Sunland Tribune

Volume 29 Article 5

2003

Moving Toward the Picture Palace: The Tampa Theatre Comes to Town

Janna Jones

Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/sunlandtribune

Recommended Citation Jones, Janna (2003) "Moving Toward the Picture Palace: The Tampa Theatre Comes to Town," Sunland Tribune: Vol. 29 , Article 5. Available at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/sunlandtribune/vol29/iss1/5

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sunland Tribune by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Moving Toward the Picture Palace: The Tampa Theatre Comes To Town

Dr. Janna Jones yellow and brown shadows captured on nineteenth century film.Indistinct soldiers od Bless America, my pick up blurry boxes of supplies and place home sweet home!" them on a loading dock. When the soldiers The Tampa Theatre au­ disappear into bright light, we applaud re­ dience finishes singing spectfully. The next film, as brief as the first, with patriotic enthusiasm and applauds Lee offers century-old images of war preparation. Erwin, the Mighty Wurlitzer virtuoso who Filmed from the window of a slow moving leads them in this nostalgic sing-a-long. train, the panoramic footage shows groups of Tonight is "An Evening of Silent Classics," soldiers standing in front of railway cars. and the elfish Erwin, who has played the After a few minutes of silent attention, we Mighty Wurlitzer organ in more than 400 applaud the brittle film and its enduring venues around the world, is providing the images of life in Tampa a century ago. These accompaniment for a screening of The ghosts - the soldiers, the railroad, the Span­ Great Train Robbery, Big Business, Gertie ish American War, and the Edison Company the Dinosaur, and Safety Last.This cine- that recorded it - give us a flavor, Francis tells . matic journey into the past is part of the us, of the early days of cinema and a portrait National Film Preservation Board and the of a Tampa none of us have ever seen. The Library of Congress' National Film Registry sepia image not only carries us into Tampa's Tour at the Tampa Theatre. past, but also shows us some of the forces When the applause dies, Tampa Theatre that would forge the way for the Tampa The­ director John Bell steps up to the podium on atre to be built twenty eight years after Edi­ the small stage and introduces David Francis, son's films of the Spanish-American War. The the Chief of Motion Picture Broadcasting and framed apparitions evidence the success of Recorded Sound Division at the Library of Plant's railway, the notoriety the Spanish­ Congress."When we planned this tour," be­ American War brought to Tampa, and the gins Francis after a polite round of applause, visual impact of Edison's Vitagraph. Yet, "this is the sort of place that we dreamed the images are fleeting, bound in celluloid, of - an original theater with an organ for our and I want the camera to show us more. program of silent films. So, at last, our dream Beyond what I can see in the frames are has been realized. The first items on the the industrial and urbanizing influences in program are something special to Tampa, Tampa that began developing in the 1880s, because they are actually films shot here in and culminated in the construction of the 1898, the time of the Spanish-American War. Tampa Theatre in 1926. Tampa's industrial I think Tampa was chosen because of Henry development, the expansion of the railway Plant's railroad and his luxurious hotel - they and the introduction of the streetcar, the made Tampa an ideal setting off point for the formation of Franklin Street as the center of troops to leave for Cuba." For two minutes, commercial activity and circulation, and the Technicolor audience silently watches the city's boosterism of the 1920s were all 37 factors leading to Tampa's economic boom Much of the social residue created by mass and the expansion of the city's middle class. entertainment, commercialization and ur­ These aspects of modem urban life, along banization settled in the space of Tampa's with the growth and commercialization of opulent picture palace on October 15, film entertainment were critical factors in 1926, the theatre's opening night. the eventual construction of the Tampa In this paper I explain the significant Theatre. In fact, the two went hand in hand forces leading to Tampa's urbanization as in the creation of the theater as a place of refracted through the space of the Tampa Theatre. The construction of Henry Plant's South Florida Railroad, promotional activi­ ties of Tampa's Board of Trade's, Tampa's booster rhetoric, the development of Tam­ pa's street car system, the commercial evo­ lution of Franklin Street - the heart of Tam­ pa's downtown - and the emergence of pre­ cinema and cinema spectacles that helped to develop an urban mass audience are the critical urbanizing elements that converged and culminated in the social space of the Tampa Theatre. While the theatre claimed to be a palace of entertainment for the masses, its new patrons received lessons about public behavior and class distinc­ tions. Although the instructions the patrons acquired helped them find their place within a spectator culture, the theatre itself was a realm of placelessness mirroring the transformative experiences its patrons were encountering in their growing city. The Tampa Theatre has been a deeply symbolic space and a locus of cultural mean­ ing in Tampa for the last 72 years. A gargoyle­ and statue-stuffed castle of fancy, "the most beautiful theatre in the south" has also been called the "crown jewel" of the city. The picture palace - the economic, cultural and architectural apex of Tampa's urban develop­ ment during the twenties - reigned as the queen of the city until the early sixties. Then, the very forces that first publicly elevated the theatre - transportation devel­ opment, increased mobility, and economic expansionled to an increasingly suburban­ ized Tampa, which ultimately undermined her power, and left her alone in a nearly emp­ ty downtown. Integration helped to displace the theatre's status even more. Tampa's black citizens, who had never been welcomed in the theatre, finally began regularly frequent­ The exterior of the Tampa Theatre and its ing the theatre in 1968. The theatre's white elaborate canopy and marquee on Franklin middle class patrons fled to drive-ins and Street. (Photograph courtesy of the Burgert other theatres closer to their new suburban Bros. Collection, Tampa-Hillsborough County homes. Yet, the impact of the Tampa Theatre Public Library.) on the city was not forgotten, and in 197 6 the public leisure, social interaction, class and city bought and restored the theatre in the status distinctions, cinematic experience, hopes that its re-opening would encourage and a symbol of Tampa's rapid growth. resurgence in commercial activity downtown. 38 For the last twenty-two years she has sat on movie palace that dominated motion pic­ her throne on Franklin Street ruling over ture exhibition from the late 1910s through· many abandoned buildings and mostly the advent of the stock market crash and uninhabited sidewalks and streets patiently the subsequent depression of the late waiting for her loyal subjects to return. 1920s. The highly profitable picture palaces Today, the picture palace does have a faithful provided the bulk of the movie industry's following of patrons who enjoy the theatre's revenue. Far from white elephants, Douglas art films, revel in the historic ambience of the Gomery maintains that they were lucrative auditorium and savor one of the last remain­ enterprises that were the most profitable ing urban public spaces in a city afflicted with enterprises in film industry. In 1926, for ex­ epidemic suburban sprawl. While Tampa's ample, the year the Tampa Theatre opened

