Download or read book Cinema Treasures written by Ross Melnick and published by Motorbooks. This book was released on 2004 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 100 years after the first movie delighted audiences, movie theaters remain the last great community centers and one of the few amusements any family can afford. While countless books have been devoted to films and their stars, none have attempted a truly definitive history of those magical venues that have transported moviegoers since the beginning of the last century. In this stunningly illustrated book, film industry insiders Ross Melnick and Andreas Fuchs take readers from the nickelodeon to the megaplex and show how changes in moviemaking and political, social, and technological forces (e.g., war, depression, the baby boom, the VCR) have influenced the way we see movies.Archival photographs from archives like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and movie theater ephemera (postcards, period ads, matchbooks, and even a "barf bag") sourced from private collections complement Melnick's informative and engaging history. Also included throughout the book are Fuchs' profiles detailing 25 classic movie theaters that have been restored and renovated and which continue to operate today. Each of these two-page spreads is illustrated with marvelous modern photographs, many taken by top architectural photographers. The result is a fabulous look at one way in which Americans continue to come together as a nation. A timeline throughout places the developments described in a broader historical context."We've had a number of beautiful books about the great movie palaces, and even some individual volumes that pay tribute to surviving theaters around the country. This is the first book I can recall that focuses on the survivors, from coast to coast, and puts them into historical context. Sumptuously produced in an oversized format, on heavy coated paper stock, this beautiful book offers a lively history of movie theaters in America , an impressive array of photos and memorabilia, and a heartening survey of the landmarks in our midst, from the majestic Fox Tucson Theatre in Tucson, Arizona to the charming jewel-box that is the Avon in Stamford, Connecticut. I don't know why, but I never tire of gazing at black & white photos of marquees from the past; they evoke the era of moviemaking (and moviegoing) I care about the most, and this book is packed with them. Cinema Treasures is indeed a treasure, and a perfect gift item for the holiday season. - Leonard Maltin"Humble or grandiose, stand-alone or strung together, movie theaters are places where dreams are born. Once upon a time, they were treated with the respect they deserve. In their heyday, historian Ross Melnick and exhibitor Andreas Fuchs write in Cinema Treasures, openings of new motion-picture pleasure palaces that would have dazzled Kubla Khan 'received enormous attention in newspapers around the country. On top of the publicity they generated, their debuts were treated like the gala openings of new operas or exhibits, with critics weighing in on everything from the interior and exterior design to the orchestra.' Handsomely produced and extensively illustrated, Cinema Treasures is detailed without being dull and thoroughly at home with this often neglected subject matter. Its title would have you believe it is a celebration of the golden age of movie theaters. But this book is something completely different: an examination of the history of movie exhibition, which the authors accurately call 'a vastly under-researched topic.'" - Los Angeles Times

Download or read book Flickering Treasures written by Amy Davis and published by Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM. This book was released on 2017-08-01 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These vintage and contemporary images of Baltimore movie palaces explore the changing face of Charm City with stories and commentary by filmmakers. Since the dawn of popular cinema, Baltimore has been home to hundreds of movie theaters, many of which became legendary monuments to popular culture. But by 2016, the number of cinemas had dwindled to only three. Many theaters have been boarded up, burned out, or repurposed. In this volume, Baltimore Sun photojournalist Amy Davis pairs vintage black-and-white images of downtown movie palaces and modest neighborhood theaters with her own contemporary color photos. Flickering Treasures delves into Baltimore’s cultural and cinematic history, from its troubling legacy of racial segregation to the technological changes that have shaped both American cities and the movie exhibition business. Images of Electric Park, the Century, the Hippodrome, and scores of other beloved venues are punctuated by stories and interviews, as well as commentary from celebrated Baltimore filmmakers Barry Levinson and John Waters. A map and timeline reveal the one-time presence of movie houses in every corner of the city, and fact boxes include the years of operation, address, architect, and seating capacity for each of the 72 theaters profiled, along with a brief description of each theater’s distinct character.

Download or read book When Movies Were Theater written by William Paul and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-24 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There was a time when seeing a movie meant more than seeing a film. The theater itself shaped the very perception of events on screen. This multilayered history tells the story of American film through the evolution of theater architecture and the surprisingly varied ways movies were shown, ranging from Edison's 1896 projections to the 1968 Cinerama premiere of Stanley Kubrick's 2001. William Paul matches distinct architectural forms to movie styles, showing how cinema's roots in theater influenced business practices, exhibition strategies, and film technologies.

