Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: History of the Movie Theater

This is topic History of the Movie Theater in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Brandon Henry (Member # 4161) on 11-26-2008, 08:55 AM:

I am looking for any links that would contain information on the history of the theater. We are looking to do some promotions tying back to the early days of the theater. I am specifically looking for any information on pricing, popular concession items, etc.

Also if anyone has pictures of old cinema workers and what the uniforms were like that would be great as well.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 11-26-2008, 09:17 AM:

While there are lots of books with pictures of historic theatres, and books that detail the history of the motion picture industry. I'm not aware of any that go into the history of the theatre business per se.

A good place to start is The Theatre Historical Society, which has extensive archives on theatres and their operation.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-26-2008, 09:41 AM:

Lots of information on Wikipedia. Just search for Movie Theatre.

I don't know if it has prices and such, but it gives a very detailed description of the industry's history.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 11-26-2008, 09:46 AM:

There was a great article in one of the trade publications a couple years ago (might have been Boxoffice magazine) about the history of popcorn in movie theatres. It talked about how it used to be sold by street vendors outside the theatres.

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 11-26-2008, 02:36 PM:

My hometown was the sight of the first Warner Brothers theater in 1907. This link might help you if you wish to find additional information. Its dated, so there might not be much out there. I actually attended high school with Sam Warner's great-great-grand niece. By then, they had no claim to any fortune and didn't even care much to talk about movies. Today, the original theater is being restored, but when the local developer contacted Warner Brothers as a potential partner in the project, they sent a $1,000 donation and a paraphrased letter basically stating "don't contact us ever again".

Posted by Richard C. Wolfe (Member # 431) on 11-26-2008, 09:57 PM:

I have a rather large collection of books on the subjects of theatre management, promotion & advertising and history going all the way back to 1910. There is one for almost every decade from that time up through the 70's. After that nobody seemed to care about showmanship and promotion or what theatres or their staffs looked like, so they stopped wasteing their time writing such books as not many had any interest in buying them.

The best and most comprehensive book that I have ever found on the history of the theatre business is "Cinema Treasures" by Ross Melnick and Andreas Fuchs published in 2004. If you go to their website, cinematreasures.org you can find information about buying their book.

If you wish to e-mail me and give me some more information about what it is you wish to do, I might be able to find that information from within my collection.

[ 11-29-2008, 02:49 PM: Message edited by: Richard C. Wolfe ]

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 11-27-2008, 12:25 PM:

George Lucas invented movie theatres

Posted by Alan Plester (Member # 852) on 11-29-2008, 10:50 AM:

www.flickr.com is one of my favourites, a very good one with loads of old stuff on it
even old A B C news booklets and stuff, keeps me well entertained

Posted by Alan Plester (Member # 852) on 11-30-2008, 05:52 AM:

The best link to the above is
www.flickr.com/photos/oldcinemaphotos/sets/

[Moderator fixed link]

[ 11-30-2008, 11:56 AM: Message edited by: Adam Martin ]