View looking north on Franklin Street from Lafayette Street, 1926. The old Hillsborough County Courthouse is on the right. (Photograph courtesy of the Burgert Bros. Collection, Tampa-Hillsbor­ ough County Public Library.) periphery continues to expand, the Tampa for business, an average of 50 percent of Theatre stands as a historical monument to a America's film audiences attended the once thriving centralized city that only hopes 2,000 picture palaces in 79 cities.I to flourish again. The fantasies that the films promised to spectators paled in comparison to the The Picture Palace Phenomenon surroundings that the patrons found them­ selves in once they bought their tickets. t is doubtful that there will ever be any­ Located in prime downtown locations, the thing as remarkable or fantastic in showplaces for the city were never hard to I movie theater architecture as the urban find. Like the Tampa Theatre, picture · 39 palaces were usually near a trolley or street­ underlying requisite for success - the car stop. Ornate box offices surrounded by a attraction of large crowds. He believed that sea of terrazzo jutted out onto the sidewalk, people were searching for the exotic, and he and bas-relief and stone figures marked the played on their curiosity. Rathefel's the­ period-revival exteriors. Often the picture aters' interiors, like the Tampa Theatre and palaces were named after the cities of their other picture palaces around the country, locations. Huge signs with neon letters illu­ intentionally dramatized opulence. minated "The Chicago," "The Los Angeles," Red velvet curtains, balconies, mezza­ and "The Tampa" as if they were the city's nines, chandeliers, classical statues and flagship theater.2 The extravagantly decorat­ fountains, orchestras and organs signaled to ed and highly eclectic historic modes of the the palaces' new patrons that they had en­ exteriors distinguished the theaters from tered a refined space that required them to the buildings around them, explains behave appropriately. Picture palace own­ Charlotte Herzog, while also giving them a ers, Gomery contends, were able to fashion stamp of legitimacy.J patrons of their choice rather than the oth-

The Branch Opera House on Franklin Street photographed by James C. Field in 1870. (Courtesy of the Florida State Archi'Ves Collection.) While the picture palaces' exteriors were er way around, helping to reposition the appealing, the interiors were designed to consumer culture in the United States.s dazzle. The theaters, rather than the films Patrons managed their own behavior be­ shown there, were generally the main cause of the dignified settings that were attraction. As the renowned picture palace similar in ambience to the grand stage the­ owner Marcus Loew explained, "We sell aters. Picture palace patrons copied the tickets to theaters, not movies."4 Palaces codes of behavior established in stage the­ were so ostentatious that people paid for atres in the middle of the nineteenth centu­ tickets just to see inside of them. Roxy ry. Palace owners such as Balaban and Katz Rathefel, the well-known manager of sever­ proclaimed their palaces were built "for all al New York picture palaces, understood the of the people all of the time," rather than 40 the few who wanted to appear more alfresco. When the flabbergasted ticket aristocratic than the rest. Yet their theatres buyers looked above the rooftops of the ex­ did cater to the rising aspirations of cus­ cessive and sensual garden, the mystery of tomers drawn from better neighborhoods. 6 the auditorium intensified, for overhead John Eberson, the movie palace architect was an expansive, simulated twilight sky who designed the Tampa Theatre, ex­ brimming with twinkling stars and billow­ pressed a similar sentiment as Balaban and ing cumulus clouds. Katz. "Here we find ourselves today creat­ While Tampa Theatre patrons were ing and building super-cinemas of enor­ entering a modern and technologically mous capacities," boasted Eberson, "excell­ advanced movie theatre located on Tampa's ing in splendor, in luxury and in furnishings busiest and most fashionable street, they the most palatial homes of princes and also were discerning an aura of some forgot­ crowned kings for and on behalf of His ten and then rediscovered ruin near the Excellency - the American Citizen. "7 Mediterranean shore. The juxtaposition and Eberson's royal citizens were treated to contradictions of its modern technology, an­ a multitude of architectural and design del­ cient atmosphere, and montage of eclectic icacies when they walked through the doors and exotic architectural styles astonished of the Tampa Theatre for the first time in the picture palace's new patrons - many of the middle of October 1926. Upon entering whom had never seen a theatre with a the cool, dim and curiously hushed theatre, balcony. Why and how did such an urban they left behind the yellow glare of Franklin alcazar appear on Franklin Street in Tampa, street's neon signs, the din of automobile Florida in 1926? To begin to answer that horns and clanging streetcars and other question it is necessary to understand how familiar reverberations of life in the swel­ the town of Tampa grew into a city. tering, humid city. Once their pupils adjust­ ed to the dusky light, they beheld dozens of The Railroad's Urbanizing Influence menacing gargoyles jutting from the sides of the two-story lobby, Spanish and Italian he moderate growth trend Tampa pottery, gilded mirrors, stuffed parrots and experienced in the last decade of the medieval tapestries. Spanish tile roofing Tnineteenth century escalated dra­ and jewel colored, intricately tiled floors matically in 1898 with the outbreak of the accentuated the twin marble staircases. Spanish-American War. The War Depart­ Embellished with wrought iron balustrades ment had not intended to use Tampa's rail­ and carved oak banisters, the palatial stairs way and port facilities, but Henry Plant, a led to the similarly adorned mezzanine. railroad developer, wrote a letter to the sec­ As the theatre's astonished patrons retary of war praising Tampa's railroad lines made their way inside the auditorium, they and expressing his concern that the rail­ confronted a Mediterranean temple of the road lines were vulnerable to attack. In re­ past. Mellifluous lights, some on towering sponse to Plant's letter, Secretary Alger in­ wrought-iron stands and others suspended tegrated Tampa into his plan of defense, and from small balconies and alcoves faintly the city of Tampa began its preparation to illuminated the flamboyant proscenium play a part in the Spanish-American War.s arch above the stage. Surrounding the Like the twentieth century's two world arch, reproductions of Grecian and Roman wars, the Spanish-American War more than antiquated statues peered gracefully down doubled Tampa's population and economy. upon the auditorium's fifteen hundred red Tampa became the major port of embarka­ velvet seats. Whimsical Venetian facades, tion for men and supplies. 30,000 soldiers French colonnades, and quixotic Persian came to Tampa within a two-month period balconies helped to create an illusion of in 1898. Tampa's retail and entertainment an outdoor courtyard that might have bor­ establishments reaped great profits when dered the ancient Mediterranean Sea. A soldier's paychecks began circulating, and regal peacock perched outside a renais­ millions of dollars spread through the city's sance window, earth colored roof tiles em­ economy. Besides the dramatic increase in bellished with white flowers and trailing revenue, the nation's attention turned to vines, orange trees, and white doves seem­ Tampa. "The city," writes Durwood Long, ing to soar through the shadowy air creat­ "enjoyed the limelight of free advertising of ed the ambience of a make-believe Moorish inestimable value."9 The publicity of the 41 Spanish-American War, insists Gene Burnett, road began construction in 1883 on a rail­ would actually triple Tampa's population in way connection from Tampa to the eastern the decade following the war.10 seaboard, Tampa was well on its way to While Plant's plea to the secretary of becoming a modem city.12 Three years war boosted the city's economy and made later, Plant had completed his plan for "Tampa" a familiar place around the coun­ Tampa as a major railroad and port center. try, Plant had been laying the tracks for Tampa was linked by rail with cities as far Tampa's economic expansion and urbaniza­ away as Jacksonville and a 200-foot steam­ tion for nearly a decade before the Spanish­ er connected Tampa with Key West and American War. Some historians suggest that Havana.13 Plant finished construction of

