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~ Theatre Links ~ |
This page contains links to other sites that deal with various aspects of American movie palaces. It is far from being an exhaustive list - and, as with everything on the web - it is continually evolving. So, if you discover any discover any new or dead links, please email us.
We'll be happy to consider additions or deletions to this list to keep it up to date and useful. One last word - if you get lost enjoying yourself on any of the following great sites, don't forget to bookmark us before you leave, so you can find your way back here!
Links:
The Theatre Historical Society of America
This is the original and authoritative source of theatres information to be found in the USA, and since its founding in 1969 it has amassed in excess of 100,000 documents and photos concerning virtually every theatre and cinema to have been built in that country. A society of some 1,000 members in nine nations, it has published since 1969 a quarterly journal titled: MARQUEE along with a special fifth number, the ANNUAL on a different theatre topic every year since 1970. Today, it also publishes a quarterly NEWSLETTER, and all this comes with the membership fee. A convention held in a different city every year is called the Conclave, and is open to non-members as well. It features tours of selected theatres, as well as a banquet that has a showing of members' slides and films, in addition to a silent auction of theatre artifacts. Its headquarters is 15 miles west of Chicago in Elmhurst, Ill. and features the MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN MOVIE PALACE where one can stand inside a huge scale model of the former Avalon Theatre on Chicago's south side, and view some of their 50 theatre-related videos on the large monitor on the stage; admission is free. Their ARCHIVE has dozens of filing cabinets filled with the documentation of our theatres heritage, and includes a library of nearly 1,000 volumes, many one-of-a-kind. Members can also sign up for their NEWS-FLASH service where E-mails are sent out weekly to alert one to developments in notable theatres around the country. Their web site has only been in existence since '95, but is today a wide doorway into their wonderful world. While not a society of preservationists, per se, it does raise a strong voice when called upon to defend and promote examples of our fast-vanishing theatres heritage. The Society can and does furnish expert speakers upon request where available, along with exhibits of photos and related materials.
This is a truly wonderful theatre site, if you are at all concerned about preservation issues. The authors seem to have already catalogued almost every old movie house one might imagine, yet they still pursue their quest! - to make as much information available about movie palaces and local theatres as possible, and, in so doing, contribute to the preservation of these treasures.
Even the most jaded or peripherally-aware reader will come away with a statistical sense of the sheer enormity of what we have already lost, and are still losing with each passing day! Includes a reference to the Fox San Francisco (thank you, gentlemen!).
Some Enchanted Evenings: American Picture Palaces
Sponsored and created by the American Studies Program at the University of Virginia, this is an excellent site for considering the phenomenon of the Movie Palace in the larger, cultural context of America in the 20th Century. It boasts a well annotated resource list.
This site includes photographic walking tours of the old Los Angeles theater district on Broadway. The site also has plenty of good historical information. A fun visit.
This is a key page off the site, Welcome to Silent Movies. A good - but far from inexhaustible - source for additional links to specific American movie houses. Parent site is even better for giving the cultural context of the movie industry in the Silent Era.
East Bay's Theaters & Movie Palaces
Not a preservation or history site - rather a listing of operational old movie houses in the San Francisco East Bay - the commercial milieu in which the Fox San Francisco lived out its days.
Good general resource for major film studios, the AFI, and other sites which give context to the subject of movie palaces.
Two short but readable articles from VIA magazine: the title article, by Bruce Newman, reviews several of the most prominent, remaining movie palaces on the West Coast: The Paramount in Oakland, CA, the Castro in San Francisco, the Crest Theatre in Sacramento, CA, Portland's Bagdad Theatre, L.A.'s Grauman's Chinese, as well as Sid Grauman's four Egyptian cinemas (Hollywood, CA; Coos Bay, Oregon; Ogden, Utah; Boise, Idaho) - all inspired by the Tut craze of the early 1920's. Also included is a debatable attempt to integrate Seattle's Cinerama Theatre into the larger history of the "movie palace."
The second article is a short essay entitled, "The Way We Watched," By Peter Crooks
Billed as "an online source of information about cinema buildings and their architects," this site from the U.K. has links to dozens of small and large cinemas throughout Britain. Buried in this list of links is yet another page of theatre-related links that is definitely worth a visit.
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