SALUTING RONALD REAGAN: PART II

INTO THE SIDE SHOW

“I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The party left me.”
- Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan began his political affiliations as a Roosevelt Democrat, but shifted to Republicanism beginning in the early 1950s, endorsing Presidential candidacies Dwight D. Eisenhower(1952 and 1956) and Richard Nixon(1960). Going as far back as his tenure with General Electric Theater, Reagan had been required to give speeches.

These were frequently conservative in tone and written entirely by Reagan. Hence, and although he would later have speech writers in the White House, Reagan continued to be his own best editor – reshaping and evolving the themes and concepts to suit his own inimitable style and delivery.

In 1964, Reagan campaigned for Barry Goldwater, revealing his own ideologies in a memorable speech on Goldwater’s behalf on October 27, 1964. “The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people,” Reagan reasoned, “…and they knew when a government sets out to do that it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.”

The speech made a decided impression on California Republicans who took it to heart and successfully elected Reagan as their governor in 1966. It was a rocky relationship almost from the start and in hindsight seemed to reflect Reagan’s stalwart approach to politics.

For example; in 1968, Reagan attempted to test the presidential waters himself with disastrous results. He ultimately finished in third place on the Republican ticket. It was a minor embarrassment to Reagan who followed the defeat up with a major misfire at home. In 1969, Reagan called out the Highway Patrol and other law enforcement to Berkeley’s university campus to quell student protests. The incident eventually came to be known as ‘Bloody Thursday’ and forced Berkeley into a state of emergency. After the Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped Patty Hearst and demanded the distribution of food to the poor as trade for her release, Reagan jokingly quipped, “It's just too bad we can't have an epidemic of botulism.”

In 1970, Reagan was re-elected as Governor of California. Outspoken in support of capital punishment, Reagan’s second term in office helped to refine a political platform he would later ride to victory in the White House; advocating less government regulation of the economy and reduced taxation. In 1976, Reagan challenged incumbent President Gerald Ford in a bid to become the Republican Party's candidate for President.

Despite early victories in North Carolina, Texas, and California, Reagan ultimately lost in New Hampshire and Florida and lost the candidacy to Ford. However, in 1980 Reagan effectively defeated incumbent President Jimmy Carter. In his inaugural address to the nation, given in the shadow of 52 hostages being held by Iran, Reagan revealed his promise for the future of America; promises that, by and large and in retrospect, he admirably fulfilled.

“The business of our nation goes forward,” Reagan explained, “…We are a nation that has a government; not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people…

Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it's not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work; work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it… We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are not heroes; they just don't know where to look…Your dreams, your hopes, your goals are going to be the dreams, the hopes, and the goals of this administration, so help me God…

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is as formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women…The crisis we are facing today… require, however, our best effort and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds, to believe that together with God's help we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us.

And after all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are Americans.”

It was this speech that set the tone for Reagan’s presidency; one aggressively pursued in policies that brought about substantial changes to both the domestic and world stage. Reagan’s resolve on matters of state never wavered, but his personal resolve was put to a dramatic test of faith on March 30, 1981 when would-be assassin John Hinckley Jr. fired into an open crowd, wounding Reagan in the chest and narrowly missing his heart.

Coughing up blood, but maintaining his sense of wit, Reagan was rushed to George Washington University Hospital with a collapsed lung where he jokingly told the attending physicians, “I hope you're all Republicans!” Though lead surgeon Dr. Joseph Giordano was not, he affectionately replied, “Today, Mr. President, we're all Republicans.”

Despite the fact that Hinckley’s bullet had seriously injured Reagan, he recovered from this attempt on his life with remarkable speed and was released from the hospital on April 11 – a mere 12 days later. His approval rating shot to 73%.

Immediately following this attempt on his life, Reagan began to show the sort of hard as nails leadership that would eventually brand him a determinist. He made good on a 1980 campaign promise to appoint the first female Supreme Court Justice by nominating Sandra Day O'Connor to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Potter Stewart.

His critics were quick to attack his plans, but Reagan held firm on virtually all issues that crossed his desk. For example: when the Air Traffic Controllers violated a regulation prohibiting government unions from striking, Reagan ordered the employees back to work within 48hrs or face forfeiture of their tenured positions. It was a test of Presidential will versus union might. Ultimately, Reagan would fire 11,345 air traffic controllers and bust the union for disobeying his direct command.

Another problem immediately facing Reagan’s presidency was the economic slump America was in. Reagan’s across the board tax cuts – critics dubbed ‘Reaganomics’ - was responsible for a galvanic reinvigoration of the American economy. His Economic Recovery Tax Act was signed into law in 1981 and revised in 1986. Although the unemployment rate was to peak to a record 10.8% by Christmas of 1982, throughout the rest of Reagan’s presidency that figure steadily and significantly dropped.

