Movie palace

Many movie palaces were razed or converted into multiple-screen venues or performing arts centers, though some have undergone restoration and reopened to the public as historic buildings.

[citation needed] Paid exhibition of motion pictures began on April 14, 1894, at Andrew M. Holland's phonograph store, located at 1155 Broadway in New York City, with the Kinetoscope.

The machines were installed in Kinetoscope parlors, hotels, department stores, bars and drugstores in large American cities.

The machines were popular from 1894 to 1896, but by the turn of the century had almost disappeared as Americans rejected the solitary viewing experience and boring entertainment.

With no roof and only side walls or fences, the air domes allowed patrons to view motion pictures in a venue that was cooler than the stifling atmosphere of the storefront theatre.

Storefront theatres and nickelodeons catered to the busy work lives and limited budgets of the lower and middle classes.

There were also real concerns over the physical safety of the nickelodeon theaters themselves as they were often cramped with little ventilation and the nitrate film stock used at the time was extremely flammable.

[8] These desires were satisfied when Lamb built the Strand Theatre on Broadway, which was opened in 1914 by Mitchel H. Mark at the cost of one million dollars.

"[7] To accomplish this these theaters were outfitted with a plethora of amenities such as larger sitting areas, air conditioning, and even childcare services.

Sid Grauman, built the first movie palace on the West Coast, Los Angeles' Million Dollar Theater, in 1918.

[11] The closing of most movie palaces occurred after United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. in 1948, which ordered all of the major film studios to sell their theaters.

Most of the newly independent theaters could not continue to operate on the low admissions sales of the time without the financial support of the major studios and were forced to close.

[14] Some movie palaces were able to stay in business only by getting out of the way, at least with respect to the highest-grossing first-run films for which they were no longer viable exhibition venues.