(female announer)
This is a production
of WKNO-Memphis.
Production funding for this
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by..
♪♪♪
Vincent Astor has been a friend
of W-K-N-O for many years.
He's well-known around Memphis
not only for his generosity but
also his knowledge of history.
Recently he wrote a book about
some of that history entitled
Memphis Movie Theatres, part of
the Images of America series.
Vincent Astor,
welcome to the program.
Thank you, thank you.
I have to tell you this
was really a lot of fun.
I mean I picked up.
Listen, I thought to myself..
We had had a
meeting a few weeks ago.
And I thought to myself well,
you know I'll read a little bit
at a time.
I picked up this and I
could not put it down.
I mean I read it
all in one sitting.
And it was just,
just fascinating.
When did the
movies come to Memphis?
When was that?
Now actually the very first
demonstration of one of the many
kinds of projection that was
invented in the 19th century was
the cinematograph.
And it was shown as a novelty
in a theatre that's long gone
called first the
Auditorum and then the Bijou.
It stood on the same plot where
the Chisca Hotel stands now.
It burned in 1911.
I see.
It started out life
as a street car barn.
And when street cars changed,
they made it in to a theater.
And these were just
anything that moved.
One of the oldest moving
pictures that was shown
commercially is just
waves breaking on a shore.
Oh, I see.
So this would have been
the place back when..
Back when Thomas Edison was
shooting the initial films at
the Black Mariah
somewhere in New Jersey.
Right.
I think the very first
film was Fred Ott's Sneeze,
it was called.
So what they would do is they
would show it and the guy would
sneeze.
And that was the
big deal, you know,
at that point.
Or two guys fighting
and things like that.
It was like one of the films
that they showed in the movie
about Georges Melies.
A locomotive would
approach the audience.
And they'd all jump up thinking
it was real when it was not.
And it was such a novelty.
It was so magical that people
would get scared and people in
the audience would yell at the
villain as if it were a stage
play.
Uh-huh.
What was..
Now you gave us a
preview of the reaction,
you know, to it.
Did it catch on pretty
quick here in Memphis?
I mean was there any kind of
people who were saying no,
we shouldn't have
this in this town.
It's an instrument of the devil
like some people used to say
about the telephone.
What was it you
found in your research?
Well actually when films
were first being made,
film makers would film anything.
And in order to attract
people in to see them,
they got sometimes quite blue.
And there were a
lot of those early,
very early pieces
that were blue.
[laughter]
And even if it was artistic,
there was female
nudity and so forth.
So later on, there
became kind of a divide.
But I have found online a slide
which I've used in some of my
visual presentations that
is ladies and children,
welcome at this theater So
people would put ads on the
screen to say this was
family entertainment.
Bring everybody.
So it wasn't seedy.
I see.
But and so it was
a novelty here,
there and yonder.
But the very first full-time
movie theater opened in 1905.
I see, I see.
And that's when it was becoming
the first person who was going
to take a chance on it
as a commercial venture.
Huh!
Well you know I shouldn't be
so shocked that they would have
what you call blue films and
some nudity because at the time,
there was no censor
board as per say.
There was no
central studio system.
The studio heads
couldn't get together and say,
you know, they should
stop this, you know,
or anything else.
But there was some very
neferaious gings on in Memphis
itself.
It was illegal liquor.
In doing research at the time,
there were opium dens behind,
what was it?
-- Cleaners cleaning stores.
And the police was
trying to go after that.
So I guess in a sense, we
shouldn't be surprised by that.
What was one of the
biggest theater to open up?
What was the first big
movie theater that opened up?
Well let me digress and I'll
answer something that you just
said.
I forget what the first name of
the man is but his last name was
Persica.
And he was a gangster.
In fact, he has turf and Memphis
was divided up among several
people, particularly downtown.
And his bar, Persica's Garden,
actually was listed as a movie
theater.
And that's part of what
they showed as entertainment.
And of course in the back
room there was gambling.
Huh!
So they did actually go
hand-in-hand for a while in
Memphis.
Oh my gosh!
But really the biggest theater
built ever which had movies as
one of it's primary forms of
entertainment was the Orpheum,
which is still standing.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Well you know that reminds me.
One of the things and one of
the great things about this
particular book is the fact that
there are so many great pictures
in here.
And I think what we're gonna do
is we're gonna take a look at
some.
