Of the 700 RKO circuit theaters, only 5 were still offering a "vaudeville only" bill; the rest were sharing their space or providing bills solely filled with films. By providing this crucial relief, American film reached a pinnacle of influence, at a time when most other industries were struggling mightily. Theatre survives, of course, but the 1930s were a very different decade than the boom of the 1920s. The first movie theatres were rented rooms and music halls. The Golden Age of Hollywood: From 1930 to 1948. As movies gained popularity and the technology of showing moving images improved, going to the movies was transformed into a magical experience. The Uptown Theatre opened as the “Lagoon Theater” in 1916 and is one of the oldest theaters in the Twin Cities area. These giants dominated the business until an anti-trust ruling came down from the U.S. Supreme Court in 1948. The Great Train Robbery (), which was 12 minutes in length, would also give the film industry a boost.. The first permanent motion picture theater in the state of California was Tally's Electric Theater, completed in 1902 in Los Angeles.Tally's theater was in a storefront in a larger building. By the 1920s and 1930s, big names were buying theaters, like Paramount, Loews, Warner, and Fox. Cinemas were much greater in number at this time: urban and suburban spaces were peppered with theatres presence as cinema building expanded and some of the major early chains like Odeon and Gaumont took hold in the 1930s. Movie Theatres In the Theatre Movie Theatres. One gimmick that kept movie theaters operating during the very lean 1930s was Dish Night. The movie industry’s triumph in the 1930s lay in giving the public what it wanted to see. It was called The Great Depression, and movies played an important role in keeping people going. The days of the drive-in movie theaters, 1930-1950 Actor Charlton Heston plays Moses with arms flung wide in the motion picture “The Ten Commandments,” shown at a drive-in movie theater in 1958. 1900–1919. Its product was therapeutic diversion for millions of Americans who needed to get away from their troubles. This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2013 at 6:05 pm and is filed under Musical Theatre … In 1925, there were approximately 1500 theaters in the vaudeville circuits; by 1930, only 300 were left. Though there were drive-ins as early as the 1910s, the first patented drive-in was opened on June 6, 1933 by Richard Hollingshead in New Jersey. In the 1930’s movie theaters would show two films for the price of one, usually with a B-film playing ahead of the main feature. The 1930s decade (and most of the 1940s as well) has been nostalgically labeled "The Golden Age of Hollywood" (although most of the output of the decade was black-and-white). 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