As a result, sixteen million new jobs were created and inflation plummeted. There remains some debate even today as to the foresight in Reagan’s economic stimulus. Pundits have pointed out that Reagan’s reduced spending on Medicaid, Federal Education and food stamps benefited the rich and middle classes - not the poor.

There can be no doubt that Reagan viewed America as the land of opportunity. As such, it was the responsibility of the poor to seek out that opportunity and improve their own situations. Reagan sought to purge tens of thousands deemed to be ‘milking the system’. But he also was quick to protect entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

To exercise America’s renewed supremacy on the world stage, Reagan’s ‘peace through strength’ program generated a record 40% peacetime military buildup by 1985. Once again, the pundits saw this increase as a throwback to over-budgeted military spending that occurred immediately after WWII.

However, in 1983, 241 American servicemen were murdered by a suicide bomber in Beirut; an act of unprovoked aggression that Reagan publicly called ‘despicable’ and used to further illustrate the need for increased military spending. Two days after that attack, Reagan ordered U.S. forces to invade Grenada.

Reagan also escalated the Cold War by implementing new policies towards the Soviet Union; reviving the B-1 bomber program and producing the MX Peacekeeper missile. Becoming the first American president ever to address British Parliament, Reagan dubbed the Soviets ‘the evil empire’ and proudly predicted that Marxism-Leninism would soon become a thing of the past.

By the spring of 1983, Reagan had introduced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI); a ground to space-based system that would protect the United States from attack by nuclear ballistic missiles. Opponents dubbed the project ‘Star Wars’ and argued that it was technological fancy at best. The Soviets, however, particularly leader Yuri Andropov, were thrust into an immediacy of grave concern.

THE SECOND TIME AROUND

In hindsight, Reagan’s second term in office seems almost a given. By 1984 he was a beloved figure in American pop culture; a President to be parodied on The Tonight Show, but a man to be taken seriously elsewhere at home and on the world stage. Perhaps it was his actor’s training working overtime, but Reagan enjoyed his celebrity with the masses. He also knew how to laugh at himself.

When incumbent Walter Mondale suggested that Reagan’s age was a valid precursor to his being considered for a second term in office, Reagan confronted the question head on, but with humoring. “I will not make age an issue of this campaign,” he told his audience during the second Presidential debate, “I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponents youth and inexperience!”

The quip was well timed and solicited applause from the audience and even Mondale. That November, Reagan made a clean sweep of 49 of 50 states – the only loss being Minnesota; Mondale’s home state.

Reagan’s second term was early dogged by controversies; his first involving a visit to the German military cemetery in Bitburg where he laid a wreath for the fallen soldiers with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Earlier, it had been determined that Nazi soldiers were also buried there. On the home front, Reagan’s laconic stance towards the growing HIV-AIDS epidemic garnered outrage from the gay and lesbian communities.

During the summer of 1985 Reagan underwent surgery to remove cancerous polyps from his colon and skin cancer cells in his nose. Reoccurring cells in his nose were removed successfully that October. In each case, Reagan was presented as the picture of health and vitality. In fact, he returned to work the same day as his surgeries with a ‘business as usual’ attitude that only endeared him further with the conservative base who by now perceived him as the salvation of their nation.

On October 27, 1986 Reagan made his aggressive stance on the war against drugs more concrete with the signing of an enforcement bill, openly criticized for promoting racial disparity in prison populations because of its differences in sentencing for crack and powder cocaine offenders. Critics also charged that the bill in no way reduced the availability of drugs on the street.

Once again, it was Reagan’s response to a national tragedy that brought the country together. On January 28 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated in mid-air a mere 73 seconds after liftoff as a televised audience looked on in horror. Postponing his State of the Union Address, Reagan instead delivered one of the most moving speeches of his Presidency:

“… Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss…We mourn seven heroes: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. We mourn their loss as a nation together…they, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.

…The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them.

…There's a coincidence today. On this day 390 years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and an historian later said, ``He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it.'' Well, today we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake's, complete.

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth' to `touch the face of God.”

Three days later Reagan delivered an even more eloquent address during the Johnson Space Center memorial service that, in part read:

“We come together today to mourn the loss of seven brave Americans, to share the grief that we all feel, and, perhaps in that sharing, to find the strength to bear our sorrow and the courage to look for the seeds of hope. Our nation's loss is first a profound personal loss to the family and the friends and the loved ones of our shuttle astronauts. To those they left behind -- the mothers, the fathers, the husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, yes, and especially the children -- all of America stands beside you in your time of sorrow.

