CHICAGO – The term “Movie Palaces” might seem foreign to most people, as our movie viewing has evolved to the current super centers of multiple theaters under one roof or the big screen TV at home. But there was a brief period in the early days of movies, pre-television, when theater builders wanted to give the audience a luxurious palace to view their favorite films. Director April Wright’s new documentary is “Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of Movie Palaces,” and it will screen at a mini-palace, the historic Music Box Theatre in Chicago, on November 12th, 2019. Click here [19] for more information and tickets.
Other countries built palaces for royalty, in the U.S. we built them to watch movies. “Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of Movie Palaces” celebrates the grandeur of the great American cinema houses of our movie past. Built in the 1910s-30s, when movies became ultimate entertainment and the stories were larger than life, so were the venues designed to show them … thousands of seats, giant screens, exotic and ornate interiors with balconies and lounges, in-house organs/orchestras, amazing marquees, and air conditioning back when homes had none. The film also tracks the theaters’ eventual decline, through to current-day preservation efforts.
The Music Box screening will feature an appearance by the director April Wright, as well as the local heroes who are preserving Chicago’s own history with the movie palace – Jerry Mickelson and Bob Boin from the Uptown Theatre, Jerald Gary from the Southside’s Avalon New Regal and Craig Morrison, Chicago architect and former president of the Theater Historical Society of America.
In a Podtalk with Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, director April Wright reflects on her film, and the legacy of the Movie Palace in America.
[20] | By PATRICK McDONALD [21] |
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