The Exhibitor as Producer Stage Prologues in American Movie Theatres, 1917-1926

• Main Author: Abel, Richard
• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer Nature 2025; Palgrave Macmillan
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: American movie theaters; cinema exhibition; early cinema history; early film history; Economics, Finance, Business and Management; Film, TV and Radio industries; History of Performing Arts; Industry and industrial studies; Media, entertainment, information and communication industries; movie exhibition; Performing arts; stage blueprints; stage prologues; The Arts; Theatre studies

This open access book seeks answers to a series of questions about the little studied subject of prologues or theatrical presentations in American movie theaters from the late 1910s to the mid-1920s. How did prologues emerge out of prior practices? Who were the exhibitors most involved? What charact...

Table of Contents:

• Intro -- Acknowledgements -- Illustrations -- Contents -- List of Figures -- 1 Prelude -- Notes -- 2 Premiering the Prologue -- Early Prologues in Buffalo, Indianapolis, and Waukesha -- Notes -- 3 Surveying the Landscape of Prologues, 1919-1920 -- Single, Double, and Triptych Stage Sets -- Rural, Exotic, and Fashion Show Prologues -- Multiple Prologues for the Same Film in Different Cities -- Not All Prologues Harmonize -- Dropping the Curtain on 1920 -- Notes -- 4 Prologues in Profusion, 1921-1922 -- Prologue Types in Multiples -- Notable Exhibitors and a Miscellany of Others -- Contrastive Prologues -- Notes -- 5 Changes in the Prologue Scenes, 1923-1926 -- Another Peak Year, 1923 -- Continuity and Change, 1924-1926 -- Notes -- 6 Production Circuits, Design Blueprints, and Debates -- Production Circuits -- Design Blueprints -- Debates -- Notes -- 7 Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index