What we say today is only an inadequate expression of what we carry in our hearts. Words pale in the shadow of grief; they seem insufficient even to measure the brave sacrifice of those you loved and we so admired. Their truest testimony will not be in the words we speak, but in the way they led their lives and in the way they lost their lives -- with dedication, honor, and an unquenchable desire to explore this mysterious and beautiful universe.…

We will always remember them, these skilled professionals, scientists, and adventurers, these artists and teachers and family men and women; and we will cherish each of their stories, stories of triumph and bravery, stories of true American heroes. …Dick, Mike, Judy, El, Ron, Greg, and Christa -- your families and your country mourn your passing.

We bid you goodbye; we will never forget you. For those who knew you well and loved you, the pain will be deep and enduring. A nation too, will long feel the loss of her seven sons and daughters, her seven good friends. We can find consolation only in faith, for we know in our hearts that you who flew so high and so proud now make your home beyond the stars, safe in God's promise of eternal life. May God bless you all and give you comfort in this difficult time.”

LAST ACT FINALES

It is fair to say that Reagan’s final years in office represented new challenges to his presidency that were met with varying and indifferent levels of success. Throughout Reagan’s presidency, political relationships between Libya and the United States were contentious at best.

In April 1986, the detonation of a bomb in a crowded Berlin discotheque (which resulted in 63 American military personnel being injured and one death of a serviceman) prompted Reagan to authorize a series of air strikes designed to halt Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s ability to export terrorism around the world. Defending the strikes, Reagan concluded in a televised address that "When our citizens are attacked or abused anywhere in the world on the direct orders of hostile regimes, we will respond so long as I'm in this office."

The year was also marked by Reagan’s signing of the Immigration Reform and Control Act that made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit illegal immigrants but also granted amnesty to approximately 3 million illegals who had entered the U.S. prior to January 1, 1982. But perhaps 1986 will remain best remembered as the year Reagan’s presidency was rocked by the Iran-Contra scandal.

In essence, the administration was accused of funneling monies from covert arms sales to Iran to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. The International Court of Justice ruled that the U.S. had violated international law and Reagan was forced to profess general ignorance about its existence. During the resulting televised inquest, Reagan's popularity plummeted from 67 to 46 percent in less than a week.

To some extent, Ronald Reagan’s next challenge to newly appointed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was prompted by the very real fact that by 1980 the U.S.S.R had built a military arsenal and army surpassing that of the United States. Since the Revolution, the Soviets had been fronted by some very hard line communist dictators and by a stalwart lack of diplomacy with the U.S. Both countries thought of the other as their elemental threat.

Reagan, however, sensed a change in the wind with Gorbachev’s appointment and set out to forge a new alliance with ‘the enemy’ state.

At the same time, Reagan’s diplomacy had persuaded Saudi Arabia to increase its oil production; a move that caused gas prices to fall in the U.S. but crippled Soviet export revenues. A seemingly more liberal and open leader than his predecessors, Gorbachev agreed to meet Reagan for four summit conferences around the world: in Geneva, Iceland Washington and Moscow. Just prior to the third summit, Gorbachev announced his intention to pursue significant arms agreements with the U.S.

During this interim, Reagan also put forth a challenge to Gorbachev at the Berlin Wall, declaring that if the U.S.S.R. truly desired peaceful relations between the two nations, the exercised proof would be in Gorbachev tearing down this blockade that, for so long, had represented communist oppression.

Together, Reagan and Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty at the White House in 1987. Passed into law the following year as Reagan was attending the final summit in Moscow, the treaty eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons. Treated as a celebrity by the Russians while in Moscow, Reagan conceded that he no longer considered the Soviet’s the ‘evil empire’. In 1989, the world looked on with general amazement as the Berlin Wall – a cold war symbol of Soviet noncompliance for so many decades was torn down by eager revelers on both sides. Two years later, Communism was no more.

To say that the end of the Reagan Presidency in 1989 was the end of an era is putting things mildly. Despite political crises, health concerns and often formidable opposition to his plans for economic reform from the Democratic Party, Ronald Reagan had accomplished a staggering amount of the precepts he had set out to establish at the start of his first inaugural.

In his 34th and final address to the nation, Reagan continued to display the optimism and passion for the country he had presided over for 8 years.

“It's been the honor of my life to be your President So many of you have written the past few weeks to say thanks, but I could say as much to you. Nancy and I are grateful for the opportunity you gave us to serve.

One of the things about the Presidency is that you're always somewhat apart. You spend a lot of time going by too fast in a car someone else is driving, and seeing the people through tinted glass -- the parents holding up a child, and the wave you saw too late and couldn't return. And so many times I wanted to stop and reach out from behind the glass, and connect. Well, maybe I can do a little of that tonight.

People ask how I feel about leaving. And the fact is, ‘parting is such sweet sorrow.’ The sweet part is California and the ranch and freedom; the sorrow - the goodbyes, of course, and leaving this beautiful place…It's been quite a journey this decade, and we held together through some stormy seas. And at the end, together, we are reaching our destination.

