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

Abstract

Nostalgia pervades William Paul's discussion of the way Hollywood's film productions were intricately tied to the theatrical spaces where they were exhibited, given that today the theater has ceased to be the primary venue for watching movies. The book's photographs of store theaters and movie palaces evoke a lost world, and its discussion traces the changes in movie theater design, asking us to rethink the effect of these architectural spaces during their heyday. By manifestly defining the relation of the spectators to the film screen, theaters shaped the way the audience came to define a moving image. As such, this book fills a lacuna in film studies. While much attention has been paid to the economic, cultural, and political conditions of Hollywood, the movie theater has been of less interest. By shifting the focus to the reciprocal relationship between filmgoing and movie theaters, Paul offers many insights into how questions of illumination, seating, and curtain arrangements helped contain uncanny aspects of cinema's magic effect even while producing a more democratic theatrical experience than live theater.