At the Movies – April 2010

The Earliest Films

The very earliest “moving pictures” date to 1894-96. These films were generally integrated into vaudeville shows, as they were about 30 seconds long, depicting a scene not telling a story.



Some of these early clips were shown on Kinetoscope machines (strip-based film viewing systems designed for one person to view at a time). Amusement arcades soon found that the less expensive Mutoscope was adequate; the Mutoscope’s pictures “moved” using a flip book system (as opposed to a film strip like the Kinetoscope). Both devices were coin operated. To view an early Kinetoscope film, click here. 



Two brothers, Mitchell and Moe Mark, noted the popularity of the short films, and in 1896, they decided to build the first theater devoted to film. Vitascope Hall (Buffalo, NY) seated 72 people and the brothers had great success at selling tickets to programs consisting of nothing more than short films strung together to be a “show.” The theater was kept open 13 hours a day, seven days a week, and the Mark brothers went on to build many other theaters around the country, including the Mark Strand in New York City.



Elsewhere, “moving pictures” were shown in small vaudeville houses, town halls, churches, schools, lodges, and at arcades. Starting in 1905, neighborhood theaters, called “nickelodeons” for the nickel admission price, began to spring up. These theaters usually had ten or twelve rows of benches for seating; in the front of the room, a sheet served as a screen. A curtain separated the theater from the “lobby.” The films shown at that time ran about 30-45 minutes, and this was very appealing to the working class clientele who were short on leisure time. In addition to silent films, some theaters showed “sing along” films with the words printed on the screen; musical accompaniment was provided by a piano player.

Progress moved quickly. By the second decade of the twentieth century, longer films-silent ones but with storylines-were being made. By 1915 the grand movie palaces were being built. To read more about these, click here. 


Popcorn at the Movies

Even if you don’t buy popcorn every time you go to a theater, the marvelous smell of popping corn is one of the first ways our senses inform us that we are entering a movie theater. Surprisingly, popcorn concessions did not become part of movie theaters until later on.



From the 1840s on, popcorn was sold as a popular American snack. In Popped Culture, Andrew F. Smith notes that street vendors sold popcorn and peanuts any where they could find a crowd. While some bags of popcorn would have been sold to be carried into some of the neighborhood theaters, the managers of the elegant movie palaces, built from 1915-30, discouraged street vendors outside their theaters. These theaters featured plush seating and elegant décor, and popcorn and peanuts were not viewed as the correct snack for this atmosphere.



In the 1930s, all this changed. The Depression led to a drop in ticket sales, and managers were looking for ways to increase income. Well aware that people were often buying popcorn from street vendors to sneak into the theater, some owners opened snack bars in the lobbies from which to sell candy, popcorn, and drinks. Over time, these sales were part of what kept the theaters alive.



Another big shift in snacking habits came during World War II. Sugar was rationed so candy manufacturing plummeted, leaving the theater market wide open to an increase in popcorn sales. 



According to the National Association of Theatre Owners, concession sales today account for about 40 percent of theater owners’ net revenue, and most of those sales come from traditional items such as soft drinks, popcorn, nachos, and candy. 




Theater Music

During the silent film era, small town and neighborhood theaters used pianists to provide live music in the theater. By the mid-1910s, large city theaters had organists or a small ensemble of musicians. 



From 1914-40 the Wurlitzer company was particularly busy meeting the demand for organs for movie theaters. Robert Jones-Hope had designed what is known as the Mighty Wurlitzer that could simulate orchestras as well as provide sound effects such as galloping horses or rolling thunder. 



The music for the early films was usually improvised, but by the release of Birth of a Nation in 1915, many of the big films would arrive with composed scores for the pianists or organists to play. By 1927 the business was changing. The first talkie, The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson, was released, and soon theater owners were doing all they could to get their theaters prepared for talking pictures.



In 1955 there was concern that the older music and the instruments themselves were going to be lost to future generations, and an organization, now known as the American Theatre Organ Society, was begun. Today they are active in conserving and promoting organ music and the organs themselves. Re-creating old film scores has been challenging, and musicologists are often confounded in their efforts to reconstruct the scores that would have gone along with them.


Fast Facts about Going to the Movies

Smell-o-Vision? A “smellorama” movie sounds like a bad idea, but in 1959 there were actually dueling forms of technology racing to introduce systems where smells would be released at appropriate points during films. The two films first released were Scent of Mystery with a system called Smell-O-Vision and Behind the Great Wall, a travelogue of China released using AromaRama. 



As you might guess, the art of releasing the smells to all audience members simultaneously, and then clearing the air to prepare for the next smell, was challenging. Though the glitches were eventually solved, bad word of mouth-and high cost of installation in theaters-eventually led to the end of movies that smelled (at least intentionally!) In 1982, a film called Polyester was released with a scratch and sniff card, and a numbered guide as to when to scratch what part of the card, but this didn’t catch on either. 


Precursor to Disney? In 1905 Kansas City Fire Chief George C. Hale created an “illusion ride” that consisted of train cars, each holding 72 passengers. People paid for their seat on the train and then a 7-10 minute motion picture depicting scenes from around the world was shown at the front of the train car. The train cars themselves were wired to machines that caused the car to tip, vibrate, rock, and tilt, simulating a moving train. Painted scenery rolled past the passenger windows and they could hear sound effects of a steam whistle and the clickety-clack sound of the wheels on the track. The ride caught on and Hale soon expanded his business; there were soon Hale’s Tours available at amusement parks worldwide. Because customers would come back if they were promised new “travelogues,” this led to work for filmmakers and the very earliest development of a film distribution system.