Nighttime view of Franklin Street at Harrison Street taken by W. A. Fishbaugh in 1916. The photo­ graph captures Tampa's first "Great White Way" lighting, the bright illumination of the downtown business district made possible by the installation of electric lights on ornamental iron posts along Franklin Street. (Courtesy of the Florida State Archives Collection.) when Plant chose Tampa for port develop­ his extravagant Tampa Bay Hotel (now a ment and for a railroad terminus in the ear­ part of the University of Tampa) in 1891. ly 1880s, he secured Tampa's economic The hotel rivaled Henry Flagler's Ponce de future. Rail transportation in the last Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida in opu­ decades of the nineteenth century was one lence and the amount of national attention of the most important factors in the forma­ it received. Plant's railroad and port con­ tion of high concentrations of southern struction urbanized Tampa, dramatically populations. "By 1900," notes T. Lynn increasing its economic production, acces­ Smith, "important towns were aligned along sibility to other regions, and inevitably, its the principal railways like beads on a population. While in 1880, Tampa's census string."11 When· Plant's South Florida Rail- recorded a meager 722 citizens, five years 42 later there were 2, 739 people; by 1890, reflected and shaped the contours of Tampa's population reached nearly 16,000. Tampa's urbanism for two decades. By 1911, manufacturers and managers exerted Promoting Paradise the gr~atest influence on board decisions helping to form the entrepreneurial sensi­ ile Plant's railroad is a predomi­ bilities of the early city.17 ant reason for Tampa's urban and A Tampa Board of Trade brochure, at the W conomic growth, Long contends turn of the twentieth century, gloated that that the promotional activities of the Board "between 1890 and 1910, Tampa's growth of Trade also were instrumental in turning was the greatest of any city of its class in the village of Tampa into a city.14 In 1885, the United States. Since being a city the Tampa's Board of Trade, the town's first growth has been nothing short of mar­ civic/financial organization, held meetings velous. "18 The Board of Trade was not the in Tampa's first cultural institution, the only organization impressed with Tampa's Branch Opera House. Within one year, the staggering 596 percent increase in popula­ Board of Trade laid the groundwork for tion between the years 1890 and 1910; much of the economic prosperity Tampa newspapers noting the dramatic population would experience in the first decades of the increase renamed Tampa the "Queen City twentieth century. The board led a move­ of the Gulf."19 ment in support of a city water works; it at­ Besides Plant, Ybor, and the Tampa tracted ice factories necessary for the fish Board of Trade, others consciously devel­ industry and pushed the local government oped Tampa into a city with commercial to erect a bridge across the Hillsborough assets affecting the city's growth and River, so Plant could build the Tampa Bay attracting tourists. For instance, George S. Hotel in Hyde Park. Gandy enhanced Tampa's reputation as The board is most acclaimed for under­ southwest Florida's playground when the writing the loan needed to bring cigar mag­ bridge he built opened in 1924, connecting nate Vicente Martinez Ybor to establish Tampa with Pinellas County and the Gulf Tampa's first major industry.IS Persuaded beaches.20 But no one epitomized the by his friends, who had praised the qualities dizzying Florida real estate boom of the of Tampa, Ybor came to Tampa in Septem­ 1920s like land developer D.P Davis. A mile ber of 1885, to locate and purchase proper­ from Tampa's flourishing downtown, Davis ty for his cigar factories. The board offered created Davis Islands by dredging up the to pay nearly half of the bill for the tract of bay and expanding some mud flat islands. land that Ybor desired. By October of 1885, Before the dredging was completed, Davis Ybor City was plotted and construction on sold 18 million dollars worth of lots, creat­ streets and homes began. Within a year and ing Tampa's most prestigious residential a half, four cigar factories were in operation and resort community.21 Booster brochures and 1,300 people migrated to the area to and booklets about the Islands development work in Ybor's flourishing cigar industry. and Tampa and advertisements placed in One of the most important characteris­ newspapers and magazines helped to lure tics of southern civic and financial leaders thousands of people to buy a lot on Davis during the south's urban development, ar­ Islands, move to Tampa, or at least travel gues Blaine Brownwell and David Goldfield, there for a vacation. Davis' 1925 promo­ was their participation in the development tional booklet depicted attractive scenes of of an urban consciousness. The association­ middle class leisure with people playing al activity of the civic booster helped to tennis, boating, sunbathing and golfing. Its construct an urban awareness that "illumi­ rhetorical effort became a hallmark of pro­ nated the possibilities of the southern city motional publications. "As the brochure as a cultural center, a repository of capital ticked the highlights of the development," and expertise, and ultimately of 'civiliza­ explains James Ricci, "the language rein­ tion'. "16 While Tampa's Board of Trade was forced the image while calling to mind the initially comprised of store owners, lawyers ingredients and virtues Americans typically and other professionals mirroring Tampa's seek for their home or vacation."22 Booster early mercantile sensibilities, by 1892, real literature helped to create in Northern estate dealers and builders outnumbered minds a compelling image of a middle class retailers and lawyers. This shift both Tampa, attracting them and their dollars to 43 the city. Vacationers nicknamed "tin can constructed Gandy Bridge escalated land tourists" drove to Tampa from northern prices from SO dollars to, in some cases, states, contributing to the 100,000 people 10,000 dollars an acre. In 1920, a parcel at per year who visited the city during the the intersection of Lafayette Street (now boom years of the 1920s. Pitching tents and Kennedy Boulevard) and Florida Avenue eating from tin cans, they experienced sold for 20,000 dollars. Three years later Tampa less extravagantly than those who the same property sold for 150,000 dol­ vacationed on Davis Islands; however, lars.23 In 1923, investors put nearly two during their visits they managed to pump million dollars into Tampa's building con­ millions of dollars into the local economy. struction. One year later that amount Popular magazines such as Saturday doubled in the city, and by 1925, - at the Evening Post and Harper's Monthly further peak of the boom - 23 million dollars had enhanced the economy and Tampa's boom been spent on development.24 •• •• ••••11 11