Download or read book Cinema Houston written by David Welling and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-06-30 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cinema Houston celebrates a vibrant century of movie theatres and moviegoing in Texas's largest city. Illustrated with more than two hundred historical photographs, newspaper clippings, and advertisements, it traces the history of Houston movie theatres from their early twentieth-century beginnings in vaudeville and nickelodeon houses to the opulent downtown theatres built in the 1920s (the Majestic, Metropolitan, Kirby, and Loew's State). It also captures the excitement of the neighborhood theatres of the 1930s and 1940s, including the Alabama, Tower, and River Oaks; the theatres of the 1950s and early 1960s, including the Windsor and its Cinerama roadshows; and the multicinemas and megaplexes that have come to dominate the movie scene since the late 1960s. While preserving the glories of Houston's lost movie palaces—only a few of these historic theatres still survive—Cinema Houston also vividly re-creates the moviegoing experience, chronicling midnight movie madness, summer nights at the drive-in, and, of course, all those tasty snacks at the concession stand. Sure to appeal to a wide audience, from movie fans to devotees of Houston's architectural history, Cinema Houston captures the bygone era of the city's movie houses, from the lowbrow to the sublime, the hi-tech sound of 70mm Dolby and THX to the crackle of a drive-in speaker on a cool spring evening.

Download or read book The Show Starts on the Sidewalk written by Maggie Valentine and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Documenting the evolution of the American movie theatre and exploring its role in American culture and architecture, this work focuses on the career of S. Charles Lee, who designed more than 300 theatres between 1920 and 1950, buildings that became prototypes for the whole country.

Download or read book Motion Picture Exhibition in Baltimore written by Robert Kirk Headley and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Part I is a history of motion picture exhibition and the moviegoing experience in Baltimore from 1894 to the present. Part II lists theaters alphabetically and describes them in detail. Appendices list theaters by street address; provide a roster of the architects; and discuss theater architecture and personnel"--Provided by publisher.

Download or read book Theatres and Motion Picture Houses written by Arthur Sherman Meloy and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Detroit s Downtown Movie Palaces written by Michael Hauser and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2006 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The spokelike grid of wide grand avenues radiating out from downtown Detroit allowed for a concentration of theaters initially along Monroe Street near Campus Martius and, after the second decade of the 20th century, clustered around Grand Circus Park, all easily accessible by a vast network of streetcars. In its heyday, Grand Circus Park boasted a dozen palatial movie palaces containing an astonishing total of 26,000 seats. Of these theaters, five remain today, fully restored and operational for live entertainment. Detroit, more so than any other North American city, illustrates how demographic and economic forces dramatically changed the landscape of film exhibition in an urban setting.

Download or read book After the Final Curtain written by Matt Lambros and published by Jonglez Photo Books. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most of the time, there is nothing remarkable about a movie theater today; but that wasn't always the case. When the great American movie palaces began opening in the early 20th century, they were some of the most lavish, stunning buildings ever seen. However, they wouldn't last -- with the advent of in-home television, theater companies found it harder and harder to keep them open. Some were demolished, some were converted, and some remain empty to this day. After the Final Curtain: The Fall of the American Movie Theatre will take you through 24 of these magnificent buildings, revealing the beauty that remains years after the last ticket was sold.

Download or read book Theaters written by Andrew Craig Morrison and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2006 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The latest title in the Norton/Library of Congress Visual Sourcebooks series, Theaters offers a richly illustrated history of a revered cultural artifact and a technological challenge, following its progression from the eighteenth-century opera house to the modern movie multiplex.

Download or read book Theatres in Los Angeles written by Suzanne Tarbell Cooper and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Los Angeles and the movies grew up together, and a natural extension of the picture business was the premium presentation of the product--the biggest, best, and brightest theatres imaginable. The magnificent movie palaces along Broadway in downtown Los Angeles still represent the highest concentration of vintage theatres in the world. With Hollywood and the movies practically synonymous, the theatres in the studios' neighborhood were state-of-the-art for showbiz, whether they were designed for film, vaudeville, or stage productions. From the elegant Orpheum and the exotic Grauman's Chinese to the modest El Rey, this volume celebrates the architecture and social history of Los Angeles's unique collection of historic theatres past and present. The common threads that connect them all, from the grandest movie palace to the smallest neighborhood theatre, are stories and the ghosts of audiences past waiting in the dark for the show to begin.

Download or read book Our Movie Houses written by Norman O. Keim and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2008-06-09 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conventional screen histories tend to concentrate on New York City and Hollywood in chronicling the evolution of American cinema. Notwithstanding both cities’ tremendous contribution, Syracuse and Central New York also played a strategic—yet little-known—role in early screen history. In 1889 in Rochester, New York, George Eastman registered a patent for perforated celluloid film, a development that would telescope the international race to record motion by means of photography to the immediate future. In addition, the first public film projection occurred in Syracuse, New York, in 1896. Norman O. Keim and David Marc provide a highly readable and richly detailed account of the origins of American film in Central New York, the colorful history of neighborhood theaters in Syracuse, and the famous film personalities who got their start in the unlikely snow belt of New York State. Lavishly illustrated, this book will be treasured by both film buffs and Central New Yorkers.

