ancient cities

138 Cinema (Movie House)
films and the movie houses was generally poor, the
movies were well enjoyed by patrons. The nickelodeon
provided an inexpensive public space for
newly arrived immigrants and other working-class
urban dwellers. The burgeoning urban middle
class, particularly in the United States, found both
the films and the nickelodeons to be unacceptably
vulgar and crude.
The Movie Palace
The movie palace (picture palace) is an urban phenomenon.
Its development and popularity coincided
with the maturity of both the motion picture industry
and the twentieth-century city. While various
expressions of the nickelodeon appeared in rural
areas and small towns, movie palaces were so large
in scale that only populated urban areas could
accommodate them. Although in general, picture
palaces were built only during the second decade of
the twentieth century, they were the predominant
movie theater form until the mid-twentieth century.
The construction and opening of a picture palace,
often the most expensive and opulent structure
in a city center, marked the moment when a
city and its inhabitants had “arrived.” Representing
the pinnacle of urban development during the
boom years of the 1920s, the movie palace was a
symbol of cosmopolitanism and sophistication.
Located in prime downtown locations, the theaters
were generally situated next to a trolley or
streetcar stop and were close to restaurants and
department stores, enabling city dwellers to spend
their leisure hours and their disposable income in
high-traffic commercial areas.
With the arrival in 1915 of multireel films that
told compelling narratives using cinematic language,
the middle class began to accept film as a
form of pleasurable and appropriate public entertainment.
The picture palace design was meant to
impress and dazzle the middle class, as well as to
assure them they were in a reputable public space.
Usually built with 2,000 to 5,000 seats or more,
the theaters were designed to sell thousands of
tickets each day. The picture palace was consciously
designed to assure cinema’s new audience
that motion picture entertainment was held to the
highest standards. All working-class signifiers were
eliminated, and a brigade of ushers assured audiences
that appropriate behavior was enforced.
Elaborate architectural details often simulated
designs of European palaces, Far East temples, and
castles from other exotic locales, fostering an
atmosphere of high culture. Most movie palaces in
the United States were segregated spaces with
upper balconies reserved primarily for African
Americans.
Picture palaces lost their audiences due to desegregation,
the decline of the urban center, suburbanization,
the popularity of television, and the rise of
the suburban and drive-in theaters during the late
1950s and 1960s. The theaters fell into disrepair,
and many were demolished, as a result of feverish
urban renewal. Some survived by showing pornographic
and exploitation films. During the 1970s,
when the historic preservation movement began to
burgeon, picture palaces remaining in city centers
were often the first buildings to be considered for
restoration.
Neighborhood Movie Houses
Neighborhood movie houses were built for suburbanites
who moved away from city centers during
the 1950s and 1960s. Dramatically different in
scale from the picture palace, the neighborhood
theater seated several hundred patrons, had minimal
décor, and frequently had two screens. The
grandeur of the movie palace was no longer necessary
or appropriate: Architectural elements featuring
streamlined modern designs were de rigueur
and middle-class suburbanites needed no assurances
that cinema was an appropriate form of
entertainment. The development of the academic
study of cinema in the 1970s coincided with some
neighborhood theaters being transformed into art
houses and exhibiting non-Hollywood and foreign
films, particularly in large cities and university
towns. The neighborhood theater had to compete
with the drive-in theater, which was situated in or
near the suburbs and was usually located on a
huge parcel of undeveloped land.
Mall Cinema
The neighborhood movie house moved into the
suburban mall when mall development proliferated
in the 1960s and 1970s. Malls helped further
shift the purchasing power and the awareness of
the middle class away from the city center. Mall