Underground film audiences physically and vocally resisted screenings

Evidence

Visiting the theater in the spring of 1962, New York Times reporter Howard Thompson was impressed by the intense discussion that erupted during intermissions as well as the tough audience: “The hissing auditorium sounded like a snake pit and feet pounded the floor with Rockette precision at the sight of revolving, lighted matches, a kewpie-doll’s head inside a cantaloupe and an occasional stream of ball bearings”—possibly Ray Wisniewski’s Doomshow. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 374

Categorization

• XREF: Interactive, hostile live audiences as part of the avant-garde experience — connects to the participatory-scene conditions that made the art form viable.