A view of of a very busy Franklin Street looking north from Zack Street. 1\vo streetcars are ap­ proaching the intersection and the Tampa Theatre is on the right in the next block. Construction on the facade of the First National Bank can be seen. (Courtesy of the Burgert Bros. Collection, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library.) development. National writers, enthused by In part, Tampa's urban and economic the state's sunny skies, warm weather, and growth during the twenties depended on beaches, depicted Tampa as an Eden, a gold mediated images of a blissful resort. Por­ mine, and a resort and business paradise, traits of leisure in paradise helped to define helping to fuel the economic advances and the reputation of Tampa. Booster rhetoric land development that took place in and that put Tampa "on the map" called forth around Tampa during the first half of the images of paradise, gold mines and Eden, 1920s. In 1923 and 1924, rampant specu­ creating a mosaic that always referenced lation in the properties along the newly some place other than the city itself. For 44 example, Tampa Theatre's architect, John Railway electrified its lines, resulting in a · Eberson, who spent several winters in price war between the two companies.27 Florida before he was hired to design the The price reduction - two cents per person Tampa Theatre, contributed to the utopian - further increased the possibility for travel rhetoric. He attributed his inspiration for throughout the city, fostering more partici­ the atmospheric design of his picture pation in leisure activities outside the palaces to the vibrant panoramas he saw home. Schools, churches, and social clubs, while vacationing. "I was impressed with for example, chartered the streetcars to the colorful scenes which greeted me at commute to Ballast Point Pavilion for pic­ Miami, Palm Beach and Tampa," Eberson nics and dancing. Sometimes groups rode remembered. Visions of Italian gardens, the cars without a destination, filling the Spanish patios, Persian shrines and French cars with song.2s As the downtown area de­ formal gardens flashed through my mind, veloped, residents relied upon streetcars to and at once I directed my energies to carry­ take them to Franklin Street for shopping, ing out these ideas. "25 As Eberson's vision dining and entertainment. An indispensable of a fashionable Tampa emerged as a collage part of urban life, Rabinowitz argues "street of images of ancient cities, Tampa's identity cars helped to usher in the golden age of the and its sense of place in the mid-twenties downtown area. "29 Following the 1926 was in fact misplaced. For when Eberson opening of the Tampa Theatre, the Franklin envisioned Tampa, the city itself vanished, Street streetcar dropped off passengers at and he imagined instead an amalgam of the front door of the picture palace. Italy, Spain, Persia and France. Eberson A symbol of urban maturity, streetcars said that such a montage of Tampa greatly changed the way citizens experienced the influenced his design of the Tampa Theatre, city. The cars expanded the city by increas­ an atmospheric picture palace. The Tampa ing passengers' accessibility between the Theatre was designed with the idea of deliv­ commercial center and developing suburban ering its patrons to paradise by taking them areas. The cars also contracted the time it away from the city in which they lived. took to cross the city and created a reduced sense of geography, a more navigable and ef­ The Impact of the Streetcar ficient Tampa. Besides traversing an expand­ ing city in less time, the streetcar passen­ he increase in Tampa's industry also gers' shift in space-time perception resulted meant growth in utilities, communi­ in a cinematic experience of the city. This Tcation services and urban improve­ change, which Wolfgang Schivelbusch calls ments. As the city grew in population, "panoramic" perception, parallels the char­ business districts and neighborhoods acteristics of cinematic viewing. On the train multiplied, and new innovations in com­ journey, Schivelbusch explains speed caused munication and transportation systems the foreground to disappear; detaching the allowed residents to traverse Tampa's ex­ traveler from the space that immediately panding boundaries with relative ease. In surrounded him. The landscape was no 1884, Tampa boasted two telegraph lines. In longer experienced intensively (as on horse­ 1885, a local street railway company laid its back); it was perceived impressionistically.30 rails. By 1887, Tampa Electric Company In a less dramatic way than the railroad car turned on the city's lights, and by 1889, because traveling speed is less, the streetcar homes and businesses were using water created a similar panoramic sensation. from a city supply. A bond issue in 1889 Industrial development and urbanization financed a 65,000 dollar sewage system and resulted in a need for a streetcar system for 35,000 dollars for street pavement. By Tampa. The cars altered the experience of 1890, telephones were ringing in Tampa.26 time and space for its riders, as would cine­ The appearance of streetcars greatly af­ ma during the first few years of the twentieth fected Tampa's residents by reconfiguring century. When movie theaters opened along Tampa's metropolitan boundaries. In 1892, Franklin Street, Tampa residents began Tampa Suburban Railroad Company began experiencing a similar passage of time and running street cars across Hillsborough space, for watching movies paralleled riding River to Hyde Park, a developing residential the streetcars that carried them downtown. area, and Ballast Point, the southern tip In a movie theater, as in a streetcar, the of Tampa. In May of 1893, Tampa Street passenger/spectator is among others, yet is 45 actually seated alone. Both the streetcar and other retail and financial institutions passenger and the cinematic spectator travel sought to situate themselves near this cen­ in time and space, explains Giuliana Bruno, tral zone, promising them increased expo­ "viewing panoramically from a still sitting sure. In the first decades of the twentieth position through a framed image in century, peddlers still traveled through resi­ motion."31 The streetcar, like railroads, dential sections of Tampa selling such items bridges, and exhibition halls, was a literal as thread, lace, dress material, pie pans and and metaphorical vehicle for a life in transit. curtain rods, but citizens soon grew to de­ As Bruno explains, they were all "signifiers pend on Franklin Street for its convenience of a new notion of space and mobility, signs and diversity, as a place for shopping, of an industrial era that generated the strolling and social gathering.34 Tampa's motion picture."32 In other words, when city Board of Trade created a safer and more dwellers jumped off the streetcars at the comfortable and aesthetically pleasing door of the Tampa Theatre they did not stop pedestrian environment on Franklin Street, traveling. Instead, the movement continued reflecting the social needs and consumer de­ long after they purchased their movie tick­ mands of the city's citizens. Hard surfaced ets, for the Tampa Theatre transported its streets and sidewalks replaced the former inhabitants to the cosmopolitan and often pavements of cypress blocks, seashells and glamorous world of Hollywood. While Tampa rotted wood, increasing the comfort and Theatre patrons were growing accustomed satisfaction of Franklin Street's travelers. to increased urban mobility facilitated by The topography and the tempo of Tampa streetcars, they were also cinemati­ Franklin Street transformed again in 1912, cally traveling down other cities' streets, when the city's first skyscraper office build­ further expanding their perceptual bound­ ing was erected. The Citizen's Bank Building, aries and expectations of urban space. the tallest building in Tampa, located in the heart of the area that included Maas Broth­ Franklin Street: The Center ers, 0. Falk's, Woolworth's, and Kress, estab­ of Display and Commerce lished the 700 block of Franklin Street. Distinguishing Tampa from other towns and ranklin Street slowly grew into the small cities, the towering and conspicuous centerpiece of downtown during the Citizen's Bank Building, visible from every Ftwo decades before the turn of the street and sidewalk, provided Tampa's citi­ twentieth century. The Spanish-American zens with an emblem. The skyscraper War had stimulated downtown business symbolically told residents that their city growth, but Tampa's population was not was prospering and Franklin Street was a large enough to accommodate a magnitude legitimate financial center. As downtown of enterprises, except for those located on Tampa prospered and the 1920s drew near, Franklin Street. The Branch Opera House, more clothing, shoe and accessory shops the Binkley Building, and the Hillsborough sprang up along Franklin Street, complement­ County Courthouse served as landmarks for ing the established jewelers, pharmacies, retailers who wanted to locate their busi­ banks, office building and department stores. nesses as near as possible to Franklin Hardware stores, fruit sellers, and coffee mer­ Street's emblems of progress. By 1901, chants vacated the street, leaving room for Franklin Street's center possessed all of the more sophisticated and prosperous business­ elements of a modern business district. The es such as Wolf Brothers, the men's clothing Tampa Board of Trade, First National Bank, store. The stage had been built for Tampa's Exchange National Bank, Citizen's Bank downtown to play out its economic successes, and Trust Company, Southern Loan & Jew­ and Franklin Street was prepared for the elry Company, Tampa Furniture Company, boom years that were just around the comer. Maas Brothers Department Store, 0. Falk's It was no accident that investors chose Department Store, and a variety of smaller Franklin Street in 1926 for the Tampa The­ businesses such as shoe stores, clothing atre's location. Considered the crown jewel stores, grocery stores, a barber, a tailor, of the city, the Tampa Theatre reigned over and a fruit stand, lined Tampa's most well the department stores and the less signifi­ traveled street.33 The increasingly robust cant shops around it. Maas Brothers, 0. commercial and retail establishments on Falk's, McCrory, Kress, and Woolworth's, Franklin Street became a centripetal force, clothing stores, jewelry stores, shoe stores, 46 / Madame Himes Beauty Parlor was set up and operating in the lobby of the Tampa Theatre to promote the "It Girl,'' screen starlet Clara Bow, and her latest movie, Lo'Oe Among The Millionaires, which opened in July 1930. (Courtesy of the Burgert Bros. Collection, Tampa­ Hillsborough County Public Library.)

