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Cinema Treasures: Movie Theaters 1905 to Today by Ross Melnick, Andreas Fuchs

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(Hardcover)

  • Pub. Date: September 2004
  • 208pp

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    Product Details

    • Pub. Date: September 2004
    • Publisher: MBI Publishing Company
    • Format: Hardcover, 208pp

    Synopsis

    For more than a century, movie theaters have provided the physical setting where motion pictures have delighted and transported audiences. While enough books about film, filmmakers, and movie stars have been written to wrap around the equator, the story behind the movie theaters – the buildings themselves - and the manner in which industrial, social, and artistic trends have informed its evolution has remained largely ignored. Cinema Treasures is an ambitious and marvelously illustrated history of the American movie theater from the early nickelodeons through today’s state-of-the-art megaplexes. The authors show how industry leaders, social, cultural, and economic change, and ever-evolving technologies have shaped the fabulous movie palaces, the cozy neighborhood theaters, and the multiplexes and megaplexes in which generations have experienced motion pictures. Each chapter details a period of movie theater history and celebrates the greatest remaining classic theaters that still show movies today, including stunning two-color page spreads featuring interior and exterior shots; a history of the theatre; memories from former staffers, patrons, or owners; theater specifications, including screen size, seating capacity, past owners, design features, and architectural style; a timeline listing important media, historical, and film events occurring throughout the theater’s existence; and visual ephemera like nostalgic and contemporary photographs and period ads sourced from the authors’ own collections, provided by theaters, and culled from archives throughout the United States. Each chapter also presents a "Curtain Call" list of great theaters that did not survive and, sadly, met the wrecking ball or were refurbished to serve a less glorious purpose.

    Together with evocative photography that brings the moviegoing experience to the printed page, and the insightful and entertaining accounts of an industry that evolved with a nation and world, Cinema Treasures is a must-have for movie lovers and film buffs who love the theater as much as the movie that’s showing.

    Los Angeles Times

    Humble or grandiose, stand-alone or strung together, movie theaters are places where dreams are born. Once upon a time, they were treated with the respect they deserve. In their heyday, historian Ross Melnick and exhibitor Andreas Fuchs write in Cinema Treasures, openings of new motion-picture pleasure palaces that would have dazzled Kubla Khan ‘received enormous attention in newspapers around the country. On top of the publicity they generated, their debuts were treated like the gala openings of new operas or exhibits, with critics weighing in on everything from the interior and exterior design to the orchestra.’ Handsomely produced and extensively illustrated, Cinema Treasures is detailed without being dull and thoroughly at home with this often neglected subject matter. Its title would have you believe it is a celebration of the golden age of movie theaters. But this book is something completely different: an examination of the history of movie exhibition, which the authors accurately call ‘a vastly under-researched topic.

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    Cinema Treasures: Movie Theaters 1905 to Todayby Anonymous

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    October 24, 2004: It is always a pleasure to welcome any significant contribution to the weal of theatrical lore, and the 208-page volume 'Cinema Treasures: A New Look at Classic Movie Theatres' by Ross Melnick and Andreas Fuchs, is certainly a fine 'treasure' of a chronicle of the architectural treasures this book so well covers. In fact, it is really two books in one, for it is first a meticulously researched survey of the eras of movie exhibition, and secondly a series of capsule descriptions of 30 notable examples of those cinema treasures still operating. The two young men who bring us this handsome, hardbound volume reflect more than 35 years between them of theatre research and operation, and thus their heartfelt devotion to the genre is sincere, accurately related, and enthusiastically delivered. The quality of prose shows skill beyond their years. The large book (12x10-1/2 inches) is printed on heavy, glossy paper within black cloth covers with only the spine stamped in gold, but the heavy paper jacket over it is a fitting cover since its full front color image behind the title is of the Grand Lake Theatre of Oakland, California, and this alone warrants one applying a plastic film wrap in order to protect it. The image there shows the auditorium of one of the survivors of the glorious days of the movie palace and ironically shows on its stage a portion of the grand house curtain of the long-lost and lamented Fox Theatre once of San Francisco, and is thus a visual summation of the tumult of loss and survival of two significant theatres into our day. This sturdily bound coffee table book is heavy on illustrations with at least one visual on each page, and most are in color, but this is far more than a picture book! The Preface and nine chapters describe in great and fascinating detail the progress of the cinema in the USA in terms of the technological, sociological, and economic timeline of this art form, and the consequent effect of these factors upon the architecture of theatres and cinemas that we have come to love. This is not a book about theatre architecture per se, but its extensive research in related topics is reflected in the 12 columns of fine print on three pages which comprises the 550 end Notes. Such a large total is unusual in a scholarly university publication, but in a general market book like this, it is astonishing, especially when coupled with the 148 entries in the Resources listing. The only disappointment with this scholarly aspect is the somewhat insufficient Index in which the absence of many proper nouns, such as names of people and theatres mentioned, can lead one to assume they are not to be found, and the careful listing of all such is a basic for any volume wanting to be regarded as serious research material. For example, the little-known curiosity of 'Screeno' is described on page 99, but not listed in the Index. A theatre not insignificant to the lineage of exhibition is the Alhambra in Milwaukee, which is discussed in some detail on pages 19-21, but neither it, the location, nor its proprietor, Herman Fehr (identified as 'Howard Fehr,' at first, but later corrected to 'Herman' on page 33) are mentioned anywhere in their 138-line Index. These are but a few of many such examples. Given the careful end Notes and Resources listings, this reviewer can only conclude that a more complete Index was offered, but the publisher (accustomed to hobby books for the motor vehicle market) declined to spend for more such...