When Movies Were Theater: Architecture, Exhibition, and the Evolution of American Film

William Paul

Published by Columbia University Press 2016

When Movies Were Theater

Architecture, Exhibition, and the Evolution of American Film

William Paul

In the series Film and Culture Series

https://doi.org/10.7312/paul17656

Overview
Contents

About this book

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. The study matches distinct architectural forms to movie styles, showing how cinema's roots in theater influenced business practices, exhibition strategies, and film technologies.

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.

Author / Editor information

William Paul is professor of film and media studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He is also the author of Ernst Lubitsch's American Comedy (1983) and Laughing Screaming: Modern Hollywood Horror and Comedy (1994).

Reviews

Jan Baetens:
This is a book that will change our thinking of cinema.... It is a broadening of our views on the history of cinema as a cultural practice at the crossroads of many different fields: theater, architecture, technology, economy, and art.... [When Movies Were Theater] deserves a place on the very top of all compulsory reading on the history of cinema.

Gerald Peary:
If you are interested in how the architecture within American movie houses shaped the cinema and vice-versa, William Paul's often brilliant tome is an instant classic.

Charles Musser, author The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907:
In this fascinating study, Paul investigates the complex and ever-changing theatrical space of motion picture exhibition. He also offers his insights into the unexpected ways that these spaces influenced film production—and vice versa.

Thomas Postlewait, author of The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Historiography:
When Movies Were Theater is an impressive achievement. William Paul demonstrates that the history of film should not – and cannot – be separated from the history of theatre, including the history of theatre buildings. A major accomplishment in research and analysis, Paul's book offers essential scholarship for both film scholars and theatre historians.

James Naremore, author of An Invention Without a Future: Essays on Cinema:
When Movies Were Theater is a brilliantly argued, superbly researched study of the spaces and physical contexts that determine our experience of movies. Paul shows that the history of stage and screen has involved many architectural changes, and that the framing environment—whether indoors or out, whether at home or in a multiplex—decisively affects both the form of films and our understanding of them. His book is of groundbreaking importance and should be read by everyone with a serious interest in the ever-evolving medium of moving images.

Thomas Doherty, author of Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939:
Just as the very concept of 'going to the movies' in a theatrical space seems under threat and antiquated, William Paul's informed and rigorous look back at what going to the moves once meant—culturally, aesthetically, and architecturally—seems particularly urgent and apt. When Movies Were Theater offers digital -age moviegoers—screen watchers?—a fascinating and provocative study of the spaces in which we see movies.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Illustrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
Introduction: An Art of the Theater Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Making Movies Fit Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
2. Store Theaters: A Radical Break Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
3. Palatial Architecture, Democratized Audience Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
4. Elite Taste in a Mass Medium Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	122
5. Uncanny Theater Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	186
6. The Architectural Screen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	230
Conclusion: Ontological Fade-Out Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
Appendix 1: Stage Shows and Double Features in Select Markets Outside New York City Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
Appendix 2: Feature Films Based on Theatrical Sources, 1914–2011 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
Appendix 3: Filmography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
Appendix 4: List of Theaters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	313
Abbreviations Used for Citations in Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319
Selected Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	399
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	413

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 432
Illustrations
- Other: 71 b&w illustrations

eBook

Published: May 24, 2016
ISBN: 9780231541374