History of American Cinematic Spaces

History of American Cinematic Spaces

The cinema was a descendent of the long history of conventional theaters and movie technology. In 1799, In A Long Abandoned Cloister in Paris — Étienne-Gaspard Robert projected Phantasmagoria using magic lanterns as mobile projectors. The site’s uncanny setting with ruins and graveyards, the ghostly projections in various sizes, and the surrounding sounds defined the character of such immersive experience. In 1892 Paris, Charles-Émile Reynaud has premiered his film Pantomimes Lumineuses, predated Lumière brothers first paid public screening. The cinema was at Musée Grévin, and its sophistication included scored piano pieces accompanied and sometimes dialogue provided by the Reynaud’s assistants. The show went on until 1900, and over 500,000 people had seen it. Back then, Reynaud and his assistants need be be at the 5 daily shows everyday to operate the machine. But at the same time the cinema was defined by the dark space and the mechanical system, and those were enough to excite the audience. Later in 1888, he has patented his Théâtre Optique film system, after a long studies and improvement of zoestrope. In 1894, Thomas Edison opened the first public viewing parlor in New York City for his Kinetoscope. The parlor has 10 machines in 2 rows, and each with a different short movie. He thought that peeping through the hole is more commercially feasible than projecting the film publicly. In 1895 in the basement of Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris, Auguste and Louis Lumière held their first paid public screening. This was often seen as the birth of cinema. The scale of the first public movie screening, as seen by us, is more similar to the small indie theater’s screening. As we are familiar to the term indie films, the screening could be characterized by a relatively “small” screen and a small enclosed dark space, with some invited guests. Until early 1900s, movie screenings still happened in the same place as traditional theaters in the Beaux-Arts style. But as the demand for movies and the rise of new movie production industries, some theaters would only program movies day to day rather than any live acts. Other theaters would show movies when no live acts were in town. From 1905 - 1915, Nickelodeons were prevalent in the United States. Nickelodeons was coined from “nickel” and “Odéon”, since the admission fee was 5 cents and Odéon referred to the luxurious Parisian theater. These 5-cent theaters were generally converted from small storefronts, and thus were not equipped with good ventilation system or huge projecting screens, and their hard wooden seatings were cramped in the spaces. Featuring illustrated songs would bring a lot more attraction to the nickelodeon. Since nickelodeons’ emergence, movie-going became a huge part of the American working class’ leisure activities after work. By 1907, more than 3000 nickelodeons were operation. By 1910, nickelodeons grossed $91 million in the United States. By 1910s, terms such as “movie-goers” and “spectators” were coined and commonly used. Nickelodeons’ ideal locations were at the busiest intersection of residential areas and most pedestrian in the crowded cities, and by then the crowded and dirty lower Manhattan was seen as the birth place of modern cinema. The ideal condition of the cinema had still hold true up until the outburst of the pandemic. After all, the cinemas want to keep their occupancy rate as high as possible to lower the cost of each film’s projecting costs. As the movies were getting longer and more advanced in the early 1920s, the hard wooden seating and the small screen could no longer satisfy the roaring 20s and the consumers’ needs. Longer, well-narrated films in different genres demanded some spaces more than poorly planned and maintained storefront. Thus we saw the evolution of the cinematic spaces has eventually led us to the first dedicated and specifically designed space for movie showing — movie palaces. These glamorous ornate architecture built between 1910s to 1940s witnessed numerous premiere showings of newly released films in the early Hollywood era. No longer just catered towards the lower and middle working class, the cinema attracted more upper classes since it is a novel entertainment for them than the traditional high arts. It's not just its ornamentation that called its origins to the predecessors. Rather, its scale and its seating arrangement, including the rows and the balconies, were mostly adapted from the traditional theaters that hosted live performances. What makes it different from an opera house is that the spectators were looking at a much bigger screen where the acting happened. To a degree, sitting at various parts in the theater would not change the experience drastically. The huge image, and the sound later could be experience by the spectators more or less equally, unlike other live performances such as operas or orchestras. Furthermore, the movie industry started from attracting lower and middle working class as its main consumers. Thus, movies as an art form felt more democratic than other performances, even placed in the movie palaces. Also in 1920s, we saw some white-owned theaters, such as the Royal, also expanded their servicing area to black and other people of color community. But it had been a long time that the people of color could not enjoy the movies as the white do. They would have had to go to the designated balcony area for the people of color, as the auditorium seatings sold at box office was only for white people. Then from 1920s to 1960s, here comes the golden age of the movie industry. A lot of new technology was used in looking to enhance the film presentation, even after the movie industry was hugely impacted by the innovation of television. Spaces like Drives-ins and Multiplexes were constructed to push the cinema industry to become a major way for people’s daily entertainment lives. Drive-ins were introduced in 1930s and popularized from 1950s to 1960s, aiming to create more convenient and comfortable ways for the consumers. In 2020, quite a number of drive-ins were reinvigorated by the pandemic, since watching movies while sitting in people’s own cars sounded much safer than sharing the enclosed indoor. However, in January 2021, due to consideration of the public health situation, Sundance Film Festival had to cancel their plans to hold in-person screening in the format of drive-in cinemas. It is worth to discuss here that is there a possibility of completely safe viewing experience shared by the spectators in the age of the pandemic? On the other hand, in early 1960s, AMC built the first multiplex that had 2 screens for 700 people. Soon after, a lot of cinemas, including movie palaces, were retrofitted into multiplexes. Since then, the cinemas that id not change the screen setup had mostly gone out of business. But there are still a few that remained and now operates as indie film houses. During the pandemic, the single-screen indie cinemas were all having a hard time to maintain the operation cost of such cinemas. Other than these, Widescreen, 3D, Surround Sounds, IMAX were all introduced to offer more comfortable experiences for the consumers, and hence to attract more consumers for higher revenues. Until this day, it is for sure that some of the main factors that are still attracting the consumers to try to return to cinemas after the spaces are safe again.

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