Now tell us what
we're looking at.
Well that actually is the Grand
Opera House that was built in
1890.
It was built on the
corner of Main and Beale.
And in 1907, it became
the First Orpheum Theater.
And it stood until 1923.
There are some people
who may still remember it.
But a lot of people remember
or would remember the fire that
destroyed it in
October of that year.
The biggest audience in the
theater's history gathered to
watch it burn.
And the headliners was Blossom
Seeley who was a singer with an
act of her own.
But not many people realized
that one of the people on the
Vaudeville Bill was Bert Lahr.
Oh my gosh!
The cowardly lion
from The Wizard of Oz.
Yes, playing
Vaudeville in the early '20s.
What's this next picture
that we're looking at?
Now that's the
theater I just mentioned.
That's the Bijou.
Uh-huh.
Which no one would
remember at all.
But that is where the
cinematograph was first shown as
a novelty in 1896.
People think of movies as
a 20th century invention.
But it really wasn't.
Movies were invented in
the late 19th century.
They were just perfected in
the early 20th century and then
became popular.
I see.
And this would be?
That is the Lyceum Theater.
It was built in 1894 on the
corner of Second and Jefferson.
And you can see it bragged about
how it was all electrically lit.
No gas lights at all.
And you can see around the edge
it was lit with those exposed
light bulbs.
And what's on the left is really
one of the best things about
this picture.
It's a ceiling fan
upside-down on a pole.
Oh, okay!
You can see it's over
one of those side boxs.
The place was filled with
ceiling fans and even had
windows on either side of one
of the balconies because it was
Memphis and the weather in
Memphis hasn't changed that
much.
Oh my gosh!
Now this one, which
theater was this?
This is probably one of
the least remembered of the
theaters.
It was called first the
Jefferson and then the Lyric.
It was on Madison avenue.
The palce where it stood is
right over the Danny Thomas
street overpass.
In fact, it's a little gap
between two buildings where
there's a parking lot now.
And that's about
where the Lyric stood.
But it was..
We'll talk about this again.
It was the three most important
things about where to put a
theater.
Location, location and location.
The Lyric was just far enough
out Madison off the beaten path
that it had a very troubled
life and it took all sorts of
machinations to get people to
come all the way down Madison to
a theater when all the rest of
them were down on Third street,
Second street, Main street,
here, there and yonder.
In fact, the sign for the Lyric
stretched across Madison from
one side to the other so you
could look down Madison and see
the big word Lyric.
Ah, okay.
And it burned in the
'40s, 1945 I believe.
I see.
Now we see on the lefthand side
of the screen a famous Memphis
name.
And it's a very
famous for two reasons.
Charles Dinstuhls senior had
his candy store on the corner of
Washington and Main, which
is the view you see here.
You see on the left there's a
little row of light bulbs which
would be in the windows.
See just past the sign is
another building with the
windows surrounded by light
bulbs which is sort of come back
in to vogue these days.
Those lights are the Theatorium,
the very first full-time movie
theater in Memphis.
On the right of the image is a
little sign that says Palace -
five cents.
On behind that is a
little sign that says Ruby.
And where you are looking at the
Dinstuhl's sign was a sign that
says Amuse - five cents.
Hm.
Those are all
nickelodeon theaters.
I see.
And the word nickelodeon is
nickel in front of the Greek
word for theater.
They were theaters and they were
actually also live entertainment
theaters.
Because in the early days,
sometimes it was always only one
projector.
Right.
And so the film
had to be rewound.
And in the very early days,
there was no take up reel where
the film came off of one
reel and on to another.
It may have been running through
the projector and go in to a
bucket.
So it all had to be
rewound to start over again.
So there was always a singer or
a musician or sometimes a small
time Vaudeville act
during these presentations,
you know, between pictures.
This looks to be
roughly about the same time.
Yes, this is 1907.
And there's the Optic.
I think you can barely read
moving pictures or motion
pictures.
And it's got the five
cents on it on either side.
And across the street from it,
there are several buildings that
are still there.
There's Goldsmiths and the Main
street entrance to the Gayoso
Hotel.
The interesting thing about this
picture is Leslo State than the
little theater on it's
left, which is the Bijou.
That is roughly the
same address as the Optic.
Go ahead and do that.
See the Optic is there on
the right of that picture.
