Sit back and enjoy the heyday of cinema and going to watch a film.
This week on April 2nd over 120 years ago in 1902, Tally’s Electric Theater opened – it was the first permanent movie theater in Los Angeles, with the Hollywood district of the city soon to become central to film-making and cinema around the world.
In 1896, the first ‘storefront theater’ in the US which was dedicated exclusively to showing motion pictures was the Vitascope Hall in the city of New Orleans in Luisiana. It was converted from a vacant store. ‘Storefront theater’ refers to, once film had demonstrated its lasting appeal, businessmen that had began to take over shops, halls and railway arches, painting over the windows and otherwise rather crudely converting them into full-time cinemas.
A 3-D audience. (Image: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group) 
Oakland, California 1948. The Fox Orpheum Theater in Oakland featuring a sneak preview of “”Sitting Pretty”” and “”The Tender Years””. (Image: Underwood Archives UIGUniversal Images Group) 
Empire Theater at Night, Ben-Hur on Marquee, Leicester Square, London, England, UK, 1960. (Image: Circa Images/GHI/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group) 
Crowd and Movie Theater Marquee at Night, Chicago, Illinois, USA, John Vachon, Farm Security Administration, July 1941. (Image: Circa Images/GHI/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group) 
Passers by are attracted by banners for the latest Bollywood film at the Capitol Cinema Bombay Maharashtra India. (Image: Andrew Woodley/UCG/Universal Images Group) 
Children at Movie House on Sunday, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, Jack Delano, U.S. Farm Security Administration, January 1941. (Image: Circa Images/GHI/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group) 
Historic architecture 1911 the Electric Palace cinema, Harwich, Essex, England, UK. (Image: Geography Photos/Universal Images Group) 
Cinema Impero. Harnet Street. Asmara. Eritrea. (Image: Giovanni Mereghetti/UCG/Universal Images Group) 
Man standing in movie theater lobby next to movie posters circa 1935. (Image: HUM Images/Universal Images Group) 
1980s America – Babcock Theater, Billings, Montana 1980. (Image: HUM Imgaes/Universal Images Group) 
1980s America – Sunset Drive-In, Norland, Pennsylvania 1980. (Image: HUM Imgaes/Universal Images Group) 
Berkley Theater – entrance doors – Robins – Berkley – Michigan 1976. (Image: HUM Imgaes/Universal Images Group) 
Lakewood Drive-In Theater Carson Street Lakewood California ca. 1981. (Image: HUM Imgaes/Universal Images Group) 
1980s America – Strand Theater, Hastings, Nebraska 1980. (Image: HUM Imgaes/Universal Images Group) 
1970s America – Airline Drive-In, Houston, Texas 1977. (Image: HUM Imgaes/Universal Images Group) 
Movie Theatre at Night, Greensboro, Georgia, USA, Jack Delano, U.S. Farm Security Administration, U.S. Office of War Information Photograph Collection, June 1941. (Image: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group) 
The Astria Ufa Capitol cinema close to dawn in Berlin, Germany 1930s. (Image: United Archives/Pollmann/Universal Images Group) 
Movie Theater, Butte, Montana, USA, Arthur Rothstein, U.S. Farm Security Administration, August, 1939. (Image: Circa Images/GHI/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group) 
Street scene with people waiting in line for tickets outside Loew’s Capitol motion picture theatre, Washington, D.C., USA, David Myers, U.S. Farm Security Administration, 1939. (Image: Circa Images/GHI/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group) 
Empress Theater, 9th Street, Washington, D.C., USA, David Myers, U.S. Farm Security Administration, July 1939 (Image: Circa Images/GHI/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group) 
Cinema Palace in Lausanne, 1948. (Image: RDB by Dukas/Universal Images Group) 
Cinema Cine Dore, Calle de Santa Isabel, Madrid, Spain. (Image: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group) 
Kosmos Cinema and Event Hall, Frankfurter Allee, Friedrichshain, Berlin, Germany. (Image: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group)
The practicalities of showing films also affected the development of cinema buildings. In the UK for example, under the Cinematograph Act of 1909, new regulations came into effect in January 1910 to improve safety. As the nitrate film stock being projected was highly inflammable, the Act required the provision of a fire-resistant projection booth. This legislation, as well as the burgeoning cinema industry, greatly encouraged the spread of purpose-built picture houses. These usually had flamboyant exteriors to catch the eye, with payboxes open to the street, and the frequent use of the word ‘Electric’ in their names as a reminder that electricity was something of a novelty.
By 1913 in the USA, the first elaborate movie palaces began to appear with the first movie ‘palace’ built for movies only and without a stage, The Mark Strand Theatre, opening at Times Square in New York in 1914 with seating for 2,800 people.
In the next several years, as movie revenues exploded, independent promoters and movie studios (who owned their own proprietary chains until an antitrust ruling in 1948) raced to build the most lavish, elaborate, attractive theaters across the world.
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Sources:
https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/april/april-2-birthdays-and-events
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cinema_in_the_United_States