pharmacies, and three small movie theaters Tampa Theatre by gazing at both the films - the Victory, the Strand, and the Franklin - and their surroundings within the theatre. all lined Franklin Street when the Tampa Patrons, for a sum of seventy-five cents, Theatre opened its doors. consumed both cinematic images of other The department stores, like the street­ cities, countries and historical periods and cars, were also precursors to the cinematic the antiquated and exotic Mediterranean­ experience for Tampa's residents. The imag­ elsewhere atmosphere of the theatre. Two inary gratification of "looking" constructed decades later, the cinematic relationship by the department stores windows and dis­ between the department store window and play cases, according to Anne Friedburg, the Tampa Theatre was consummated were timeless spaces similar to and precur­ when a local model took a bubble bath in sors of cinema. "The department store, like the Sears store window to promote Greer the arcade before it," Friedburg explains, Garson's 1948 film Julie Misbehaves. Simi­ "constructed a sheltered refuge for itinerant lar to the way they gazed upon the latest lookers, a sanctuary for consumption kept fashions on display in the Maas Brothers separate from the domain of production." window, spectators stood behind a rope on 35 For Tampa's middle class residents who the sidewalk watching a model behind glass were growing accustomed to participating replicate a scene from an upcoming movie. in an increasingly urbanized and commer­ cialized spectator culture, the Tampa Popular Entertainment in the City Theatre was a paramount spectacle. Like the windows and displays of the department en Tampa residents and visitors stores surrounding the theatre, imaginary ocked to the Tampa Theatre in gratification came to the patrons at the he twenties, the Edison films I saw 47 during the 1997 Library of Congress "Going out was more than escape from the National Film Registry Tour were already a tedium of work," writes Nasaw, "it was a forgotten artifact of an unsophisticated gateway into a privileged sphere of every­ technology. Edison's war films originally day life. The ability to take time out from were projected on a Vitascope in vaudeville work for recreation and public sociability houses at the tum of the century. The was the dividing line between the old worlds Vitascope, the first film projector to show and the new."41 motion pictures onto a screen at a distance, Before the construction of Tampa's first created the conditions for assembling num­ commercial movie theaters, residents en­ bers of people into a film viewing audience. joyed conventional theatrical performances The emergence of the Vitascope was "an at the Branch Opera House, but downtown outgrowth and vital part of city culture," was also a place for other fascinating and suggests Vanessa Schwartz and Leo less traditional exhibitions. In a vacant Charney, "that addressed its spectators as store next to Ball's Grocery Store, for in­ members of a collective and potentially stance, a woman sat in an elevated chair undifferentiated mass public."36 But before and painted china, wrote, sewed and played Vitascope pictures thrilled audiences in the piano with her toes. A curio shop, at the 1896, singing, dancing, comedy skits and comer of Lafayette and Tampa Streets, ex­ novelty acts filled the vaudeville halls. "The hibited hissing reptiles in department store vaudeville years from 1880 to 1920, played display cases. And at Kress, the new depart­ a critical role in the transformation ment store, clerks made a show of grinding between popular culture and place," ex­ peanuts for the many spectators who had plains Robert Snyder.37 A giant step toward never seen peanut butter before.42 These the centralized entertainment industry, the minor spectacles depended on the constant shows were usually owned and operated by flow of pedestrians and money centered on national chains that leased theaters in cities Franklin Street. on the vaudeville circuit. The shows trav­ Even before the construction of Tampa's eled from theater to theater in city after first nickelodeon, residents gathered down­ city. Vaudeville players traveling between town to watch movies projected on an theaters made it possible for spectators in outside wall of Ball's Grocery, at the comer Brooklyn to see the same show as ticket of Franklin and Madison Street. "The audi­ buyers in the Bronx; thereby enlarging the ence would fill the benches on the Court possibilities for a shared culture among House Square, then overflow to the steps people in different regions.38 and curbs nearby," wrote a long time Though the Vitascope created the first Tampa resident. "Sometimes one of collective motion picture audience, the Tampa's vocalists would sing with a picture. desire for public entertainment in Ameri­ The music of the band helped to attract the can cities grew as quickly as the cities crowds and made these movie nights seem themselves during the last decades of the much more like gala occasions."43 nineteenth century. A new urban popula­ Tampa's first movie theater, a nick­ tion created by the industrial revolution elodeon on the east side of Franklin Street, flocked to circuses, traveling shows, penny remained popular until the arrival of three arcades and dime museums. The rise of corporate theatres in 1912. Downtown public entertainment was "a by-product of nickel theaters hit American city streets the enormous expansion of the cities," like wildfire in 1905. They were a small notes David Nasaw. "Commercial entertain­ time business owner's dream. A few adjust­ ments were, in this period at least, an urban ments to a storefront - folding chairs, paper phenomenon."39 Paralleling the rapid popu­ covered windows, a piece of canvas for a lation growth in Tampa between the years screen and a projector was all that was of 1870 and 1920, America's urban popula­ needed before a nickelodeon was up and tion increased from ten million to fifty-four running. Tampa's nickelodeon, housed in a million people, the average income for the small frame building, charged the routine industrial worker rose fifty percent, and the five cents admission for a half hour long cost of living decreased fifty percent.40 The movie. "Of all the pictures I saw there," increase in income along with decease in remembers Susie Kelly Dean, "the only one work hours resulted in a new generation of I remember was that of a man eating ice workers with leisure time and money. cream and sending the audience into gales 48 of laughter by the faces he made."44 Only centrally located moving picture · Nickelodeons were generally located on theaters could accommodate and afford to side streets where the rent was cheaper. show multi-reel films, and exhibiting them in This kept costs down and attracted a differ­ theaters located on valuable urban real ent audience than vaudeville theaters. estate helped to seal the marriage of middle Nickelodeons opened the door of com­ class audiences and movies. At first, feature mercial entertainment to working class length film exhibitors colonized old vaude­ families, mothers whose arms were filled ville houses, but by the end of 1915 theatre with shopping bags, children and single owners were building new opulent venues women. While the rise in incomes and de­ called picture palaces, which promised to cline in work hours contributed to the satisfy the yearnings of the new and prof­ growth of urban entertainment, nick­ itable middle class audience. elodeons were accessible to workers who still had low wages and long hours. The five The Business of Leisure: cent movie was inexpensive enough and The Tampa Theatre Comes to Town short enough for the underpaid and over­ he construction worked. Because the of the Tampa shows were continu­ TTheatre was a ous, workers could go lavish marker of Tam­ to the theaters after pa's confidence in itself work. For instance, the as a city. The economic U.S. Steel Corporation's boom during the first 12 hour work-day still half of the 1920's left time for long lines boosted Tampa's down­ of overworked steel­ town status enough mill laborers at the that investors believed nickelodeon, a 1908 that its urban center Pittsburgh survey dis­ could and should sup­ covered. Part of the port an extravagant nickelodeon's success 1,500 seat movie the­ resulted from their ater. When the picture ability to attract both palace opened its the underpaid and carved doors to the overworked as well as public on October 15, those who were Born in 1875, John Eberson came to the 1926, Tampa's popu­ United States in the early 1900s, and accumulating some settled in St. Louis, Missouri. By 1910, lation, industry and disposable income. "By he was living in Chicago, and receiving economy was flourish­ accommodating both steady work as a theater architect. In ing. The city led the kinds of schedules 1926, Eberson moved his base of opera­ world in phosphate and pocketbooks, the tions to New York City, from where he exportation and the designed Tampa's "Picture Palace," the movie theater managed Tampa Theatre. His death came in 1965. manufacturing of high to become - like the grade Havana cigars. It saloon, the church, and the fraternal had the sixteenth largest port in the United lodge," writes Roy Rosenzweig, "a central States. In the same year the theatre was working class institution that involved built, over two thousand new homes, eighty workers on a sustained and regular basis."45 apartment buildings, fourteen churches, But the nickelodeon could not accom­ fourteen schools and two hospitals were modate the advent of the feature length constructed.46 With 159 cigar factories, 382 film. The financial and artistic success of other industries and a population brimming D.W. Griffith's twelve-reel The Birth of a to more than 200,000, Tampa was consid­ Nation in 1915, forever changed cinematic ered the commercial center of South viewing, resulting in higher ticket prices, Florida. The Tampa Theatre marked the reserved seating, scheduled shows and pinnacle of the city's success story during longer runs. As a result of the popularity the boom years of the mid-1920s. of feature length films, the space and "The most beautiful theatre in the south," respectability of movie houses also changed. was built by Consolidated Amusements 49 The Tampa Theatre was showing the Helen Hayes film What Every Woman Knows in 1934, when this large crowd gathered at the entrance on Franklin Street for one of the theatre's popular promotions, Bank Night, held every Friday. (Courtesy of the Bur~ert Bros. Collection, Tampa­ Hillsborough County Public Library.)

