New York Movie - 1939 oil on canvas. w 32" h 40" Click on the images above for more information.

There are many connections between Hopper's images and cinematic convention. Hopper was an avid moviegoer, so much so as to turn his attention to the movie house and the movie screen-- thought to be a "window on the world"-- and take the modern usherette as his subject. Consider, for example, that Office at Night is like a close-up of a Hollywood interior, the set design for a melodrama starring the White Collar Girl of 1940. The space Hopper created is strongly lit by an artificial light source, much as is the sophisticated urban office where Clark Gable and Walter Pidgeon met in director Jack Conway's 1937 film, Saratoga. The working girl was a favorite Hollywood subject during the 1930s, and her character was delineated as much by costume as by action. Norma Shearer's 1936 film portrayal of Juliet resulted in American girls wearing their hair "smooth on the crown and curling up into a soft fluff below the ears." This went along with the fad for "Juliet cap." Beside the working girl in the Hollywood mirror stood the Glamour Girl-- from the society register to the comic pages.