Movie Palaces

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by Ilene S. Goldman

Epitomizing the greatness of Hollywood and the glorious excess of the Roaring Twenties, movie palaces were opulent movie theaters with plush carpeting, gilded ceilings, glass staircases, Wurlitzer organs, stylized decor, uniformed ushers, and as many as 6,000 seats. Movie palaces of yesteryear remain a nostalgic reminder of Hollywood's and America's greatest days.

It was not always thus. When Hollywood was young, and films silent, moviegoing was considered entertainment for the lower classes. Exhibition of early cinema reflected the stark class division of movie audiences. The earliest venues for projected movies were converted store fronts. In 1904 Harry Davis and John Harris, store owners and two of the hundreds of local entrepreneurs who shaped movie history, charged five cents for admission to the movies they showed in their converted store in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Combining the price of the ticket with the Greek word for theater, they called their theater the Nickelodeon.

It took another ten years for exhibitors to upgrade their theaters to attract the upper and middle classes. In 1914 exhibitors Moe and Mitchell Mark surmised that an upscale exhibition venue would attract an upscale audience. Further, they gambled that this new audience would pay more for the spectacle. On April 11, 1914, the Mark brothers opened the Strand Theater on Broadway in New York City. While not a full-fledged movie palace, the Strand set new standards in movie theater design and ticket prices. With its crystal chandeliers, plush carpet, gold-leafed ceiling, the art hanging in its lobby, and its uniformed ushers, the Strand commanded 25 cents for admission to its gracious chambers. Built on the eve of World War I, the Strand led the way in increasingly ornate and larger picture houses.

World War I set the backdrop for the "arrival" of movies and for Hollywood's consolidation as the most powerful center of film production in the world. With the rest of the world at war, America experienced the beginnings of unsurpassed industrial and economic growth. The world's other filmmaking countries re-allocated their resources to pay for munitions and other wartime needs. Hollywood pumped its films onto screens around the world. For its increasingly opulent films, Hollywood needed suitable venues at home, theaters that would showcase its stars, complement its excess, and provide its patrons with a complete experience of affluence and leisure.

Many people contributed to the boom in movie theater construction, but one man can be credited with setting the standard of what today we know as the most extravagant castles of the seventh art. Samuel Lionel Rothapfel, "Roxy," began his movie exhibition career with a small family theater in Forest City, Pennsylvania. Turning an old theater into Rothapfel's Family Theatre, Roxy discovered his calling. Soon he was called upon by theater owners across the Northeast to renovate their spaces. But Roxy was not just "redoing" these spaces, he reinvented the experience of "going to a movie." Roxy moved the orchestra out of a pit and onto the stage, and put his ushers in impeccable uniforms. Insisting that the music accompanying a film had to relate to the film's story, he scored the music for his theaters himself. Between 1913 and 1920, Roxy turned four of New York City's theaters into movie palaces. Today, their names--the Strand, the Realto, the Capitol, and the Rivoli--still resonate with the glory of Roxy's vision.

Roxy's movie palaces, like all the others, offered a complete program of entertainment, including Vaudeville acts, live music, animal tricks, and finally a newsreel and film. Very American in their eclectic decor and larger-than-life entertainment, the movie palaces did not always present the movie as the main attraction. Often the setting or the Vaudeville acts were the draw. Roxy's imprint of excess and his formula for complete entertainment were copied, though never rivaled, across the nation. Two of the smaller gems, the Castro Theater (1922, San Francisco) and the Music Box Theatre (1929, Chicago), still operate today, restored to their original state complete with Wurlitzer and organist.

Roxy fulfilled his dream of building his own theater in 1925. By all accounts, there are no adequate words to describe the Roxy, or its mélange of architectural styles. The Roxy defined the movie palace: its rococo-style rotunda, trimmed in gold filigree and supported by 12 marble columns, opened into a theater seating 6,214 people. The five-story structure included six box offices, a hospital, a musical library with more than 50,000 scores, washroom facilities to accommodate 10,000, dressing rooms for stars, a radio broadcast facility, and Roxy's private health club and box. It cost an astounding $300,000 to renovate. When it opened on March 3, 1927, in New York City, the Roxy instantly became the biggest star of all movie palaces.

In 1930, John D. Rockefeller and the Radio Corporation of America looked to Roxy to direct their new theater. Resigning his position at his own theater, Roxy went uptown to build the enduring Radio City Music Hall. He toured Europe, looking for inspiration in its most famous theaters and opera houses. The greatest inspiration came on his transatlantic cruise home, when he saw the fiery sun set on the horizon. The stage and coves in Radio City Music Hall look like a sun setting over red velvet. Designed by Donald Deskey, this art deco masterpiece features a 60-by-150-foot Grand Foyer decorated with mirrors, marble, gold leaf, bronze trim, and a mural. It cost seven million dollars to build and seated 6,200. Radio City Music Hall opened on December 27, 1932. Roxy invited Hollywood stars and political celebrities, and he scheduled 19 Vaudeville acts. Even as he built his dream castle, however, Roxy had lost faith in the movies, believing that Vaudeville and radio would replace them. This miscalculation cost Roxy his directorship and broke his spirit. He died January 13, 1936, perhaps of a broken heart. Ironically, since its 1979 renovation, Radio City Music Hall has functioned as Roxy himself had imagined--almost exclusively showcasing live entertainment, including the world-famous Rockettes.