Corporation, a cooperative venture com­ and straw.47 Classical forms reproduced prised of influential businessman associated with moderately priced materials lowered with downtown Tampa's retail and financial construction costs and maintenance for community. Consolidated Amusements con­ theater owners, and from a seat in the audi­ structed a theatre that depended upon the torium, the statues appeared to be museum convenience and centrality of a thriving quality pieces. Due to the constraints of the downtown to lure its patrons. Theatre con­ property size, the Tampa Theatre was one struction began in April of 1925, and for the of the smallest of Eberson's designs, but was next 18 months, Tampa contractor G.A. supposedly one of his favorites. He and wife Miller employed multitudes of mechanics, traveled to Europe themselves to purchase carpenters, artists and decorators who trans­ many of the 250,000 dollars worth of an­ formed the dream-like architectural design of tiques that graced the theater on opening John Eberson into a reality. night and still remain there today. Eberson, the most prolific and well 1\vo days before the Tampa Theatre known picture place designer in the world, opened, 1,500 seventy-five cent tickets designed over 1,200 architectural projects, went on sale. All of the tickets for the vigor­ built over five hundred theaters and was ously anticipated opening were sold within credited with the creation of the "atmos­ two hours. It is difficult to determine what pheric" theater of which he designed over the fifteen hundred ticket buyers specifical­ one hundred. In part, Eberson's atmospher­ ly wanted to see opening night, but surely ics were successful because of his innova­ few went home disappointed. Paramount tive designs and because he effectively re­ Picture's Ace of Cads, starring Adolf Menjou produced classical motifs using inexpensive and Alice Joyce, was the feature film, but materials. The statues that adorned his the­ the motion picture was touted as only a aters were made from either plaster or staff, minimal part of the evening's entertain­ so an inexpensive material made from plaster ment. The 1,500 ticket holders at the opening night were treated to musical behave in public, as the private manners of performances - both classical and popular the genteel parlor overtook the public in form, speeches acknowledging the city of behavior of the theater goers. Individuals Tampa's arrival to the big time with the were taught to keep private bodily matters opening of the Tampa Theatre, and three to themselves, Lawrence Levine explains, kinds of film entertainment - comedy, dra­ and to remain as inconspicuous as possible ma and news. But, the theatre patrons within the public realm of the theater as sitting in a theatre housing the latest tech­ well as on the street.SO While the theater nological advances in popular culture, also entertained and tutored its new audiences, found in the opening night program a lesson the notion that stage entertainment was in high culture. really for the wealthy and the educated nev­ Like Balaban and Katz, the Tampa er diminished. The Tampa Theatre's decor Theatre management claimed their palace summoned the qualities of genteel behavior was for the people; it was for the ticket buy­ and affluence of the mid-nineteenth centu­ ers who "might not know Art, but could feel ry stage theater, setting a precedent for its it." The theatre provided popular film enter­ new patrons' public behavior. Its design al­ tainment, but its design in many ways so served as marker of social status to the mimicked a high brow stage theater. In city's growing middle class population. The other words, while the theatre was extolled picture palace setting, as Gomery contends, as an affable place for those unacquainted appealed to middle class urban dwellers with the graces of high culture, repro­ with social aspirations.SI ductions of classical statuary and explicit In addition to photographs, descriptions instructions included in the opening guide of simulated statuary, and the theatre's de­ suggest that the theatre's patrons would not sign, the opening night program dedicated a or should not be undisciplined in the virtues half page description detailing the theatre's of high culture for too long. Many of the pro­ Air Cooling and Dehumidifying System. gram's pages were dedicated to photographs The first public building in Tampa to have and instruction about the statuary reproduc­ air conditioning, the program boasted that tions found in various niches in the lobby, the system would not only keep "new and foyers and auditorium. Simulated master­ fresh air in constant circulation, but pieces of Hebe, Hermes, Christopher removes all foul air and odors instantly." Columbus, and Diana were only a few of the Anyone familiar with Tampa weather will sculptures described. "The educational and certainly agree that air conditioning, partic­ cultural value of these art treasures," the ularly during the summer months, makes program explained, "so beautifully en­ life tolerable; however, the air conditioning throned in the grand architectural setting system, like the replicas of the classical cannot be easily measured. Art, Mythology statues, had important implications for and History are collaborated in this modem patrons aspiring to separate themselves Motion Picture Palace."49 Most of the pro­ from the working class. gram was dedicated to photographs and In the years before the picture palace, descriptions of simulated statuary and the the conditions of the inexpensive movie theatre's design. Hollywood actors such as house paralleled the realities of working W.C. Fields, Lillian Gish, Buster Keaton, class life. Floors were dirty, the air stagnant, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks were and rats were almost as plentiful as the merely mentioned in a list of names that fol­ spectators. "Spartan, and even unsanitary, lowed a paragraph claiming an organization conditions make little impression on work­ of experts selected the films for the theatre. ing-class movie goers; such surroundings Within its facade of high culture were part of their daily lives," claims Rosen­ emblems, and a set of instruction about zweig, "but middle class commentators re­ them, the program signaled to the new acted with horror."S2 Part of their shocked Tampa Theatre patrons that they should reaction was the presence of a large group familiarize themselves with the standards of working class people who looked and and civility customary of the stage theater smelled differently from themselves. In or­ and then comply with them. When live the­ der to attract middle class patrons, picture ater began catering to various social classes palace owners differentiated their theaters in the mid-1800s, the theater became a from working class venues by eliminating place for training the new audiences how to working class signifiers, such as their odors. 