by checking
that information in Holivut. Hinkle also mentioned that movie fan magazines were
important for the young generation- they read them a lot.
20 Rıfat N. Bali (presented and annotated by) US Diplomatic Documents On Turkey- II: The Turkish
Cinema in the Early Republican years (Ġstanbul: Isis Press, 2007), 28.
21 Bali, US Diplomatic Documents On Turkey- II, 171.
88 Bali, US Diplomatic Documents On Turkey- II, 26
96 Bali, US Diplomatic Documents On Turkey- II, 76-77.
101Bali, US Diplomatic Documents On Turkey- II, 63
102 Bali, US Diplomatic Documents On Turkey- II, 63.
106 Bali, US Diplomatic Documents On Turkey- II, 132
113 Bali, US Diplomatic Documents On Turkey- II, 147-148.
114 Bali, US Diplomatic Documents On Turkey- II, 159-160
124 Bali, US Diplomatic Documents On Turkey- II, 65-66
134 Bali, US Diplomatic Documents On Turkey- II, 59.
140 Rıfat N. Bali (presented and annotated by) US Diplomatic Documents on Turkey-III: Family Life In
The Turkish Republic of the 1930's, A study by Howland Shaw,(Istanbul: Isis Press, 2007), 11.
141 Bali, US Diplomatic Documents On Turkey- II, 168.
158 Bali, US Diplomatic Documents On Turkey- II, 39.
181 Bali, US Diplomatic Documents On Turkey- II, 158-159.