Quote:
Originally Posted by Urbanas
Thank you Chuckaluck, Ethereal_reality and Godzilla for your amazing material about the Electric Theater 262 South Main Street. Watching the pictures I understand that there were both individual Kinetoscopes and a projecting Kinetoscope on a screen for many seats....do you believe so?
If I had to visit LAon the search of more pictures and materials, what would be the Archives that I should visit there? Is that interesting or everything is available online nowadays? Congrats to all of you for your incredible efficiency!!!!!
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Remember the interior photos of Tally's
are most likely from 311 S. Spring Street - a few years before Tally moved his operation to 262 Spring.
IF, as we are told, the "262" address was deliberately built to show "Flickers," the exact floor plan is anyone's guess. Even if we saw a blueprint, who is to say it could not have been changed depending upon public demand. It is pure speculation that there was an anteroom followed by a curtained screening area. An anteroom could have likely accommodated "personal" revenue-producing kinetoscopes. It is also possible the business was situated like more traditional theaters with the screening area defined by a solid partition.
While the 262 Spring address could have been the first purpose-built movie theater in Los Angeles . . . or the world, the actual layout may not have been revolutionary. Remember, movies-flickers-vitagraphs were commercially exhibited at preexisting vaudeville venues, i.e., movie theaters without movies. I wonder whether Tally's offered musical accompaniment? That might necessitate a stage, or an orchestra pit
or an area for the piano-organ.
I would bet James J. Jeffries knows the answers,
but he's not saying!
I will defer to others who may have visited the archives you reference. As more information/illustrations become available on line, you might be able to locate most of the same things from your desk and become your own guide. I cannot speak intelligently about what you might see at any LA-archive repositories. I would expect them to be more like libraries than artifact displaying museums. Also some of the information posted on this thread comes from private collections and repositories 1000's of miles from LA, e.g., New York, Boston and Washington D.C.
If you have followed this thread, many of us posters are not in Los Angeles, but have lived or visited there. Visiting can give one perspective, but it hardly guarantees a complete understanding - of any place. Try it, you might like it!
Best of luck!
Heavyweight Champion Jim J Jeffries and his wife. (No location or date.)
Jeffries trains in San Pedro for his fight with Jack Johnson. Jeffries allegedly lost 80 lbs. for this fight. (
Atkins, LaLane or Jenny Craig?
)
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/gg...500/04527r.jpg
Victory Boulevard and Buena Vista Street.
http://photos.imageevent.com/exhibit...ies%20Barn.jpg