Between directing Stuntwoman: The Untold Hollywood Story (2020) and Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-In Movie (2013), April Wright released Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace (2019). This documentary enjoyed a proper theatrical release at the tail end of 2019, a mere few months before movie theaters across the U.S. went dark as the pandemic raged across the country upending businesses and society at large. Before the pandemic hit the U.S., people in the movie industry were already predicting that streaming platforms would eclipse theatrical exhibitions as the preferred way to launch big studio films within a few years.
What the pandemic has done is allow several studios and streaming platforms to aggressively shrink what might have initially been a five-year-long transition into the span of a mere couple of months. The National Association of Theater Owners (N.A.T.O) listed over 40,000 movie screens in the U.S. as of 2020, these being split up amid almost 6,000 move sites. Two years from now those numbers stand to be radically diminished. This changing landscape makes Wright’s documentary about movie palaces a must-see viewing experience for those looking for instruction and insight into some of the social implications of letting movie houses disappear, as well as what we have to gain should we continue to support them.
Wright’s documentary begins with an introduction to guest speakers that have different reasons for wanting to save grand movie palaces at various cities across the U.S., including historian Leonard Maltin. Maltin provides background to the invention of cinema, starting with the Kinetoscope and a one-minute long recorded prize fight between Mike Leonard and Jack Cushing that went from city-to-city in 1894. There were also penny arcades and then the Nickelodeons, and through it all the physical exhibition spaces kept changing.
The transformation of these entertainment venues from ramshackle locations with folding chairs to cheap little arcades onward to larger locations that included vaudeville shows and plays is fascinating. Most of the truly impressive structures were built between World War I and World War II. David Strohmaier, the director of Cinerama Adventure (2002), pops up intermittently to, among other things, provide details for the changing size of the screen itself as the great picture show kept getting bigger and bigger.
At the apex of this era, audiences would be treated to the luxury of watching the latest entertainments in movie palaces so grand and awe-inspiring they boggle the mind. These are venues with thousands of seats, multiple balconies, sparkling ceilings, eye-catching murals, intricately detailed ornaments, precisely timed curtain-shows and even giant organs that would make the Phantom of the Opera green with envy. And whether you came from the so-called “wrong-side of town” or some fancy high-rise, for the price of one movie ticket, everyone got treated like royalty when they walked through the door.
All of which makes it downright heart-wrenching to then see so many of these splendid creations disappear as they get torn down or they are left to fall apart into abject squalor. One of the guests that Wright interviews, Matt Lambros, has done an exceptional job of chronicling many such dilapidated theaters. Lambros is an architectural photographer as well as the author of “After the Final Curtain: The Fall of the American Movie Theater.” This is a highly recommended coffee-table book for any cinephile eager to have access to an incredible assortment of pictures that afford one a glimpse into the sacred spaces of another time.
That being noted, far from being a depressing tract on the destructive annihilation wrought by unfettered capitalism, Wright’s documentary is primarily a love-letter to the small army of local heroes who have managed to fight all odds in their effort to salvage majestic buildings so that others might still fall under the spell of their beauty and magic.
Had her documentary on movie palaces been released after the first major lockdowns of 2020, it would have been interesting to see how Wright would have folded in the subject of the pandemic into the historical narrative. Especially at a time when predictions are dire for a large swath of the brick-and-mortar theaters that dot the landscape. The vast majority of current movie theaters cannot compete on any level with the movie palaces that Wright brings to our attention. They are smaller multiplexes, mid-sized auditoriums or even larger entertainment halls that have made several concessions to modern demands, concessions that could never match the grandeur more commonly seen by folks who regularly attended the cinema several generations ago. That being said, the modern movie theater that still believes in a giant screen along with a sense of showmanship to enhance the theatrical experience shares in the DNA that made the movie palaces of yesteryear a glorious destination and a memorable experience unto itself.
One of many lessons to be gleaned from Wright’s documentary is that when passionate people come together to save something they love, they are sometimes able to keep important and beautiful cultural centers vibrant and alive for generations yet to come. True movie devotees will want to take careful note of the end credits as the names of existing movie palaces that one can still visit scroll by. Or, as it should be said at the time of this writing when a vaccine is still months away, these are movie palaces that you will hopefully still be able to visit, once it is safe and fun to do so.
by Pablo Kjolseth