…The lesson of all this was, of course, that because we're a great nation, our challenges seem complex. It will always be this way. But as long as we remember our first principles and believe in ourselves, the future will always be ours. And something else we learned: Once you begin a great movement, there's no telling where it will end. We meant to change a nation, and instead, we changed a world.

…But life has a way of reminding you of big things through small incidents. Once, during the heady days of the Moscow summit, Nancy and I decided to break off from the entourage one afternoon to visit the shops on Arbat Street -- that's a little street just off Moscow's main shopping area. Even though our visit was a surprise, every Russian there immediately recognized us and called out our names and reached for our hands.
We were just about swept away by the warmth. You could almost feel the possibilities in all that joy. But within seconds, a KGB detail pushed their way toward us and began pushing and shoving the people in the crowd. It was an interesting moment. It reminded me that while the man on the street in the Soviet Union yearns for peace, the government is Communist. And those who run it are Communists, and that means we and they view such issues as freedom and human rights very differently.

We must keep up our guard, but we must also continue to work together to lessen and eliminate tension and mistrust… I want the new closeness to continue. And it will, as long as we make it clear that we will continue to act in a certain way as long as they continue to act in a helpful manner. If and when they don't, at first pull your punches. If they persist, pull the plug. It's still trust but verify. It's still play, but cut the cards. It's still watch closely. And don't be afraid to see what you see.

…Finally, there is a great tradition of warnings in Presidential farewells, and I've got one that's been on my mind for some time. But oddly enough it starts with one of the things I'm proudest of in the past 8 years: the resurgence of national pride that I called the new patriotism. This national feeling is good, but it won't count for much, and it won't last unless it's grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge.

An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? Those of us who are over 35 or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions.

…But now, we're about to enter the nineties and some things have changed. Younger parents aren't sure that an un-ambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children. And as for those who create the popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the style. Our spirit is back, but we haven't re-institutionalized it. We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom -- freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection.
So, we've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion but what's important… Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual.

And let me offer lesson number one about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be an American, let 'em know and nail 'em on it. That would be a very American thing to do.

And that's about all I have to say tonight, except for one thing. The past few days when I've been at that window upstairs, I've thought a bit of the ‘shining city upon a hill’. The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we'd call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.

I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.

And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was 8 years ago. But more than that: After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.

We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for 8 years did the work that brought America back. My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all. And so, goodbye, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America."

Immediately following his departure from Washington, the Reagans traveled between their Bel Air home and ranch in Santa Barbara. Once, in a long while, they would appear on behalf of the Republican Party.

In November 1991, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was opened to the public with a dedication ceremony that included five presidents. Reagan’s final public address came on February 3, 1994 during a tribute in Washington; his last major appearance in April for the funeral of President Richard Nixon. But it was a hand written confession penned in August of that same year that proved the most stunning revelation of them all:

“I have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease,” he wrote, “…at the moment I feel just fine. I intend to live the remainder of the years God give me on this earth doing the things I have always done…I know begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead. Thank you, my friends. May God always bless you.”

As the years went on, the disease slowly eroded Reagan’s mental capacity. Questioned by CNN’s Larry King, Nancy Reagan confessed to the nation that her husband’s condition had worsened to the extent that he would like to be remembered as he had been and not as he currently was. As such, Reagan remained out of the public spotlight, sequestered to his beloved ranch where a fall and subsequent hip surgery did much to slow down this once vital man.

Ronald Wilson Reagan died in Bel Air, California on June 5, 2004 – ten years after his Alzheimer diagnosis. He was 93 years old. June 11 was declared a National Day of Mourning by President George W. Bush. Reagan's body was taken to the Kingsley and Gates Funeral Home in Santa Monica and then, on June 7 to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. On June 9, Reagan's body was flown to Washington where he became the tenth United States president to lie in state; the first since Lyndon Johnson in 1973. During those thirty-four hours 104,684 people filed past the coffin.

On June 11, a state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral prompted heartfelt eulogies from both Presidents Bush, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and, perhaps most poignant of all, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (through pre-recorded address).

Today, Ronald Reagan’s presidential legacy remains open to debate. While some continue to laud him for his economic reform and bringing about an end to the Cold War, others have argued that his policies created a major deficit and sacrificed the U.S.’s reputation on the world stage.
To what extent Reagan’s fortitude brought about an end to communism has also been debated by pundits even though Gorbachev himself has said that "Reagan was instrumental in bringing about the end of the Cold War;" a plaudit concurred by Britain’s Margaret Thatcher who added that “Ronald Reagan had a higher claim than any other leader to have won the Cold War for liberty and he did it without a shot being fired.”

