Hollywood's Poverty Row 1930-1950 (1973), Gene Fernett.

Gene Fernett's book on Poverty Row movies is a little unfocused, mainly because his sources were so varied:  he interviewed Ted Lydecker, who was employed in building miniature sets for landscape effects.  He also interviewed sound engineers, a couple folks who worked at Monogram, Technicolor and a stuntman.  Sources on low-brow popular culture are often hard to come by, but it seems Fernett was taking a rather eclectic route anyway -- and then the poor fellow was crippled by a stroke, leaving the work of finishing the book to be done with the assistance of others.  

Fernett gets off to a brilliant start discussing theatres.  Who owned the theatres, the variety in quality in theatres and what kind of people went to these movies is crucial to understanding why B-movies even really existed for as long as they did.  He also adds colour to the story of B's by talking about low-brow favourites like Judy Canova, the "queen of the hillbillies".  While serials and westerns have been covered thoroughly, I have yet to come across much on the white-trash thrills early B's had to offer.  Hollywood's Poverty Row ends by returning to the diminished role of theatres after the war and the role of monopolization of companies.  The new appeal of television meant movie ticket sales dwindled.  B-actors and content could now been enjoyed from the couch!

Ad for Quaker Oats Puffed Wheat, Toronto Star 1945.  Somehow celebrating cereal blown out of guns for QUAKER Oats just seems wrong!