, but the filmÆs first audiences were shocked by what was then seen as a blatantly public display of affection.
Romantic comedy soon became a staple film genre, popular with audiences from the start of motion picture storytelling history. Gehring describes the typical romantic comedy: ôThe male and female meet, hate and distrust each other after an initial attraction, bicker and argue throughout the film, and finally resolve their differences at the end in a marriage or the promise of oneö (13). The structure provides a wide range of possible plot twists but presents them in a way that gives audiences confidence that the ending will be a happy one, that romance will triumph over all obstacles. Romantic comedy made possible the careers of thousands of leading ladies, as women were often peripheral to or completely excluded from many of the other standard Hollywood genres, such as the western and the combat film.
With the advent of sophisticated marketing research, Hollywood began to study the demographics of the audiences for many of its varied
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