I’ve fond memories of attending movies in “palaces” of various sizes and styles throughout the late 1930s and thereafter. But I have to recognize that the these institutions have a pretty good excuse for failing — it is that we all found TV, video tapes, and multiplex cinemas more seductive. And ongoing developments in home-viewing don’t offer much hope of our being rooted out of our living rooms any time soon. So today, it’s hardly likely that a traditional single-screen movie palace can pull in large enough audiences who will pay the ticket prices needed to keep it going. Some have managed to retain their facades and keep operating by cramming extra screens and other amenities inside, but it ain’t the same experience we had as kids. In Dallas, we have one old movie palace downtown that survives by hosting stage shows only and a neighborhood house that has a second screen in the balcony and a bar in the lobby.
I’ve fond memories of attending movies in “palaces” of various sizes and styles throughout the late 1930s and thereafter. But I have to recognize that the these institutions have a pretty good excuse for failing — it is that we all found TV, video tapes, and multiplex cinemas more seductive. And ongoing developments in home-viewing don’t offer much hope of our being rooted out of our living rooms any time soon. So today, it’s hardly likely that a traditional single-screen movie palace can pull in large enough audiences who will pay the ticket prices needed to keep it going. Some have managed to retain their facades and keep operating by cramming extra screens and other amenities inside, but it ain’t the same experience we had as kids. In Dallas, we have one old movie palace downtown that survives by hosting stage shows only and a neighborhood house that has a second screen in the balcony and a bar in the lobby.