Obscure but fascinating movie theatre history

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Movies from comedy to drama to your favorite Hollyweird Star.

I had no idea until now, that real film exhibition, three major motion picture companies *and* vaudeville began in Boston.
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Theater's next act: Bijou rich in history
By Paul Restuccia -- Boston Herald
Sunday, August 21, 2005
For decades, the old building on Lower Washington Street was a
place where kids hung around to play pinball and video games - few
knowing that the rundown arcade was not only the birthplace of
vaudeville, but an early movie palace that literally spawned the
motion picture industry.
The city of Boston, which recently bought the five-story
stone structure at 545 Washington St., calls it the ``Arcade
Building,'' a name that de-emphasizes its illustrious past.

But the structure, which dates back to 1836, is most famously
known as the Bijou Theatre.

It's a name once synonymous with going to the movies - the
first of hundreds of Bijous around the country built by vaudeville
impressario Benjamin Frankin Keith.

It was in this building in the mid-1880s where Keith
presented the first vaudeville shows, launching an empire of nearly
600 theaters across the country. In the early days, Keith lived on
the top floor of the building with his young family.

Now a top theater historian is asking the city and Emerson
College, which is set to redevelop the building as part of a $70
million project, to reserve part of the Bijou for a museum or
exhibit space...
How important is the Bijou to the history of theater and show business?

Consider this: In 1882, the Bijou was wired by Thomas Edison into
what became the country's first electrified theater, lit by 644
handmade lightbulbs. Edison himself started the generator on the
historic night that electricity came to the theater.

In 1908, Keith decided to expand his vaudeville empire into films
and renovated the Bijou into the city's first movie palace. Keith
foresaw that movies could be more than arcade attractions if they
had a story. The Bijou's success, which he duplicated throughout
the country, spawned the commercial movie industry.

It was out of a booking office here that South End immigrant Louis
B. Mayer started Metro Pictures, which became MGM. Another
immigrant, Adolph Zukor, started the Famous Players Corporation
that became Paramount Pictures. And Zukor aide Hiram Abrams would
go on to found United Artists.

http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=98943 (Open in New Window)

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Topic - Obscure but fascinating movie theatre history - clarkjohnsen 08:31:39 08/23/05 (0)

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