Reagan’s political views also helped to reshape the Republican Party as a modern conservative movement. More men voted Republican under Reagan; the so-called ‘Reagan Democrats’. In the final analysis, Reagan had become the iconic symbol of influence within the Republican Party.
Of his ability to connect with the masses – dubbed ‘The Great Communicator’ – Reagan himself had always been both modest and reflective; “I never thought it was my style that made a difference — it was the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things.”

Indeed, he had. As it turned out, Ronald Reagan proved a very tough act to follow. In June 2005, The Discovery Channel ran a popularity poll that asked its viewers to vote for The Greatest American of all time: Ronald Wilson Reagan received that honorary title.

@Nick Zegarac 2008 (all rights reserved).

PARALYZED IN THE DARK - a tribute to the movie palace

"No palace of Prince or Princess, no mansion of millionaire could offer the same pleasure, delight, and relaxation to those who seek surcease from the work-a-day world, than this, where delicate dreams of youth are spun...Here in this Fox dream castle, dedicated to the entertainment of all California, is the Utopian Symphony of the Beautiful, attuned to the Cultural and Practical...No King...No Queen...had ever such luxury, such varied array of singing, dancing, talking magic, such complete fulfillment of joy. The power of this we give to you...for your entertainment. You are the monarch while the play is on!"

- June 1929 newspaper advertisement for San Francisco’s ‘fabulous Fox Theater (right)

In 1960, fading movie queen Gloria Swanson posed majestically against the half-gutted backdrop of the soon to be demolished Roxy Theater in New York City. It was a fitting tribute to the old time movie palace once christened ‘the Cathedral of the Motion Picture’ by its founder Samuel L. Rothapfel. A Swanson movie had opened the Roxy to great pomp and fanfare some thirty years before.

But by 1960, Hollywood was already in a bad way – financially speaking - and the movie palace itself in even worse condition to weather the changing tide in audience tastes and dwindling theatrical attendance from the onslaught of television. A decade earlier the U.S. government had forced a split between theater chains and movie studios; seen as an antitrust move that would generate more free market enterprise for the independent distributor. Instead, it crippled both the theatrical and production apparatuses and sent an already fragile entertainment industry into a tailspin toward receivership en masse.

(above: the gargantuan lobby of New York's Roxy Theater circa 1940)

Movie palaces, with their four to six thousand plus seating and lavishly appointed lounges had suddenly become expendable behemoths of a bygone era that independent theater management simply could no longer afford. Even if the theater itself was part of a larger retail and/or hotel complex, it often failed to provide its own sustainable income.

Like the great dinosaurs of the ancient past, these majestic creatures of stark and surreal beauty from a not so distant age, and not to be found anywhere else in the architectural landscape, became the undeserving recipients of shoddy attempts at ‘conversion’ into more mainstream and commercially viable multiplexes during the mid-1960s; gutted to make way for bargain department stores, parking garages or, when no other usefulness for their vast cavernous spaces could be deduced, slated for the wrecking ball to make way for an ultimately far less artistic structure entirely void of such refined opulence.

With so much confusion, careless mismanagement and blind ignorance in play, is it any wonder that so few of the grand picture palaces of yore have survived?

Not all is lost, though so much has been relegated to the dust bins of history. After the cavalier purge and demolition in the mid to late 60s, the early 1970s saw a sudden revival of interest in these crumbling paradises, most immediately from civic-minded cultural preservationist groups who aggressively campaigned to raise money and save their picture palaces that had fallen on hard times.

(above: Virginia's Loews Carpenter Theater)

This move towards preservation came too late for the Roxy, as it did for New York’s Paramount, Chicago’s Paradise, Detroit’s Michigan Theater and San Francisco’s ‘fabulous’ Fox – the latter described as ‘irreplaceable’; all victims of the wrecking ball.

(above: Illinois Uptown Theater auditorium)

The tragedy of this shortsightedness is that a considerable loss of architectural greatness unique to the era roughly between 1929 and 1939 will likely never be repeated again. It is no longer feasible to build such epic monuments to entertainment. Arguably, the talent for design and construction no longer exists. Hence, the current relegation of our movie going experience sends audiences into nameless, faceless ‘big box’ multi-screen complexes; a trend likely to continue long into the future.

Today’s multiplexes cannot compare to yesterday’s movie palaces; either in scope, luxury of presentation or in their sheer ability to dazzle us with the houselights left on. As the ultimate place of worship for what entertainment used to be – an art form – in a way, the creation of today’s multiplexes mirror popular entertainment; temporary, slickly marketed and disposable. Hence, the magic has gone out of going to the movies.

here are success stories too. New York’s gargantuan picture palace – Radio City Music Hall (left)– has managed to live through the age of instability to be regarded as a cultural icon for the performing arts; with live stage shows, limited movie engagements, classic movie revivals and its world famous Rockette Christmas show spectacular dazzling spectators. From coast to coast, preservation groups have taken up the challenge of raising badly needed monies to refurbish, restore or merely preserve and maintain the theatrical establishments.

