Poverty Row

Poverty Row is a slang term used to refer to Hollywood films produced from the 1920s to the 1950s by small (and mostly short-lived) B movie studios. Although many of them were based on (or near) today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did not necessarily refer to any specific physical location, but was rather a figurative catch-all for low-budget films produced by these lower-tier studios.

For a street or district featuring large numbers of homeless persons, see Skid row.

Many of the films of Poverty Row were Westerns, including series such as Billy the Kid, starring Buster Crabbe, from Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), comedy/adventure series such as those featuring the Bowery Boys (Monogram Pictures) and detectives such as The Shadow. The films were characterized by low budgets, casts made up of minor stars or unknowns, and overall production values betraying the haste and economy with which they were made.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.