Movie Palace (CTP2)

Movie Palace
Requires	Electricity
Production cost	1500
Upkeep	5
Effects
-20% war discontent

Movie Palace is a building in Call to Power II.

Gameplay

Entertainment provides much needed distraction from the grind of daily life. The Movie Palace is an enormously effective attraction, giving citizens a realistic fantasy world in which they can forget their troubles, specifically, the discontent associated with a nation at war.

Great Library entry

The lavish motion picture palaces of the early 20th century, which later spawned the massive, multi-screen movie theaters of the late 20th century were themselves borne of the live theaters and music halls of fin de sičcle urban America. The earliest films were not originally shown in movie palaces. Rather, they were shown on Kinetoscope machines that permitted only one viewer at a time. Existing entertainment venues, such as penny arcades, installed rows of these machines and enticed patrons to view these new technological creations. Because Kinetoscopes were little more than optical illusions, people tended to regard them as curiosities. The earliest films were marketed based not on stars, titles or subjects but the projection machinery involved. Tally's Electric Theater, the first building devoted entirely to movies, was built in Los Angeles in 1902. Even though the mass relocation of East Coast filmmakers that birthed the Hollywood movie industry had yet to happen until the end of the decade, movies were popular enough to urge businessmen to invest in storefront theaters and "nickelodeons." These new theaters employed new projection technology that, unlike the Kinetoscopes, enabled multiple patrons to view a film projected on a screen. Nickelodeons garnered a sordid reputation and rankled upper class citizens, who preferred the "respectable" theaters that showed operas, plays and vaudeville.

Films began to catch the attention of upper class audiences when "big-time" vaudeville operators began including them on the bill. When Adolph Zukor showed the film Queen Elizabeth at the Lyceum Theater in New York in 1912, audiences enjoyed the dramatic, stage-like presentation of the subject matter, and, particularly, the appearance of Sarah Bernhardt, a noted stage actor, in the title role. Filmmakers began to produce movies consisting of little more than filmed productions of staged theater in an attempt to improve the industry's image. The first feature length films, including D.W. Griffith's twelve-reel Birth of a Nation in 1915, transformed movies into narrative vehicles, rather than mere technological curiosities.

The vaudeville houses of the same period fused highbrow and popular cultural influences in their architecture and decor. Patrons entered though lavish, often oriental-themed facades festooned with flashing lights and marquees into marble-floored, mirrored-wall foyers, decked out with oil paintings, plush furniture and smartly dressed personal attendants. They attempted to mimic the grandeur of New York's opera houses, and offered extra amenities. Proctor's Pleasure Palace, built in 1895, offered a roof garden restaurant, library, barbershop, and a Turkish bath housed in a Romanesque facade. As films gained prominence and legitimacy, movie palaces sought to provide the same experience as the best vaudeville houses. The Regent, American's first motion picture palace, opened in New York in 1913. Although it was located in a working class district, uptown from the legitimate theater district, its opening night audience consisted of many of the same patrons of New York's toniest opera houses and theaters. Movie palaces, such as the Strand, the Rialto and the Rivoli, soon took their place along legitimate theaters on Broadway.

Samuel L. Rothapfel, also known as "Roxy," was, more than anyone else, responsible for the increasing opulence of these movie houses. He presided over the openings of many movie palaces, and instituted practices distinct from traditional theaters, namely, unreserved seating and low admission prices. What perhaps contributed to the success and allure of movie palaces was that they were designed to make the average citizen feel like royalty. Movie palaces gave people an opportunity to step into a world of fantasy and, for the pioneers of the movie industry, many of whom were first generation Americans, this was the fulfillment of the American dream.