(above: the Avalon on Catalina Island. Left: Dallas' Majestic Theater)

The St. Louis Theater, as example, has been preserved as well as transformed into Powell Hall (the namesake derived from Walter S. Powell, whose $2.5 million dollar endowment saved the aging film palace from certain demolition after 1966). The magnificent art deco Paramount Theater in Oakland California was lovingly cared for by the Oakland Symphony from 1970 until 1975 when receivership of the Symphony forced a sell-off to the city of Oakland for one dollar.

Today, the city of Oakland continues to market the Paramount as a Theatre of the Arts. In Ohio, the Ohio Theater was rescued by a group of local citizens turned preservationist experts; their meticulous efforts in restoration effectively resurrecting the authenticity of the theater’s original construction. And in 1981, St. Louis’ Fox Theater became the subject of a rescue effort launched by Leon Strauss – recreating virtually all of the old time opulence with painstaking attention to every detail.

These examples, and others like them, are reasons to remain hopeful about the future of so many picture palaces that continue to lay dormant across the United States. There is always hope. But in the beginning; there was much more – skill, artistry, excitement and pride; the hallmarks of genuine greatness for a primitive dumb show that had quite suddenly captured the public’s fascination.

ART FOR COMMERCE SAKE

Despite their mind-boggling elegance that could rival even some of Europe’s grand opera houses, movie palaces were more of a necessity than a luxury during the early part of the 20th century. At the movies’ infancy, it had been quite acceptable to show silent shorts in refurbished store fronts along the already constructed downtown core. Primitive Kinetoscope projection devices were hardly capable of blowing up an image to vast screen proportions while maintaining integrity and sharpness of the image. In any event, audience appeal for the movies in general had been deemed as limited and fleeting at best by the critics.

(right: California's Wiltern Theater, lobby)

However, in 1893 Thomas Edison made a good showing of a series of short subjects at the Chicago World’s Fair, showcasing rarities that the common patron found exotic and beguiling.

These first movies were nothing more than life studies but the patrons who saw them quickly developed a voracious appetite for more of the same. Within a few short years, technological advancements had paved the way for longer movies structured around crude narratives.

(right: the grand lobby of San Francisco's 'fabulous' Fox Theater)

In no time at all, early Kinetoscope parlors were becoming as popular as the penny arcade. Then, in 1905, the first Nickelodeon debuted in Pittsburgh, PA – launching a franchise that would soon grow to monumental proportions. Even so, the movies and their showplace venues quickly acquired unflattering monikers like ‘the fleapits’ to denote class distinction. Live theater was for the highbrow. The movies appealed the lowest common denominator.

Determined to break that line of distinction, in 1904 entrepreneur William Fox established the Greater New York Film Rental Company with the purchase of a dilapidated Nickelodeon in Brooklyn. Thereafter, Fox quickly set about creating a monopoly of theatrical establishments.

(right: lobby of the historic 'Los Angeles' Theater)

The Kinetoscope gave way to the single projector and the first legitimate movie ‘theaters’ were born. Plain and primitive, these early theaters attracted enough attendance to warrant new legislation in both local and federal public safety laws. The chief concern then was fire, since movies were shot on highly flammable nitrate stock and patrons frequently enjoyed their cigars in the isle, while hot stage lamps were precariously located near fabric drapes.

Hence, the new generation of movie theaters began with the dream merchants acquiring failed opera houses, concert halls and churches – buildings already up to code that had been specifically designed to hold large congregations of people. The problem was simply one of supply and demand – the public’s insatiable interest in the movies outweighing the number of available properties that could be incorporated to show them to a large audience. More and larger auditoriums were needed.

It is one of the ironies of the movie industry that its purveyors – once common folk themselves - suddenly became multimillionaires. Hence, this rise in the movie’s stature amongst popular forms of entertainment demanded a more mainstream and cultured setting in which to showcase them. At the same time, old established forms of entertainment like ballet and the opera were readily falling out of favor and patronage.

(left: exterior of Frisco's Fox Theater)

There were obvious pluses to acquiring these venues for the movies; most notably, in that they already contained the essentials of space and structural requirements necessary to accommodate an audience. Furthermore, they were clean and well-appointed in luxuries far surpassing the movies’ current venues.

Built in 1902, Tally's Electric Theater in Los Angeles became the first permanent structure converted as a showcase for the movies. However, the entrepreneurial spirit of theater moguls and their architects would not simply be satisfied with the acquisition of hand me downs. In the west, Sid Grauman became the most prolific exhibitor; moving out to Hollywood to build his famed Egyptian (1922) and Chinese theaters (1927). In the east, Manhattan’s Samuel Rothapfel proved to be the trend setter; first ensconced as manager of the Capitol (1919) before becoming chief architect of a visionary picture palaces too grand to last – the Roxy (1927).

