entertainment
THE GRAND MOVIE
PALACES OF YESTERYEAR
Michelle L. Curtis
he age of the grand movie palace began to rise
with the increasing popularity and production of
silent film. In less than 10 years, between 1914
and 1922, over 4 thousand movie palaces opened
across the United States. The general public was
used to watching the ‘flickers’ in makeshift movie
houses or modified storefronts, sitting on small
folding chairs while watching Charlie Chaplin or
Mary Pickford on a screen made of muslin fabric.
Audiences were fascinated by and loved this
new form of entertainment and producers and
distributors wanted to give their ticket buyers,
a more luxurious movie-going experience.
Thus, the movie theater palace was born.
A movie palace was far more than just a ‘fancy’
theater. With their unique architecture, the public
was isolated from the outside world. Esoteric
and spectacular showplaces, ranging from High
Gothic to Mediterranean to Egyptian Revival
beckoning audiences into a luxurious fantasyland,
to fully escape into the movies. When Samuel
‘Roxy’ Rothapfel opened the Strand Theater, in
New York, in 1914 the era of the movie palace
began. The Strand was truly breathtaking, offering
a completely immersive entertainment experience.
Audiences were treated to the 50-piece house
orchestra playing the national anthem, to start the
show. First came a newsreel, announcing the most
popular headlines, and then a travelogue or comic
short would follow. The actual featured movie was
shown after a live vaudeville presentation. A far
cry from the ordinary movie houses, the public
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was used to. The motion picture executives soon
caught wind of the immense popularity of these new
theaters. Always looking to increase their holdings
and box office sales, they began to purchase
strings of the existing movie palaces, thus gaining
control of a fully integrated system of motion
picture production, distribution and exhibition.
Now that movie palace creation and construction
had almost bottomless coffers, almost each major
city across the nation, saw new theaters crop up
almost over night. Even some of the more rural
and isolated towns were treated to new, but smaller
movie theaters to revel in the latest silent pictures,
to hit the screen. Throughout the 1920’s, films
became longer and more sophisticated drawing
the public to the theaters weekly, if not daily.
Some of the most famous and world-renowned
theaters were constructed in New York City and
the motion picture capital, Hollywood California.
Grauman’s Chinese Theater, opened in 1927, still
stands proudly on Hollywood Boulevard as a true
Hollywood landmark. The Chinese theater was one
of many movie palaces created by master showman
Sid Grauman. Gramuan and his father had dabbled
in the early theater business, in Northern California.
Their theaters were modest and catered primarily to
Vaudeville acts and the occasional motion picture.
Father and son had limited success in Northern
California. It wasn’t until Sid Grauman made his way
to settled in Southern California; in 1917 did his
movie palace venture thrive. His first, in a string of