Robert Redford made a comparison of the grand ole 1 and 2 large screen movie palaces of yesteryear as opposed to todays mass media entertainment megaplexes.

Anyhow, he did come out and say that the entire movie going experience is lost with the mass market multiplexes. He seemed to yearn and reminence about the total package of seeing an excellent presentation in a grand ole palace!

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

The difference as I perceive it is in the presentation on the screen as well as the quiet dignity of the of the staff and manners of the patrons.

There were no game rooms, no hot dogs of pop corn shrimp taco's with cheese.

There was Popcorn,drinks and candy. The smell of the popcorn was part of the experience.

The auditoriums were well lit with manificent curtains either center draw or austrian shade. A scrim curtain was located directly behind the main and the presentation would begin on this curtain. Soft chamber type music filled your ears and set your mood. Saturdays were great you would get a short subject, a cartoon, a serial and a feature.

Today you enter and slides are on the screen and acid rock or rap music is being played loudly. Then you move into rolling stock advertisments, into five or six trailers and into the main feature.

It's not the same but it does help if "film is done right".

My two cents..

I agree with you 100 percent. Sometimes I wish I'd been around to see movies in some of the older theatres when they were at their peak. The only movie I've ever seen in a single-screen theatre was "E.T." in 1982 at the West Theatre in Cedartown, GA (my first movie seen in a theatre). It would really have been interesting if a presentation quality review system like the one I use on my site has been used back in the days of these older, larger theatres with one screen to see if presentations were indeed of better quality back then.

Can some of the older people here share some comments on this matter? Back in the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s, when one-screen theatres were the norm, was the average presentation better than the average presentation seen in modern multiplex theatres, or vice versa? Many presentations these days are plagued by misframing (flat films), alignment/aperture problems, insufficient or nonuniform brightness problems, and sound problems. Did these problems occur as frequently in the "good old days"?

About the "acid rock and rap" music being played before movies: The problem these days is that the music being thrown at the audience is new music, and most of the new pop/rock music is quite awful. I have heard some great songs before movies, but that tended to be when older songs were played which appeared on some movie soundtrack being pushed by the music program. 50s and 60s rock is my favorite category.

------------------
Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Information Site

 |  IP: Logged

Sound was not true to life, and the sound of a movie filtering into a lobby and echoing was part of the experience. Most theatres had some members of the audience smoking, which caused the projection beam to be visible. Seats were sometimes great, I remember the plush seats in Montreal theatres being especially so, but often during that period the seats in smaller towns were ancient and uncomfortable. Some people would come to the movies with their own cushions. Odors could be interesting before deodorants. Perfumes and sometimes the smell of farmer John's clothes mixed with the smell of B.O.. Cigar and pipe smoke weren't uncommon.

As a kid, I remember seeing the dirt increase on films and then hearing the "whack!" that meant the end of the reel. Often the arc was unstable for a minute or two after a changeover or the picture would have a different look.

 |  IP: Logged

When entering these theaters, there were simple concession stands, and the food was of course expensive for obvious reasons! There were no slides or loud prerecorded music--one of the local radio stations (usually oldies rock or standards/swing/big band) were played quietly over the airwaves. Having the show open on retracting curtains sure gave a lot of grandeur and aura to the presentation--this is hard to describe and an example that I use is the opening credits of Disney's 20000 Leauges Under the Sea--but I also love the opening title sequence on Those Magnificant Men And Their Flying Machines!

As far as dirt on reel ends from changeovers is concerned--this is not a problem as long as you are properly handling the print and keeping up with your housekeeping--as I have seen this problem on platters also--especially used studio prints where they love to use Liquid Paper to mark the splices! Where I really notice a lot of dirt under this circumstances is on video tape releases.

The Summer Film Series has some fine 70mm presentations.

 |  IP: Logged

Prior to working in theatres, I NEVER EVER saw a missed changeover, dark screen, loss of sound or any problem in presentation. After I began working in those wonderful old palaces I found that problems did occur on rare occassions. I seem to remember the sound being much deeper and richer then what we have today. I think the acoustics of those theatres had a lot to do with it. Of course, there weren't all the special effects with surround as we have now, but just enough. There's too much blaring today as far as I'm concerned.

Of course you must relize that the sound that was at the theatres then was far better then anything that we had at home. Today, that isn't always the case. The films of that period were required to have a good story line to capture an audience. They weren't depending on special effects in photography and sound to carry them along.

Contrary to what Jerry said about the decorations being distracting if the plot was weak... that it fact often saved the movie going experience. If the show was indeed weak, one could spend hours just enjoying looking at the theatre. There were so many nooks and cranies and elements of architectural fantasy that they never became a bore. That certainly can't be said about any theatres built today. Yes they are much better then those built during the 70s, 80s and 90s, but still not comparable (not even remotely)to the palaces of the 20s.

The bottom line here is, from my experience, that presentation was almost ALWAYS good to excellent prior to 1970, and that it has been all down hill ever since. I really thought that things were improving with the construction of the new mega-plexes during the late 90s thru today. The vast majority of moviegoers never experienced the movie palaces... and the new plexes were a vast improvement over what had been built during the 70s and 80s. I thought that projection would improve as well, but it hasn't. I continue to hear horror stories all the time from my patrons about what happens at the new plexes in our area.