Adopting the edict of film pioneer Marcus Loew, that “we sell tickets to theaters, not movies”, the major Hollywood studios quickly began to horn in on the independents – hiring the best architects who had already proven their worth in designing theatrical venues elsewhere. One of the most promising, Thomas W. Lamb had begun his career designing classical architecture in New York and New England. For Loew’s Incorporated, Lamb embarked upon a level of opulence unseen before for the movie palace. Lamb’s debut of the palatial Kansas City Midland Theater (1927) and two more titanic picture houses in Syracuse, N.Y. and Columbus, OH the following year set the standard for movie palaces elsewhere.

(above: Stanley Theater in Utica. Left: New York's Roxy Theater, the grandest picture palace of them all)

Meanwhile, the amalgamation of Lasky/Famous Players into Paramount Pictures united the creative design talents of ‘Balaban and Katz’ and ‘Rapp and Rapp’ – two rival architectural firms that together expanded their operations in design well beyond Lake Michigan.

Rapp and Rapp built Time Square’s Paramount Theater (1926) as well as other similar movie palaces in Seattle and Portland. They also freelanced, building the Westchester (1930) and Erie (1931) for Warner Brothers; a studio that had first acquired the independent chain of Stanley theaters designed by Hoffman and Henon.

In Hollywood, the creation of United Artists by Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin put architect Howard Crane to work with impressive debuts in Chicago and Detroit (both in 1928). But Crane’s prowess in design was most readily exercised for rival film pioneer, William Fox. By 1930, Crane had designed lavishly for Fox on twin 5,000 seat behemoths in Detroit and St. Louis. He had also unveiled his craftsmanship with The San Francisco. William Fox proudly proclaimed that the sun never set on a venue in which his name did not appear.

But within two years, financial hardship ousted Fox from the empire he had worked so hard to build. Although he lived the rest of his days in relative comfort, William Fox would never again participate in either the theatrical or production end of motion pictures after 1932.

WELCOMING THE BRIEF AGE OF MAGIC

“A shrine to democracy, where the wealthy rub elbows with the poor…”
– George Rapp

The birth of the movie palace was an instant and palpable commercial success. Between 1914 and 1922 over 4,000 picture palaces opened in the United States. Although the architectural heritage of these leviathans borrowed readily from virtually all the classical models of imperial Europe and other exotic locales, the special needs and design of movie palaces presented unique challenges, not the least of which was their consignment to irregular plots of land.

(right: lobby of New York's Radio City Music Hall)

Movie palaces were among the very first super structures to incorporate central cooling. They were also among the first to utilize incandescent lights to inspire mood and atmosphere.

The initial inspiration for movie palace’s exotic interiors is generally linked to the 1922 much ballyhooed discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb and great hall of Karnak. Overnight, the far away and the mystical had become fascinating to the common man. To this initial mix of intrigue, theater designers borrowed heavily on Oriental elements; the most readily and instantly recognizable of these still Sid Grauman (left) and his Chinese Theater in downtown Hollywood.

Theater exteriors incorporated a large horizontal canopy – usually slightly bumped out in the middle - and a giant vertical electric sign; a holdover borrowed from the early Nickelodeon days. For their time, these signs, with their ingenious nighttime illuminations (a combination of bulb and neon tubing), were cutting edge miracles of design – eye-catching to deliberately entice patrons with the promise of even greater spectacle lurking inside.

Theater lobbies were strategically located on every level; vast, spacious and opulent beyond all expectation in order to divert patrons’ attentions from recognizing how long they had to wait for their tickets and other concessions. While lobbies were brightly lit, auditorium lighting was much more subdued; partly to induce a romantic look and mood, but more prudently so as not to detract from the central focus – the movie screen itself.

(left: lobby of Boston's Keith Memorial Theater, below: stage of California's State Theater)

Most movie palaces also had smoking rooms, men’s and women’s lounges, children’s playrooms and emergency aid areas. The splendor of public amenities extended to the private dressing rooms located below and backstage for the performers who, with increasingly regularity, rounded out the movie goers’ experience with lavish stage spectacles.

In the grander movie palaces it was not uncommon to find more obscure and somewhat bizarre amenities. New York’s Roxy, as example, had a barber shop and billiard room to service its patrons. Chicago’s Southtown had a reflecting pool in its lobby populated by live fish and the occasional flamingo. In their efforts to provide ‘one of a kind’ experiences for the movie-going patron, designers of these fanciful creations cannibalized virtually every conceivable architectural style from the past – combining them when necessary to produce what one critic in 1928 called a “pitiful degradation of…art” and “the prostitution of architecture” with “taste and beauty abased to the lowest degree”.