51 While the air conditioning system at the Tampa Theatre did cool the air, another dis­ tinctive quality was its ability to "remove foul air and odor." In other words, the sys­ tem helped to eliminate all odors except for that of Tampa's middle class. The opening of the Tampa Theatre, doused with simulated finery and riches, created a public space in the center of the city for many Tampa residents who were pri­ vately coming to terms with their new found middle class status. "The spirit of its concep­ tion, its architecture, its influence, will be the inspiration of many thousands," the opening night program declared. "The need is here. The people are here." As the city of Tampa flourished economically during the first half of the 1920s, more and more of the city's population found themselves living Views of the main lobby and stage clearly within and aspiring to middle class stan­ illustrate the "atmospherics" that movie palace dards. The industrial and real estate devel­ architect John Eberson achieved in his design. The Tampa Theatre's interior delivered an opment in Tampa, which created an urban out-of-doors facade that invoked images of culture, helped to generate the production of courtyards, patios, shrines and gardens, all social sites of amusement and spectacle for within a building on Tampa's Franklin Street - the city's growing population. "The social a blurring of inside and outside. (Courtesy of spaces of distraction and display became as the Burgert Bros. Collection, Tampa-Hillsbor­ ough County Public Library.) vital to urban culture as the spaces of explanation. Tampa residents had been working and living," explains David Harvey. learning to see the world this way for sever­ "Social competition with respect to life-style al decades. and command over space, always important "The rapid crowding of changing images, for upper segments of the bourgeoisie, the sharp discontinuity in the grasp of a became more and more important within single glance, and the unexpectedness of the mass culture of urbanization, sometimes onrushing impression: These are the psy­ even masking the role of community in chological conditions which the metropolis processes of class reproduction."53 creates," explained Georg Simmel in his Eberson's "atmospherics" reorganized 1903 essay "The Metropolis and Mental space by transforming the theater's interior Life."55 Simmel contended that the glut of into an out-of-doors facade. The Tampa The­ stimuli found in modem cities transformed atre's auditorium invoked images of exterior the psychic lives of those who lived in Italian courtyards, Spanish patios, Persian them. The panoramic sensation which shrines and French gardens. The term "at­ transformed the street car/train passenger's mospheric" as Eberson used it, is fitting for perception of space and time, the imaginary the blurring of inside and outside, yet it is gratification of "looking" that came to those also an appropriate term for the social orga­ who gazed at commodities framed in de­ nization of the space of the Tampa Theatre. partment store windows, the rise of cinema "In the space of power, power does not as a popular form of urban entertainment, appear as such," writes Lefebvre, "it hides and the construction of Tampa as a sunny under the organization of space."54 The Eden are but a few of the examples of city Tampa Theatre appears in 1926 as a public life that not only subjected city dwellers to space designed to fulfill the social aspirations a barrage of sensory stimulation but also of the city's middle class; the theatre was an anticipated the mobility and placelessness "atmospheric" of mass culture that never­ engendered in the "atmospheric" picture theless made explicit social distinctions. palace. The placelessness invoked by the Tampa Conclusion Theatre may have been disorienting to pa­ trons, but it was not a disagreeable or an en­ avid Nasaw has convincingly argued tirely unfamiliar sensation. Rather, the pic­ that both professionals and blue­ ture palace - a remarkable and imaginative Dcollar workers felt an uncertain dis­ passageway - enabled movie goers to gain comfort in occupying the extravagant halls quick entry to the fantasies on the screen, of the picture palace. Yet, it was a democra­ encouraging the~ to temporarily escape tic social space, one where everyone had the experiences of their own lives in the gained entry with the tearing of the ticket, city. The increasingly frantic pace of city and "all felt equally welcome," says Nasaw, life; the regimentation, boredom, and ever "because all were equally out of place." In accelerating rhythm of industrial work; the the cloak of artificial dusk, surrounded by crowded, frenzied, and stimulating urban the exotic signifiers of other countries and environment, and the multiplying demands epochs, and removed from the familiar and pressing schedules of work and home sights and sounds of the city, the Tampa were but some of the tribulations that Tam­ Theatre patrons did experience a feeling of pa Theatre patrons hoped to temporarily being "out of place." Ironically, the theatre escape as they entered into the picture built to help secure Tampa's place "on the palace. map" had no coordinates drawn from the Nonetheless, I am reminded ·as I watch city itself. The architectural bricolage of the films during the Film Registry Tour that styles and periods forged in a random, but early film entertainment was not simply an conscious, effort invoked a sense of else­ escape from the perils and complexities of where. Yet, the picture palace's dimly lit city life. The films were often inverted or spectacular montage elicited a feeling of idealized spectacles of the patrons' every­ panoramic placelessness that was neither day lives. In fact, while early motion pic­ unfamiliar nor discomfiting, for it mimicked tures provided an experiential detour, they an increasingly commonplace logic of a frequently transported patrons to other visual society where disparate images could cities, inviting them to reflect and laugh at be edited together and understood without the cinematic and magnified portrayals of 53 I> FOWLER WHITE BOGGS BANKER ATTORNEYS AT LAW

