Movie palace

Based on the size of its footprint, the Uptown Theatre in Chicago is reputed to be the largest movie palace in the United States.

A movie palace or picture palace (especially in the UK) is a term used to refer to the grand cinemas of the 1910s to early 1960s.

There are three building types in particular which can be subsumed under the label movie palace. First, the classical style movie palace, with its eclectic and luxurious period-revival architecture; second, the atmospheric theatre which has an auditorium ceiling that resembles an open sky as its defining feature and finally, the Art Deco theaters that became popular in the 1930s.

History

See also: Atmospheric theatre

Grand vaudeville theatres began to show motion pictures in the early 20th century, but the development of the feature film led to the development of dedicated movie theatres. The Mark Strand Theater in New York City, opened in 1913 by Mitchell Mark at the cost of one-million dollars, is usually cited as the first movie palace of the United States, and its success in drawing the upper middle class to the movies spurred others to follow suit.

Many movie palace architects, like studio heads, were often first generation Americans, notably John Eberson, Thomas W. Lamb, and the impresario S.L. "Roxy" Rothafel. Other pioneers include the Chicago firm of Rapp and Rapp, which designed the Chicago Theatre, the Uptown, and the Oriental, and Sid Grauman, who built the first movie palace on the West Coast, Los Angeles' "Million Dollar Theater," in 1918.

As their name implies, movie palaces, like other products of the age, were advertised to "make the average citizen feel like royalty." While inscribed with democratic sayings and patriotic imagery, they consciously referenced the grandeur of aristocratic Europe and were often decorated in European fashion.

Eberson specialized in the subgenre of "atmospheric" theatres. His first, of the five hundred in his career, was the 1923 Majestic in Houston, Texas. The atmospherics usually conveyed the impression of sitting in an outdoor courtyard, surrounded by highly ornamented asymmetrical facades and exotic flora and fauna, underneath a dark blue canopy; when the lights went out, the Brenograph magic lantern machine would begin to project clouds, constellations, and special celestial effects and illusions on the ceiling.

Lamb's style was initially based on the more straightforward, 'hardtop' form patterned on opera houses, but was no less ornate. Some of these theaters were ornamented to an extravagant extent, in an eclectic exoticism where a variety of referenced visual styles collided wildly with one another. Art Deco, High Gothic, Moroccan, Mediterranean, Spanish Gothic, Hindu, Babylonian, Aztec, Mayan, Orientalist, Italian Renaissance, and (after the discovery of King Tut's tomb in 1922) Egyptian Revival, were all variously mixed and matched. This wealth of ornament was not merely for aesthetic effect. It was meant to create a fantasy environment to attract moviegoers and involved a type of social engineering, distraction, and traffic management, meant to work on human bodies and minds in a specific way. Today, most of the surviving movie palaces operate as regular theaters, showcasing concerts, plays and operas.

Image Gallery

• 
  Palace Theatre, Louisville
• 
  Chicago's Gateway Theatre's Solidarity Tower in Jefferson Park is a replica of the Royal Castle in Warsaw
• 
  The landmark Chicago Theatre
• 
  Interior and balcony of the Paramount Theatre in Seattle
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  Broadway Theatre, Mount Pleasant, Michigan
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  Loew's 175th St Theatre (now United Palace), New York
• 
  Paramount Theatre, Oakland, California
• 
  Palace Theatre, Cleveland Ohio

List of movie palaces

This is a list of selected movie palaces, with location and year of construction.

