Movie Theater : The Film Theater

In the article "Why the Audience Mattered in Chicago in 1907” there was an element in the population that was left out of the mainstream focus of the entertainment business. Their cry out for attention created enough noise in the industry that caused laws to be put into place to protect the youth from the hypnotic effect of the big screen.

Liberal arts have been present in human history for many decades dating back as early as the seventeenth century. Theater performances such as opera and plays were the beginning of a much larger influence in the later centuries to come. Starting with the performances written by Shakespeare to the first motion capture film in the 1800’s, these methods have evolved into modern movie outlets such as streaming services and sit-in theaters. Film and performance arts have evolved greatly since their era of creation and have been modernized to fit the society in that period. The rise of Hollywood in the early 1920’s is what began the massive influence of movies in pop culture. It has evolved into being able to instantly have hundreds of movies at the tips of your fingers. Movies have a major impact on how society perceives the world and can influence pop culture, but throughout many decades it had evolved into dominating the digital age.

Leaving the Movie Theater examines semiotics (the study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behavior; the analysis of systems of communication, as language, gestures, or clothing. dictionary.com) in popular culture and how it affects individuals in society. Barthes uses denotations, connotations, rhetorical questions, repetition, and alliteration to unveil hidden messages surrounding us in everyday life. In the essay, the rhetorical question “What does the “darkness” of the cinema mean?”, emerges as Barthes investigates the elements surrounding movie theater. Rather than seeking an actual answer, rhetorical questions are used to make points. In this case, he questions what the “Darkness” represents. The denotation of “darkness:

Although cinema is now a priority, some feel as if cinema is no longer the cinema when it was first established. Movies no longer have that special feeling like viewers once had. Today, films are not only shared within a theater, if one pleases they could always have the same experience elsewhere. Moreover, with technology expanding, it takes away the importance cinema once had. “The

Movies have the ability to transport people to different times and places and distract them from ordinary everyday reality. They allow for a range of emotions to be experienced. At their core, movies examine the human condition. There are plenty of deeper truths woven into screenplays and plenty of lessons to be learned, even when an individual is solely seeking entertainment.

Although the best reasons for “going to the movies” are to be entertained and eat popcorn, understanding a film is actually quite complex. Movies are not only a reflection of life, they also have the capability of shaping our norms, values, attitudes, and perception of life. Through the media of film, one can find stories of practically anything imaginable and some things unimaginable. Movie-makers use their art to entertain, to promote political agendas, to educate, and to present life as it is, was, or could be. They can present truth, truth as they interpret it, or simply ignore truth altogether. A movie can be a work of fiction, non-fiction, or anything in-between. A film is an artist’s interpretation. What one takes away from a film depends upon how one interprets what has been seen and heard. Understanding film is indeed difficult.

One thing that movie entertainment fulfilled was attracting people to the big screen. For example, I can introduce this quote: “In just eight years, from 1922 to 1930, weekly U.S. movie attendance soared from about forty percent to over ninety percent of the population” (americainclass). This shows how in just eight years movie popularity spiked, where as about 40 million Americans went to motion picture theatres on a weekly basis. As the brink of silent films came to society and the evolution of the industry had risen, going to the movie theatre became a weekly event. This transition in entertainment, from stand-up comedy/plays to movies, was remarkable. The huge trend and liking for going to the movies impacted America in the way it had reshaped entertainment. Movie companies like Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros made a lot of money and success. The industry became very rich. Going to the movie theatre in the 20s was classy, fashionable, and it became a

Although documentation is fragmented regarding the these circuits, according to Nadine George-Graves, “... scholars... must do more investigative work than is necessary for other topics in order to locate resource materials” (xii). A Black vaudeville evolved among other types of shows, specifically minstrel. However, for artists of this period, it was one of the only means of upward social mobility (Dahl 10). While a few entertainers were able to play on the white circuits, the majority were not, that is, until the Black circuits were developed for a Black audience. The Rabbit Foot Minstrels and Silas Green from New Orleans were early troupes who put on a “real musical experience” in jook joints which is said in an interview by Barry Lee Pearson to J. Otis Williams in his book, Jook

