Cycling, Mass Media and Business: Serialization of Le Roi de la pédale (1925) by Paul Cartoux and Henri Decoin
Résumé
In adopting principles related to the social history of representations, the method of investigation favoured here aims at understanding discourse production and phenomena linked to the mediation, circulation and reception of a cultural object. Indeed, 9 October 1925 marked the beginning of the diffusion in France of Le Roi de la pédale, a cultural product on Tour de France cycling featuring as a series in the newspaper L’Auto, co-written by Paul Cartoux and Henry Decoin, and produced as a silent multi-episode film by the French filmmaker Maurice Champreux. Considered here as an historical object, the film adaptation of Le Roi de la pédale would appear a particularly interesting subject for analysis, making it possible to show the economic reality of sport, in other words to identify the origins, workings and crossed strategies of various partners (scriptwriters, filmmakers, advertisers and producers), while aiming to find the right balance between fiction and reality, narrative and economy.