As we celebrate 60 years as a Jull service law firm, we salute the Tampa Historical Society and its outstanding contributions to the Tampa Bay Community the complications and absurdities of their its place in the urban and visual landscape own urban lives. Surely audience members would eventually be superseded by the sub­ chuckled when Harold Lloyd dangled per­ urbanization of Tampa in the fifties and six­ ilously from a skyscraper clock above a con­ ties. The red velvet seats would remain in gested Los Angeles street in Safety Last. place, but the construction of strip malls, Yet, some of their laughter might have been drive-in theaters, and movie houses closer nervous recognition that they too clung to to the city's new suburban developments clocks. And, if movie viewers hooted when would eventually leave many of the rows in a crowd gathered to gleefully observe Laurel the Tampa Theatre empty. Finally, the and Hardy demolish a stranger's Los Ange­ advent of television created a new sense of les home in Big Business, audience mem­ place for spectators. Seated on couches, bers might have been acknowledging their images flashing before their eyes, viewers own moments of uneasy pleasure when the turned their television dials, choosing the carnivalesque threatened the order of their ' dreams they wished to privately consume city streets. Still, these films are comedies in ~he security and comfort of their homes. and while spectators may have experienced momentary discomfort, the pleasure found in watching these cinematic absurdities was ENDNOTES reinforced by the fact that the viewers were sitting in the Tampa Theatre, their dis­ Janna Jones is an Assistant Professor in the Depart­ placed bodies far removed from hazardous ment of Communication at the University .of Sout.h and cinematic streets Lo_s Angeles. Florida. She received h·er Ph.D. 'iri Communication· pf from USF, artd has het M.Ed: in English· Education, and .In many ways, the opening of the Tampa B.A. in English. Dr. Jones is the author of The Southern Theatre in 1926, symbolized the city's MO'Vie Pal.ace: Rise, Fall, and Resurrection (Gaines­ dream of four decades earlier. In fact, the ville: University Press of Florida, 2003). She is the recipient of the USF Creative Scholarship Grant, and theatre's owners were quite cognizant about numerous other awards and grants from the Hillsbor­ the theatre's place in the city's evolution. ough County Children's Board, Hillsborough County's "Like Tampa itself, the Tampa Theatre is Office of Neighborhood and Community Relations, Allegany Franciscan Foundation, and the Florida Hu­ destined to occupy a place of conspicuous manities Council. She received the Arthur P. Bochner importance in the development of Florida," Award for Outstanding Achievement in Doctoral the opening program announced. "The Studies in 1996. Dr. Jones has served as the Archivist for the Tampa Theatre since 1995, and has lectured at need is here. The people are here." Yet, as the Asolo Center for the Arts in Sarasota where she the audiences made their way through an served as the Assistant Program Director of the The­ architectural bricolage of European antiqui­ atre Educational Program. ties and manufactured icons of upper class 1. Douglas Gomery, "The Picture Palace," Quarterly civility, and as they sat in plush red seats Review of Film Studies (Harwood Academic watching the frames roll beneath the Publishers, Winter 1978), 26. proscenium, the Tampa Theatre epitomized 2. Maggie Valentine, The Show Starts on the an atmosphere where its audiences were Sidewalk, An Architectural History of the MO'Vie Theater, Starring S. Charles Lee (New Haven: Yale physically and mentally poised to be any­ University Press, 1996), 57. where but in Tampa. On the one hand, the 3. Charlotte Herzog, "The Movie Palace and the Tampa Theatre staged a sense of "placeless­ Theatrical Sources of its Architectural Style," Cinema Journal 20 (Austin: University of Texas ness" for a city that was confronting the Press, Spring 1981), 18. anxieties and rapid changes of an increas­ 4. qtd. in Iain MacKintosh, Architecture, Actor, and ingly industrialized America. On the other Audience (London/New York: Taylor and Francis hand, each seat in the Tampa Theatre was Books Ltd, 1993), 72. ushering its audience toward their "sense of 5. Gomery, 28. 6. Ibid. place" in a society of consumption and 7. qtd. in Valentine, 34. mobility built on the flickering images of a 8. William J. Schellings, "The Advent of the Spanish­ spectator culture. Brochures, magazines, American War in Florida," The Florida Historical glaring neon, department store windows, Quarterly 39 (Melbourne, FL: The Florida Histori­ cal Society, April 1961), 313. and the rise of cinematic entertainment all 9. Durwood Long, "Making of Modem Tampa: A City helped to situate and prepare citizens for of the New South, 1885-1911," The Florida Histori­ more of the same as the twentieth century cal Quarterly 49 (Melbourne, FL: The Florida rolled forward. While the Tampa Theatre Historical Society, April 1971), 335. 10. Gene M. Burnett, Florida's Past: People and coalesced the forces at work in the city's Events That Shaped the State (Sarasota, FL: growing consumer society of the twenties, Pineapple Press, 1986), 190. 55 11. Lynn T. Smith, "The Emergence of Cities," The 40. lbw., 4. Urban Sauth, Rupert Bayless Vance and Nicholas J. 41. Ibw., 4. Demerath, eds. (Chapel Hill: The University of 42. Dean, 38. North Carolina Press, 1954), 28. 43. Ibw., 11. 12. Long, 33S. 44. Dean, 41. 13. John Rupertus, History of Commercial Develop­ 4S. Roy Rosenzweig, Eight Hours for What We Will, ment of Franklin Street, Masters Thesis, University Worker and Leisure in an Industrial Ci(JI, 1870- of South Florida, December 1980, 23. 1920 (Cambridge University Press, 198S), 19S. 14. Long, 34S. 46. United Confederate Veteran's Union, Tampa - lS. Hampton Dunn, Yesterdays Tampa, (Miami, E.A. Floridas Greatest Ci(JI Official Souvenir Program, Seemann Publishers, 1977), 19. April 1927. 16. Blaine A. Brownell and David R. Goldfield, eds., 47. Ibw., 9. "Southern Urban History," The Ci(JI in Southern 48. "Tampa Theatre Opening Souvenir," October lS, History: The Growth of Urban Ciuilization in the 1926. South (Port Washington, NY: National University Publications, Kinnikat Press, 1977), 9. 49. Ibw. 17. Long, 34S. SO. Lawrence W. Levine, Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America · 18.Dunn,21 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, ~988), 199. 19. Rupertus, 27. Sl. Gomecy,, 143. 20. Dunn, 21. S2. Rosenzweig, 20S. 2i. Ibw., 22. S3. David Harvey, Consciousness and the Urban 22. James Ricci, "Boasters, Boosters and Boom: Popu­ Experience (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University lar Images of Florida in the 1920s," Tampa Bay Press, 198S), 2S6. History 6 (Tampa: University of South Florida, S4. qtd. in Harvey, 103. Fall/Winter 1984), 39. SS. Georg Simmel, "The Metropolis and Mental Life," 23. Rupertus, 32. in The Sociology of Georg Simmel, ed. Kurt Wolff, 24. Ibw., 32. (New York: Free Press, 19SO), 410. 2S. Stephen Branch, "Mass Culture Meets Main Street: Opening of Lakeland's Polk Theatre," Tumpa Bay History 16 (Tampa: University of South Florida, Fall/Winter 1994), 33. 26. Rupertus, 2S. 27. Junior League of Tampa, Tampa: A 1bwn on Its Way (Tampa: Junior League of Tampa, Inc., 1971), 114. 28. Susie Kelly Dean, The Tampa of My Childlwod (Tampa, 1966), 37. 29. Howard N. Rabinowitz, "Continuity and Change: Southern Urban Development 1860-1900," The Ci(JI in Southern History: The Growth of Urban Ciuilization in the South, Blaine Brownell and David Goldfield, eds. (Port Washington, NY: Nation­ al University Publications, Kinnikat Press, 1977), 114. 30. Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the 19th Century (Berkeley: The University of Califor­ nia Press, 1987), 189. 31. Giuliana Bruno, Streetwalking on a Ruined Map: Cultural Theory and the Ci(JI Films of Eluira Notari (Princeton University Press, 1993), SO. Bruno, like Schivelbusch, is concerned with the railroad, not streetcars. 32. Ibw., 4S. 33. Rupertus, 77. 34. Dean, 42. 3S. Anne Friedberg, Window Slwpping: Cinema and the Postmodern (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 42. 36. Leo Charney and Vanessa Schwartz, eds. Cinema and the in'Vention of Modem Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 199S), 10. 37. Robert W. Snyder, "Big Time, Small Time, All Around the Town: The Structure and Geography of New York Vaudeville in the Early 1\ventieth Century," For Fun and Profit: The '.lTaneformation of Leisure into Consumption, Richard Butsch, ed. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990), 119. 38. Ibw., 119. 39. David Nasaw, Going Out: The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements (Basic Books, 1993), 3. 56