Download or read book After the Final Curtain written by Matt Lambros and published by Jonglez Photo Books. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early 20th century the streets of small towns and cities across America were filled with the lights and sounds of movie theaters. The most opulent -- known as "movie palaces" -- were designed to make their patrons feel like royalty; people would dress up to visit. But as time went on it became harder and harder to fill the 2,000+ seat theaters and many were forced to close. Today, these palaces are illuminated only by the flicker of dying lights. The sound of water dripping from holes in the ceiling echoes through the auditoriums. In After the Final Curtain (Volume 2) internationally-renowned photographer Matt Lambros continues his travels across the United States, documenting these once elegant buildings. From the supposedly haunted Pacific Warner Theatre in Los Angeles to the Orpheum Theatre in New Bedford, MA -- which opened the same day the Titanic sank -- Lambros pulls back the curtain to reveal what is left, giving these palaces a chance to shine again.

Download or read book Movie Theaters of Washington DC written by Robert K. Headley and Pat Padua and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2018 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past 110 years, there have been more than 100 movie theaters in Washington and its suburbs, from tiny nickelodeons and mini-auditoriums seating fewer than 100 people to mammoth palaces and megplexes seating thousands. . . . In this book, we will address the many varieties of the moviegoing experience" -- Introduction, page 7.

Download or read book Shared Pleasures written by Douglas Gomery and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gomery (The coming of sound to the American cinema, 1975; The Hollywood studio system, 1986) draws upon his earlier work and that of other scholars to address the broader social functions of the film industry, showing how Hollywood adapted its business policies to diversity and change within American society. Includes 31 bandw photographs. Paper edition (unseen), $15.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Download or read book Hollywood s Embassies written by Ross Melnick and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2022-04-26 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner - 2022 Richard Wall Memorial Award, Theatre Library Association Beginning in the 1920s, audiences around the globe were seduced not only by Hollywood films but also by lavish movie theaters that were owned and operated by the major American film companies. These theaters aimed to provide a quintessentially “American” experience. Outfitted with American technology and accoutrements, they allowed local audiences to watch American films in an American-owned cinema in a distinctly American way. In a history that stretches from Buenos Aires and Tokyo to Johannesburg and Cairo, Ross Melnick considers these movie houses as cultural embassies. He examines how the exhibition of Hollywood films became a constant flow of political and consumerist messaging, selling American ideas, products, and power, especially during fractious eras. Melnick demonstrates that while Hollywood’s marketing of luxury and consumption often struck a chord with local audiences, it was also frequently tone-deaf to new social, cultural, racial, and political movements. He argues that the story of Hollywood’s global cinemas is not a simple narrative of cultural and industrial indoctrination and colonization. Instead, it is one of negotiation, booms and busts, successes and failures, adoptions and rejections, and a precursor to later conflicts over the spread of American consumer culture. A truly global account, Hollywood’s Embassies shows how the entanglement of worldwide movie theaters with American empire offers a new way of understanding film history and the history of U.S. soft power.

Download or read book Movie Theaters written by and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following on the heels of their incredibly successful The Ruins of Detroit, this major new project by the prolific French photographer duo Marchand/Meffre, poignantly eulogizes and celebrates the tattered remains of hundreds of movie theaters across America. They are in every American city and town—grandiose movie palaces, constructed during the heyday of the entertainment industry, that now stand abandoned, empty, decaying, or repurposed. Since 2005, the acclaimed photographic duo Marchand/Meffre have been traveling across the US to visit these early 20th-century relics. In hundreds of lushly colored images, they have captured the rich architectural diversity of the theaters’ exteriors, from neo renaissance to neo-Gothic, art nouveau to Bauhaus, and neo-Byzantine to Jugendstill. They have also stepped inside to capture the commonalities of a dying culture— crumbling plaster, rows of broken crushed-velvet seats, peeling paint, defunct equipment, and abandoned concession stands—as well as their transformation into bingo halls, warehouses, fitness centers, flea markets, parking lots, and grocery stores. Using a large format camera, the photographers’ carefully composed images range from landscape exteriors to starkly beautiful closeups. Presented here in a gorgeous oversized format, exquisitely printed with superior inks and spot varnish, this illustrated eulogy for the American movie palace is certain to become a modern-day classic.