“The point of theatre is transformation: to make an extraordinary event out of ordinary material right in front of an audience 's eyes. Where the germ of the idea came from is pretty much irrelevant. What matters to every theatre maker, I know, is speaking clearly to the audience 'right now. '” This quote by English playwright and screenwriter, Lee Hall, from an essay he published in the Times of London, is central to the connection between theatre and motion picture technology. Since the rise of film in the early twentieth century, these elements have been influencing each other, and working together, to elevate the storytelling and experience of each medium and, in turn, better connecting them to the modern audience. The collaboration of these two mediums has resulted in a new form of theatre, known as digital theatre, that shows “theatrical entertainment does not have to be either purist (involving only ‘live’ actors on stage), or be consumed by the dominant televisual mass media, but can gain from the strengths of both types of communication.”(Masura). Throughout this paper, the intersection of theatre and motion picture technology will be explored through their effect on each other, in storytelling and experience, and the product of their collaboration—digital theatre.

Movie theaters continuously began sprouting in many towns and cities across the entire country. Hollywood in many ways was contributing to the change in gender norms that were taking place during this time. Both Women and men began to challenge these norms by the way they dressed on and off camera. Hollywood’s depiction of new styles for men and women showed ways in how to develop new styles in womanhood and manhood. Hollywood was transforming leisure during this time, but they were not the only ones to do so.

Ever since Thomas Edison invented the Kinetiscope in 1894, films have been reaching its way to the heart of American culture. Since the roaring twenties, where the United States began to see the first movie theaters to the 1960’s, where films are officially a source of leisure and escape from reality. Films influenced American culture between the 1920’s through 1960’s by becoming an increasingly popular form of leisure for years to come while causing scandals, riots, and movements about films or about the idea of films in general by displaying issues in society such as racism, forming a need for censorship laws. Films have also provided a fantasy world for their audiences by showing a film about someone in their perfect life using ethical

“I’m going to make a name for myself. If I fail, you will never hear of me again” Edward James Muggeridge. True to his words he succeeded in making a name for himself and he created the first movie or “motion picture”. Movies are a rollercoaster ride that transcends people into a whole different world fresh out of somebody’s imagination as seen through the genres of horror, drama, and science fiction. The movie business allows people to break through the burden of everyday life. Considering today’s way of life, people would be lying if they did not admit that movies are an influential entity in our culture. Movies have been successful in ingraining values and elements into society. Movies exaggerate, sensationalize and at

For if we account for all of the industrial underpinnings of cinematic production, distribution, and exhibition—from the mines where the metals and minerals that make cameras and projectors are extracted to the factories where this equipment is assembled, from the reliance on aviation and trucking industries to distribute prints to the energy consumed by movie theaters, computers, HDTVs, and other exhibition technologies—it becomes clear that cinema is thoroughly entangled with the major industrial causes of

The 1920s also known as the “Roaring Twenties”, “Jazz Age” or the “Golden Age” by North Americans and Europeans were the years of economic and artistic growth as well as social and cultural change. Whether in the 1920s or present day, films are a result of the public’s demand for entertainment. However, the production of films is an art that subtly delivers hidden messages to the public or as Kracauer suggests, coded references. After World War 1, despite the hardships each nation had dealt with and the frustration towards those in power, the public was happy it finally ended. Afterwards, America dealt with economic prosperity and a rise of interest in entertainment and enjoyable activities, specifically films, to in a way make up for the

In the early twentieth century movies signified modernity by becoming the most prevalent medium of culture in the United States in a period of time where the social makeup was shifting from a predominantly middle class to working class neighborhoods that were made up of many different communities. As a direct consequence, nickelodeons, temporary storefront theaters, and vaudeville programs all flourished in the working class districts. By the late 1920s, almost every large American city showed off a new “picture palace,” an elaborately constructed movie theater. Moreover, with this transition from previous vaudeville houses and nickelodeons to the rise of these so-called picture palaces in the United States, new spaces of consumerism were forged that focused on enlightening the average spectator as movie moguls such as the notable Samuel “Roxy” Rotahfel who envisioned a specific function for all major theaters. Consequently, I would argue that these new spaces of consumerism transformed and transfixed its audiences architecturally (looking at the physical space of the theater) and psychologically (reading space as consumerist fantasy) in Roxy’s picture palaces such as the Family Theater and the Regent Theater and how these theaters fit into the market of mass consumerism in creating desire as well as a release from modern societal pressures. Additionally, I would like to explore how Roxy and his team carefully created an