I found any articles exploring the history of mundane trivial details in everyday life extremely interesting. Because these everyday happenings, although not as spectacular as historical events, are deeply rooted, they reflect the fundamental features of a particular period of time.
I've learned a little about the history of movies and cinema in my media class: The first cinemas in the United States are called nickelodeons--movie theatres that cost a nickel. They are scattered around commercial streets where working class people are active. The 15-20 minute programs consisted of even shorter movie clips were extremely popular because they were silent, catering to different language speakers including immigrants. They also provided a less crammed, more comfortable and relaxing environment from the difficult working and living conditions of the day. Reflecting to the parallel history of kissing on screen discussed in the article, the public setting, the length requirement, and the audience of the films are all contributors to the comic feature of the first kissing scene.
Movie industries then went through an extension to more affluent, middle class audience. Thomas Edison's motion picture patent company The Trust, which more or less had a monopoly in the industry started to favor exhibitors in middle class neighborhoods. This means that the movies themselves would represent a middle class culture.
Along came the age of television starting from the 1940s. As more people started to watch TV, movie attendances fell. Post-war population's migration to the sub-urbs had also reduced cinema developments. Movie makers started to strategize for higher attendance level by providing what TV can't offer: for example, sex and violence--it is apparent in O'Hara's poem that movie was a source for "darker joys", which he implies was unattainable in ordinary households.
I believe that in the past as much as today, love is an inspiring, universal theme, thus explained the sometimes cliched, yet inexhaustible use of lip-mushing scenes on every big screen.
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