Cinema Houston: From Nickelodeon to MegaplexUniversity of Texas Press, 30 juin 2010 - 352 pages Cinema Houston celebrates a vibrant century of movie theatres and moviegoing in Texas's largest city. Illustrated with more than two hundred historical photographs, newspaper clippings, and advertisements, it traces the history of Houston movie theatres from their early twentieth-century beginnings in vaudeville and nickelodeon houses to the opulent downtown theatres built in the 1920s (the Majestic, Metropolitan, Kirby, and Loew's State). It also captures the excitement of the neighborhood theatres of the 1930s and 1940s, including the Alabama, Tower, and River Oaks; the theatres of the 1950s and early 1960s, including the Windsor and its Cinerama roadshows; and the multicinemas and megaplexes that have come to dominate the movie scene since the late 1960s. While preserving the glories of Houston's lost movie palaces—only a few of these historic theatres still survive—Cinema Houston also vividly re-creates the moviegoing experience, chronicling midnight movie madness, summer nights at the drive-in, and, of course, all those tasty snacks at the concession stand. Sure to appeal to a wide audience, from movie fans to devotees of Houston's architectural history, Cinema Houston captures the bygone era of the city's movie houses, from the lowbrow to the sublime, the hi-tech sound of 70mm Dolby and THX to the crackle of a drive-in speaker on a cool spring evening. |
Table des matières
1 | |
9 | |
THREE Bigger and Better | 29 |
FOUR The Majestics | 43 |
The Metropolitan the Kirby and Loews State | 65 |
You Aint Heard Nothing Yet | 85 |
SEVEN Will Horwitz Philanthropist | 101 |
EIGHT The Neighborhood Theatre 19341949 | 117 |
The Times They Are AChangin | 229 |
FOURTEEN The XHouses | 241 |
Safety in Numbers | 251 |
The Concession Stand | 265 |
Midnight Movies and the Alternative Cinema | 273 |
EIGHTEEN Rediscovery in the Age of the Megaplex | 285 |
An Afterword | 295 |
Notes | 299 |
NINE Hoblitzelles Interstate | 151 |
TEN Jim Crow and the Ethnic theatre | 177 |
The Incredible 3D WideScreen Technicolor StereophonicSound Ballyhoo Parade | 195 |
A View from the Car Seat | 203 |
317 | |
321 | |