That's roughly the same
street address as the Bijou.
Three different theaters under
three different names occupied
that address.
Location, location and location.
Yeah.
And right next to
this wonderful location,
Leow's State was
opened in 1920.
I see.
And this one.
This was the Princess, right?
Yes.
The Princess was in the block
which is between Peabody Place
and Beale Street.
There was an alley that ran
through the center of the block.
And this was the first and most
elaborate stand alone theater
that was built in Memphis.
It's also the only one
that has in the terracotta,
you see it's theater.
All of the rest of them from
great to small were theatres
with the r-e reversed.
I see.
And this beautiful terracotta
fasade was hidden from most of
the theaters life.
This was 1913.
And you can see between those
pilasters on either side is a
row of light bulbs.
And the archway was
studded with light bulbs.
I see.
And it's a very deep
archway with a big fan light.
At night, it was beautiful.
I love these night shots.
With the Majestic on the side.
Which is the same address
as the Optic and the Bijou.
I see.
I love these
old-fashioned signs.
You can see in this night
picture how the star at the top
revolved.
You see it's a
five pointed star.
But it turned.
I see.
And this was what year?
This was 1911.
1911.
Or 1910.
This comes from a book of night
pictures from 1911 called Night
in Memphis.
And it was many pictures of Main
street and a couple of the side
streets that were lit
and then augmented.
So all the windows would be lit.
I mean you very seldom see a
building with that many windows
lit.
And it's got another
interesting point.
You pull back just a..
Pull back some.
See right above the caption are
the two huge globe lights that
showed that the majestic
theater was open at night.
You see across the street the
same two kinds of lights under
the canopy of the Gayoso.
You see practically
no street lights.
So those were in front of all
the nickelodeons and many of the
other theaters to show
that they were open at night.
And they were some of the
very earliest street lights.
I see.
And see this is
from the same book.
It's the corner
of Main and Beale.
You see two theaters here.
One is the old Orpheum in 1911.
See it's deep entry
way is brilliantly lit.
And there are the two
globe lights again.
Right.
And a little further down is a
crescent shaped sign right over
that trolley car
that says theater.
That is the Columbia.
And you see the top of it's
front is also edged with lights.
I see.
Man, this was a hoppin'
town back in those days.
At any one time, there were
probably during the hay days in
the early '20s and
even in the '40s,
there were about 50 movie
theaters in operation at once.
Wow!
In Shelby County.
That's amazing.
Now this is, if I
remember correctly,
this is over on Beale.
It is.
This is the original entrance
complete with the globe lights
of the Beale Street Palace.
That..
The Beale Street Palace would
have been right next to the New
Daisy and the yellow brick
building that's next to it.
Right next to that was a
three-story building which
hosued first the Pastime, which
was a nickelodeon and later a
big auditorium was added to
the back which became the Beale
Street Palace.
Much more famous for its live
entertainment than it was its
movies.
In fact, there were sometimes
after the show was over,
everybody went home and the
projections would put on the
last film starting with the
first reel and ending with the
last reel with nothing in
between because there was no
body there to watch it.
And this is 1939.
1939!
Well we jumped ahead just a
little bit because we were
before in the silent era.
That's right.
And the theater looked
like this in the silent era.
So it didn't change very much.
But then we come in to this
theater which was the old Ellis
auditorium.
And you told me something that
was really interesting about the
first talking.
Yes.
This..
The auditorium was
wired for sound actually.
The south hall,
the smaller hall,
had provisions for movies.
Because in the end of the '20s
when sound pictures were first
becoming popular, it was
very elaborate and expensive to
convert a theater to sound,
particularly temporarily.
Well since the auditorium was
accustomed to shows coming in
and out all the time, they would
truck sound equipment on to the
stage of the auditorium and
show a movie in the south hall.
The Jazz Singer was one of those
that we didn't get until '29.
But it has a long run and there
were several sound pictures that
came to the auditorium first
before the rest of the theaters
were converted.
The auditorium was
originally built as an arena.
Hm!
Some people remember the north
hall being an ampitheater and
the ice show in the
circus being in there.
But originally, you see
there's no proscenium.
There's no stage.
That floor in the middle that
all the chairs on it was the
stage floor.
And it was on a lift.
So the whole huge building
could be one great arena.
And then they
wanted to divide it.
