Thomas L. Tally was a visionary, but he even had no idea of how grand his
vision would turn out to be -- or how that vision would alter over the
decades. So strong was that vision, though. that it probably affects you
today in the 21st century. What Tally had the foresight to do was to open the
first motion picture theatre in the United States.
Even though movies had been
exhibited to the public since 1895, most
"theatres" were small storefronts that had a few chairs facing a sheet draped across a
wall. In 1896, Tally opened one of those venues -- the "Phonograph and
Vitascope Parlour" -- in Los Angeles, and it was enough of a success that
he eventually had to move to larger quarters.
So it was that, on April 2, 1902, Tally opened the Electric Theatre, the first building in the United States constructed
exclusively for the showing of movies. He advertised it (with a justifiable lack of
modestly) as a "New Place of Amusement ... High Class Moving Picture
Entertainment ... Especially for Ladies and Children ... See 'The Capture of
the Biddle Brothers' and 'New York in a Blizzard' ... Many other exciting
scenes ... Hours of Amusement and Genuine Fun ... 7.30 PM to 10.30 PM."
Three hours of entertainment for a nickel? Who could beat that? No one,
apparently, for by the next morning, Tally had to add a special kiddie matinee.
The Electric Theatre thrived for a while, but as movies became longer and audiences' tastes changed, Tally's theatre became
dated, and by 1930, it had closed. (The site today is an office building.) In the years between 1902
and 1930, though, movie theatres became larger (New York's Roxy Theatre and Radio City Music Hall seated nearly 6,000 patrons each) and more elaborate; grand temples where patrons could gather in lush and opulent surroundings
to watch giant flickering images on the silver screen, transporting them to places as exotic
as the films they were watching. Whole districts became devoted to these
movie palaces: The Broadways of Los Angeles
and New York
alone boasted dozens of these theatres, many of which were open 24 hours a
day to accommodate the estimated 65% of the American
public who went to the movies every
week.
Nothing lasts forever, however. Following World War II, anti-trust rulings forced movie studios to give up their theatre chains and
that financial blow, combined with the post-war rise of television and free
programming at home (supplemented by the very films that had filled those movie theatres just decades
before), led to the marginalization of the palaces. By the 70s, many of them had closed or been subdivided into
multiplexes -- or worse.
In 1902, Tally couldn't possibly have imagined either the rise (and fall) of
the movie palace, or that the moviegoing experience of 2010 would be a
cacophony of ads,
cell phones, screaming babies, and talking patrons.
But fear not! While the heyday of movie palaces may have lasted only about 30
years, and while most of the grand theaters of yesteryear have vanished, many are still standing -- and thriving.
From Providence
to San Francisco,
from Minneapolis
to Dallas,
there are still opportunities to get a good seat in the second balcony and lose yourself in a classic film with a few hundred of your best friends.
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