Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Main Street Cinema July 1955

Once upon a time, the Main Street cinema showed true silent films, not just Mickey Mouse all the time on every screen. The star on the marquee was the first screen cowboy and wore a very white hat. William Surrey Hart was born in 1864 in New York, lived in the Dakota Territory, worked as a postal clerk and then studied acting and appeared on Broadway. In 1914 he filmed his first movie His Hour of Manhood. He starred in many films until his career fizzled in 1925 and retired to his ranch in Newhall. Upon his death in 1946, the ranch was deeded to the city of Los Angeles and is now the William S. Hart park.

Some things of interest in the photo are the neat banners advertising 6 simultaneous films, the columns advertise the Dance of Fatima as one of the films and to the left of the left column is a Disneyland News newspaper rack.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great Series! I just love it! I only recently went into the Main Street Cinema, I think I was expecting something like the old Fantasyland Theater, something bigger and with seats! LOL! When I finally saw it, I figured it was recently downsized with the 6 small screens, but it looks like it was always that way. Was it really always that small? Thanks again for the awesome posts! Tim

Major Pepperidge said...

I'm not crazy about the "all Mickey" offerings at the Main Street Cinema...it feels less like a REAL old fashioned nickelodeon and more like just a quaint theme park version.

When my brother and I were little we had a ritual...we always went in to have a look at Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera because we loved old scary movies!

Anonymous said...

I remember going to Disney World when I was about 8. The Main Street Cinema captivated me with its silent movies, and since then, I've been fascinated by early films. The one film that really struck me there was "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde". It was just a short film, but it wasn't corny. I think the lead actor in it was King Baggot. I can still see the close-up of the bottle marked "POISON" in his hand...