• Alabama Theatre, Birmingham, Alabama, 1927
• Alameda Theatre, Alameda, California 1932
• Arlington Theater, Santa Barbara, California, 1931
• Alex Theatre, Glendale, California, 1925
• Aztec On The River Theatre, San Antonio, Texas, 1926
• Bama Theatre, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1938
• Biograph Theater, Chicago, Illinois, 1914
• Broadway Theatre, Mount Pleasant, Michigan, 1920
• Boyd Theatre, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1928
• Byrd Theatre, Richmond, Virginia, 1928
• California Theatre, San Jose, California
• Capitol Cinema, Ottawa, Canada, 1920
• Capitol Theatre, Rome, New York, 1928
• Capitol Theatre, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1921
• Carolina Theatre, Durham, North Carolina, 1926
• Castro Theatre, San Francisco, California, 1922
• Chicago Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, 1921
• Congress Theater, Chicago, Illinois, 1926
• Coronado Theatre, Rockford, Illinois, 1927
• Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Los Angeles, 1927
• Crest Theatre, Sacramento, California, 1912
• Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres, Toronto, Canada, 1913
• Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, Los Angeles, 1922
• El Capitan Theatre, Los Angeles, 1926
• Englert Theatre, Iowa City, Iowa 1912
• Florida Theatre, Jacksonville, Florida, 1927
• Fox Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia, 1929
• Fox Theatre, Detroit, Michigan, 1928
• Fox Theatre, San Francisco, California,
• Fox Theatre, St. Louis, Missouri, 1929
• Gateway Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, 1930
• Grand Lake Theater, Oakland, California, 1926
• Hawaii Theatre, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1922
• Jefferson Theater, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1912
• Lafayette Theatre, Suffern, New York, 1924
• Landmark Theater, Richmond, 1926
• Landmark Theatre, 1928 (formerly Loew’s State Theatre)
• Lensic Theater, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1931
• Loew's 175th Street Theater, New York City, 1930
• Loew's Grand Theatre, Atlanta, 1920s
• Loew's Jersey Theater, Jersey City, 1929
• Loew's Kings Theater, Brooklyn, New York, 1929
• Loew's Paradise Theatre, The Bronx, New York, 1929
• Loew's Penn Theatre, (now Heinz Hall), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1927
• Loew's State Palace Theatre, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1926
• Loew's Valencia Theatre, Queens, New York, 1929
• Los Angeles Theatre, Los Angeles, California
• Mainstreet Theater, Kansas City, Missouri, 1921 (formerly the Empire and the RKO Missouri)
• Martin's Cinerama, Atlanta, Georgia, 1962 (formerly the Tower Theatre, later renamed the Atlanta Theatre and later still, the Columbia Theatre; from 1962 onward, however, no matter what the name, it always retained its ultra-curved screen. Later stopped its movie operations and became the new home of the Academy Theatre, the oldest live professional theatre company in Georgia.)
• Michigan Theatre, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1928
• Michigan Theatre, Detroit, 1926
• Ohio Theatre, Columbus, Ohio, 1928
• Ohio Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio, 1921
• Olympia Theatre, Miami, Florida, 1926
• Ouimetoscope, Montreal, Quebec, 1906
• Oriental Theatre, Chicago, 1926
• Oriental Theatre, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1927
• Orpheum Theatre, Sioux City, Iowa, 1927
• Orpheum Theatre, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1927
• Orpheum Theatre, Wichita, Kansas, 1922
• Palace Theatre, New York, 1931
• Palace Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio, 1922
• Palace Theatre, Lorain, Ohio 1928
• Palace Theatre, Louisville, Kentucky, 1928
• Palace Theatre, Columbus, Ohio, 1927
• Paramount Theatre, Austin, Minnesota, 1929
• Paramount Theatre, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1928
• Paramount Theatre, Oakland, California, 1931
• Paramount Theatre, Portland, Oregon, 1928, (now the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall)
• Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington 1927
• Paramount Theatre, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1926, (now the Golders Green Hippodrome Concert Hall)
• Peery's Egyptian Theatre, Ogden, Utah, 1924
• Polk Theatre, Lakeland, Florida, 1928
• Pomona Fox Theater, Pomona, California, 1931
• Quo Vadis Entertainment Center, Westland, Michigan, 1966
• Redford Theatre, Detroit, Michigan, 1928
• The Rex, Berkhamsted, England, 1938
• Rockingham Theatre, Reidsville, North Carolina, 1929
• The Roxie, San Francisco, 1909
• Roxy Theatre, New York, 1927
• Riviera Theater, Chicago, 1918
• Saenger Theatres
  • Mobile Saenger Theatre, Mobile, Alabama, 1927
  • New Orleans Saenger Theatre, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1927
  • Pensacola Saenger Theatre, Pensacola, Florida, 1925
• Senator Theatre, Baltimore, Maryland, 1939
• Shea's Performing Arts Center, Buffalo, New York
• Stanley Theater (now Jahovah's Witness Assembly Hall), Jersey City, New Jersey, 1928
• Stanley Theater, (now Benedum Center), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1928
• Stanley Theatre, Utica, New York, 1928
• Stanley Theatre (now Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage), Vancouver, British Columbia, 1930
• State Theater, Cleveland, Ohio, 1921
• State Theatre Center for the Arts, Uniontown, Pennsylvania 1922
• Tampa Theatre, Tampa, Florida, 1926
• United Artists Theatre, Los Angeles, 1927; now known as Dr. Gene Scott's Los Angeles University Cathedral
• Uptown Theater, Washington, D.C., 1933
• Uptown Theatre, Chicago, 1925
• Uptown Theatre, Toronto, Ontario, 1920
• Warner Grand Theatre, San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, 1931
• Warner Theatre, Erie, Pennsylvania, 1931
• Warnors Theatre, Fresno, California, 1928
• Washoe Theater, Anaconda, Montana, 1931
• Wilshire Theater, Beverly Hills, California, 1930
• Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, California, 1930

See also

• List of fictional theatres
• Timothy L. Pflueger

External links

• Balaban and Katz Official Site
• Theatre Historical Society of America
• Chicago Area Movie Palaces
• American Picture Palaces
• American Movie Palace Museum
• Cinema Treasures
• Cinema Tour