The proscenium on either
side was heavy canvas.
And it flew in and out
just like a back drop.
Now we're looking at an artist's
concept from -- when was this?
This would have been 1927
because the new Orpheum theatre
was opened on November 19, 1928
-- 85 years ago last November.
This is the rendering of
the brand new Orpheum,
which was to
replace in the late '20s,
the old Orpheum that had
burned in the early '20s.
And the Warner.
And this actually was part
of an earlier chain named for
Alexander Pantages.
The real oldsters like my mother
remember is was opened as the
Pantages in 1921.
Warner Brothers
bought it in 1929.
People wondered why the Warner
had such a gigantic marquee.
Well it orginally
had a plain canopy,
one of those like we've seen in
previous pictures with the glass
plates around the edge.
And so the canopy was big.
And when they put the
marquee on top of it,
it became one of the most
significant signs Downtown.
It's in hundreds and hundreds of
parade videos and photographs.
And this is when it
was it's most beautiful.
That's the kind of movie theater
that would just get you excited
from a distance.
One of the things that I
think is fascinating about this
history is not only how
beautiful these theaters were
from the outside but
also the interiors.
I'm going to show
another one here.
Tell me about the Loew's Palace.
There were three theaters
being built at the same time.
The Pantages, and two
theaters to be opened by Loew's
Incorporated.
Loew's State,
which we saw earlier,
was on Main street and has a
story all of its own because it
was.
The auditorium of the theater
was an existing building on
second street.
Mhm.
The entrance needed
to be on main street.
So it was also in an
existing building.
So it was -- had a
very long lobby.
The Palace had -- was only a
half a block deep and had an
alley in the back which
could not be blocked at all.
So it had a wide shallow lobby.
This view is the mezzanine foyer
of the theater where the main
lounges were.
Mhm.
And you see how on the left
there was a glass wall between
this foyer and the outer lobby.
So you could look through the
window and see the chandelier
and it would give the illusion
of being in a bigger room.
And if you look down
under this chandelier,
you can just see a couple of
rows of seats where this was an
open well.
You see them there?
Yes.
An open well over the
back rows of seats.
It had one big balcony
which had two levels.
You see on the sides where
there's a little cut out.
That's the tunnel that goes
to the lower part of the big
balcony.
And a step box is
on either side.
And then there was other
entrances for the top part of
the balcony.
I know this is one of
your great loves right here.
Yeah.
The organ.
And which organ is this?
Which theater is it from?
This is the south
hall of the auditorium.
And this is a very
lucky instrument.
It is a for manual Kimball
concert organ that was used for
many, many things
throughout its lifetime.
And when the
auditorium was taken down,
it was carefully crated and
put away in the basement.
It was purchased by
Bartlett Methodist Church,
rebuilt and sounds even better
at Bartlett Methodist than it
did at the Ellis Auditorium.
[laughter]
I'm gonna jump
here a little bit.
We're gonna take a look
at this picture here.
What we're looking at is
a younger Vincent Astor.
This was taken
around the '70s, right?
It was '77 or '78.
It was after the theater
had become the Orpheum again.
And I'm wearing a
1940s Malco usher coat,
which is now belongs
to the Pink Palace.
And that was taken by
the Commercial Appeal.
It's averaged sized guy next
to gigantic light fixture.
But every once in a while,
they take down the chandelier.
And here you are
giving it a nice polish.
Was that something you did
on a regular basis back then?
As seldom as I can
get away with it.
[laughter]
That light fixture is
about 12 feet high.
You can get down inside of the
bowl and it's big enough to hide
a body.
Oh my gosh!
It wenches down from the ceiling
in the same type of wench that's
used to lift other heavy
things like car motors.
Right, right.
And it takes 45 minutes to get
it down and two and a half hours
of cranking by hand to
get it back up again.
You're pulling this long chain
and pulling it and pulling it
and pulling it until it
finally gets back up there.
It was said in 1928 that
it weighed 2000 pounds.
Oh my goodness!
Well Vincent, the
time has just flown by.
And you have to promise me that
you'll come back and we'll do
this again.
Certainly!
Alright.
And the book is called
Memphis Movie Theaters.
And it is written by my
friend, Vincent Astor.
Thank you for being on the show.
♪♪♪
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PROVIDED BY WKNO-MEMPHIS.