Not surprising, many of these designers were European born; hence the first wave of picture palace construction celebrated French and Italian influences. Scottish born, Thomas Lamb (right)pioneered this first wave of lavish escapism. However, it was Austrian John Eberson who took theater décor in a new direction by creating the ‘atmospheric’ theater – romanticized revisions on a Mediterranean courtyard theme; ceilings painted as though they were sky and with tiny pin pricks of light as stars filtering through. Even more startling in appearance were the suddenly popular creations of whimsy anchored to a Spanish Colonial Revival style pioneered by The Boller Brothers; a Missouri design firm.

By the end of the 1920s, the meticulous intricacies of these early efforts gave way to the ultra modern chic of Art Deco pioneered by California architects S. Charles Lee in Los Angeles and Timothy L. Pflueger in San Francisco. Lee’s 1930 designs for the Fox Wilshire may have launched the Deco trend, but it was Pflueger’s Paramount Theater in Oakland that set the standard in 1931.

(Below: auditorium of New York's Radio City Music Hall, and bottom: the lobby as they both appeared in 1942.)

The final jewel from this period opened one year later; New York’s Radio City Music Hall – a gargantuan homage to the end of an era in construction. With the Great Depression biting hard into pocket books even Rockefeller Center’s newest showplace struggled to turn a profit almost from the moment it opened.

LEGENDS AFTER THE FALL

In hindsight, precursors to the demise of the motion picture palace seem obvious. The Depression was only half of the story. Blind-sighted by the meteoric rise in popularity of the movies themselves, the dream merchants built their arsenal of glamorous picture palaces too fast – overextending into cavernous spaces that simply could not be filled by a single entertainment.

By the mid-1930s, theater owners were juggling live stage performances, guest appearances from stars of stage and screen, movie premieres and often unrelated weekly contests and promotions as part of their regular repertoire of attractions, just to break even.

(right, top: New York's Paramount Theater. Built as the studio's east coast flagship theater, only the marquee remains in tact today.)

The stylish lobbies that had been designed with care to stand alone as glamorous examples of stunning architecture were now cluttered with poster art and other advertising campaign materials to lure patrons into seeing the movies. By the mid-1940s booths selling war stamps and bonds were also added.

At wars end, the debut of television cannibalized theater attendance by half and the move away by baby boomers from cluttered city centers to the more spacious suburbs meant that movie palaces suddenly found themselves located in ‘out of the way’ districts inaccessible to most of the paying public.

(right: one of the few jewels to remain relatively unscathed; the Chicago Theater.)

Theater owners responded to this mass audience exodus in a destructive way; by subdividing their cavernous auditoriums into smaller venues without much regard for the original architectural design. Balcony boxes were removed; cornices and ornamental coves cut into by partitioning walls. Picture palaces were streamlined, but with little regard for keeping their original esthetic value in tact.

(Above: two views of the Michigan Theater: on the left - the lobby as it appeared in its heyday and right, in 2004 after serving for nearly two decades as a parking garage.)

The more savvy theatrical businessmen revived stage shows and put on rock concerts to supplement their revenue. Too late to save many of the ailing picture palaces, did the cultural tide shift in the mid-1970s toward preservation and restoration efforts, with many state and local theaters being added to landmark registries. In between their initial rise in popularity and this much welcomed resurrection/conversion to ‘performing arts’ centers there came an abysmally dark period of pillaging and dismemberment.

San Francisco’s ‘irreplaceable’ Fox Theater – arguably one of the most lavish of Thomas Lamb’s early designs – was among the first to be hit with the wrecking ball in 1963; two years after Samuel L. Rothapfel’s (right) beloved Roxy in New York had suffered the same fate. The Paramount on New York’s 43rd Street toppled not long afterward; its attached skyscraper still in existence today – marking that point where art trailed off and commerce continued along the road into immortality.

Realistically, not every movie palace of yesteryear can be converted into a contemporary performing arts center. Arguably, perhaps not all of them should. Too many of these remaining aging leviathans require major and costly rehabilitation – well beyond what is either financially feasible or, in some cases, structurally possible. Scores more, like The Michigan, have gone beyond that threshold where any sort of refurbishment would make a difference.

(below: the beautifully restored auditorium of The Ohio Theater in Columbus.)

However, those that do survive and are in a relatively sound condition, and, are of cultural significance to a specific region should at least be deserving of a more concerted effort to salvage them from the brink of extinction; if for no other reason, then because today’s architects of the movie multiplex no longer think along esthetic lines. Theirs’ is a strictly functional domain, where the maximization of audience capacity per screen outweighs establishing a timeless opulence for all to admire. Thankfully, we have the opportunity to preserve and rescue a fair portion of the wondrous historical record that remains left behind. Time is of the essence, but the surreal and sublime beauty of these great picture palaces will always be timeless.

@Nick Zegarac 2008 (all rights reserved).