Tuesday, February 18, 2025, from 6-9pm
Early American Theater Slides
361 Stagg Street, Suite 407, Brooklyn
The glass-slide projections of the magic lantern hold a place in film history as the most emblematic and widespread of proto-cinematic technologies, but in fact the apparatus had a less-remembered afterlife in the first decades of the 20th century as screen filler in early cinemas. Specially designed stereopticon slides would be interspersed by the projectionist (or “operator,” in the parlance of the day) between programs of featured films, and served a variety of purposes. Some functioned like trailers, promoting the venue’s upcoming offerings, or paid advertisements for local business. Others were designed for moments of technical difficulty, or to announce an intermission during reel changes.
Perhaps the most fascinating slides were those used to encourage better audience etiquette, not unlike today’s requests to turn off cell phones before the show. These record, in negative, memories of the silent era’s worst behaviors: numerous slides give stern, repeated warnings against loud talking, stamping, whistling, smoking, and spitting in the seats, delivered in a more or less lighthearted manner, their commandments gaily decorated with hand-colored illustrations and photographic collages. Hats, particularly women’s, were another problem. Requests on the topic ranged from the delicate “Ladies kindly remove your hats,” to the more pressing “Madam, how would you like to sit behind the hat you are now wearing,” to the downright inculpatory: “Everyone has taken their hat off but YOU,” proclaims one slide, above an image of a finger pointing directly to the viewer.
The practice of using lantern slides in movie theaters eventually faded out, but they were revived in a different medium decades later by Blackhawk Films, a leading distributor of 16mm and 8mm reduction prints of classic films. Blackhawk sold its titles through an exhaustive and frequently-updated catalog, which over time would include not only films themselves, but also a long list of 35mm slide sets for use with then-new carousel slide projectors. Among these were a series of color reproductions of original “intermission slides” that movie buffs could use in between their own home screenings of slapstick comedies and silent serials, with examples ranging from the nickelodeon era to the 1920s.
We will be presenting a continuous performance of 80 such slides, looping in our theater from 6-9pm. The bar will be open throughout, and visitors may come and go as they please. This evening at Light Industry, it’s always intermission.
FREE