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Author
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Topic: Theatre or Cinema?
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Paul P. Meyers
New Member
Posts: 42
From: Detroit, MI
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted October 11, 2003 11:25 AM
What is your linguistic preferance?
Do you go to the Theatre or to the Cinema ? Or to "the movies"
Does anyone say the phrase "picture show" anymore? I hear that in South Africa the prefered term is (or was) "Biograph". And in England the term "electric theatre" was used to differentiate a place that shows movies from one that presented live entertainment. And speaking of terms what are the many ways to name a "house of projection" (my term I just thought of). Left over from the days of vaudville and music halls are such now quaint names as Rialto, Variety, Bijou etc. Other names conjure up the days of neighborhood theatres such as the likes of Civic, Majestic etc. Or a cinema could be named after the town it is/was in, or street it is/was on. Movie Palaces are surely known by bearing the names of the studios that built them, for example, Fox or Paramount. The days of the multiplex offer up the formulae
C + S# = N
[Name of Theatre Chain plus Number of Screens = Location Name]
What other ways are there to name a movie theatre, motion picture theatre, or cinema if you so will. Or what memorably unusual names have you come across?
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Daniel Fuentz
Member
Posts: 212
From: Cleveland, Ohio
Registered: Mar 2003
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posted October 12, 2003 07:52 PM
I always say "to the movies". Normally this will be followed by the specific theatre, (Edwards, Signature, etc.) except if the film is an exclusive at an older UA which my friends and I call the "ghettoplex". Sometimes, if we are being extremely silly we will say, in a "Beverly Hillbillies" type voice, "We're goin' to the movin' pitchers!" ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
[ October 14, 2003, 01:37 AM: Message edited by: Daniel Fuentz ]
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Jim Rankin
(Jim passed away in December 2006)
Posts: 123
From: Milwaukee, WI
Registered: Oct 2003
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posted November 24, 2003 08:30 AM
The Theatre Historical Society of America will be establishing a GLOSSARY OF THEATRE TERMS on their web site in future, but for now possibly this will help:
CINEMA: A venue primarily for the showing of films, which venue does not have the traditional stagehouse and other provisions for live action theatre. "Cinema" is a corruption of the Greek 'Kinema' a verb meaning 'to move' and earlier a mythical goddess, and the word 'kino' for a cinema is also derived from this root. The television term 'kinoscpoe' (for a filming of a live video monitor, before the days of video tape) was also derived from this root. The word had much greater currency in England and Europe, but is fast becoming standard in the USA in response to the advent of the 'Multiplex' cinemas which could hardly be designated as theatres, or even cinemas if one used the single-screen house as the standard of old. It appears that the multiplex will now be the definition of 'cinemas' in the USA.
THEATRE or THEATER: This adopted French word is originally from the Greek 'theatron' for a live action performance venue ('playhouse'), and the word was adopted in the Germanic lands with the Germanic spelling 'theatER'. There are many kinds of theatres due to confusion of the term when someone wanted to denote some form of public entertainment, hence its use in the USA to denote a 'cinema' where primarily movies were shown. This confusion was occasioned by the changeover from purely film showings as in the "Nickelodeons" to the "Photoplay Parlors" which superseeded them, sometimes with small stage actions. When Vaudeville started to die in the 1920s, many Vaudeville theatres started showing films and many of them ended their days doing that, so it became natural to say one went to the 'movies' at a 'theatre.' Many of the 'movie palaces' were also 'Presentation Houses' which were really traditional theatres in design, but adapted specifically for large stage productions (presentations) in addition to showing films. While the Theatre Historical Soc. has "standardized" the spelling in the 'RE' format, the way the word is spelled will largely depend upon what place one refers to and where he is located.
"Picture Show" (once preferred in the rural South of the USA) and "Electric Theatre" (an older British term) are mostly historic terms with only quaint relevancy. "Biograph" was a trade name of a particular film studio, so never was truly generic for a 'cinema.' 'Variety' was a term used in Vaudeville and Burlesque to denote a varied bill of fare, and is there an elliptical formation from 'variety theatre.' 'Bijou' is French for 'jewel' and was often used for the smaller theatres, and later, cinemas. 'Rialto' is the name of a famous covered bridge in Venice, Italy, where for centuries many little novelty shops were built constituting the entertainment sector of the city in the olden days when the average citized had no real public entertainment, since the Theatre and Opera were only for the nobility and wealthy. Therefore the idea of entertainment is carried with the name, as is the case with the theatre name 'Tivoli.'
"Civic" was often used as a place-associated name, as was 'Main' or 'Varsity', while 'Majestic' was just the opposite of 'Bijou' (whether the theatre was really majestic or not!), and like the names 'Grand' or 'Palace' was intended as promotional hyberbole.
Names like 'Fox' and 'Paramount' were the names of chains of theatres, of course, named after the studions which originally owned them, before the 1948 "Paramount Decree" by the supreme court which determined that such chains constituted monopolies under the definition of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The court ordered the severance of the theatres from the studios and thus effectively ended the days of the chains, though now the chains have returned under ownerships independent of the studios. There were many dozens of chains at one time, some national, many only regional.
"Roxy" was a popular name for theatres and cinemas at one time due to this nickname for Samuel L. Rothapfel becoming the name of his giant 'Presentation House' in New York City from 1927 to 1960. That name spread like wildfire throughout the nation, onto many theatres, but also many other businesses to this day! Likewise, many such names are entirely idiosyncratic, with pertinance only to the owners, but few are repeated as was the famous 'ROXY'!
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