“Mrs. Anna M. Mozart ran the Mozart Theater in Los Angeles, a high-class place charging ten to twenty-five cents and running special features for a week., with music supplied by the mechanical Photo-Player Orchestra (she played operatic concerts on it.)”
p. 47 of the 1994 paperback edition of “The Transformation of Cinema” by Eileen Bowser
“Clune’s Theater in Los Angeles opened on 10 November 1910. It seated nine hundred and had three projectors plus two stereopticons (at a time when having two projectors was already the sign of a high-class house.) For an admission price of ten and twenty cents (for loge seats at the back), one got five full reels of licensed films on the first run, two illustrated songs, and one "song specialty,” adding up to a program of an hour and a half. If those were really full reels, that means the projectionist at Clune’s speeded them up at a tremendous rate. An eight-piece orchestra and two singing booths, one on each side of the scree, were available for music."
Bowser, Eileen. The Transformation of Cinema: 1907-1915. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990
I just heard today that the Cameo got a pipe organ in 1914. Does anyone know anything about that?
Here’s a better picture. The Orchestrion would have been in one of the two buildings. View link
It seems that 527 S. Spring would have been right next door to the Arcade Building. Might this building have been the Orchestrion Theatre?
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics30/00064910.jpg
Found a little bit on Anna Mozart.
“Mrs. Anna M. Mozart ran the Mozart Theater in Los Angeles, a high-class place charging ten to twenty-five cents and running special features for a week., with music supplied by the mechanical Photo-Player Orchestra (she played operatic concerts on it.)”
p. 47 of the 1994 paperback edition of “The Transformation of Cinema” by Eileen Bowser
oops. pp. 128-129 in the 1994 paperback edition!
Here’s a quote from a book I just reread:
“Clune’s Theater in Los Angeles opened on 10 November 1910. It seated nine hundred and had three projectors plus two stereopticons (at a time when having two projectors was already the sign of a high-class house.) For an admission price of ten and twenty cents (for loge seats at the back), one got five full reels of licensed films on the first run, two illustrated songs, and one "song specialty,” adding up to a program of an hour and a half. If those were really full reels, that means the projectionist at Clune’s speeded them up at a tremendous rate. An eight-piece orchestra and two singing booths, one on each side of the scree, were available for music."
Bowser, Eileen. The Transformation of Cinema: 1907-1915. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990