Mapping the Motor City’s Cinemas: A Collaborative Digital Humanities Project Philip Hallman and Nicole O. Scholtz “Mapping the Motor City’s Cinemas” is a digital hu- and new conclusions. Third, we are learning firsthand manities collaborative project in progress at the Uni- what it means to collaborate across disciplines, which versity of Michigan. This joint venture between a both allows us to produce something not possible on film studies librarian and a spatial and numeric data our own, and also gives us perspective in our role of librarian aims to contribute to our collective under- supporting the research enterprise. standing of the movie going experience in 20th centu- ry America and to inspire others to think about ways Why Detroit? they can contribute to more thoroughly and preserv- The initial focus of the project is Detroit, Michigan. ing the past, understanding its impact and making in- Several reasons should be noted for our selection of accessible materials available. Multifaceted in scope, the Motor City as our starting point. The obvious it attempts to reveal the intersection of geographic justification is that Detroit is the largest metropoli- location and film exhibition schedules to see what tan area closest to our institution, the University of they can tell us about both film and urban life in the Michigan. We are familiar with it and understand its 20th century. Previously difficult to access materials history and geography. More importantly, it is under- used with new technology will enable researchers and represented and under-theorized in a variety of fields scholars to visualize the patterns of exhibition trends and disciplines. Film historians and scholars have de- in new and different ways and come to new conclu- tailed for some time now how the rise of the movie sions that were until now too difficult to make. industry, one of the most successful and influential of Still in its early infancy, the project’s initial goals all U.S. industries, is tied most heavily to the immi- are three-pronged. First, we are mapping out the grant populations that flocked to America at the turn movie theaters of selected U.S. cities throughout the of the twentieth century and populated America’s 20th century. Second, we are constructing a database largest cities. Ben Singer, for example, has written ex- that details all of the films that played in each of those tensively about the historical connections between the individual theaters so that the exhibition patterns are rise of the early nickelodeons in Manhattan and the clear and specific. If, for instance, you want to know growth of mass entertainment in the U.S. and how it where and when The Wizard of Oz played, you can see influenced the lives of new immigrants and working precisely on which days it played and the exact the- people. His work has focused specifically on how the aters where it was shown. Ultimately this allows re- expansion of nickelodeons helped to shape our un- searchers to visualize stacks of raw data, making them derstanding of early film history as well as American come alive and allowing for multiple interpretations social history. In doing so, his research has focused on Philip Hallman is Film Studies Librarian, Dept of Screen Arts & Cultures / Hatcher Graduate Library, University of Michigan, e-mail: [email protected]; Nicole O. Scholtz is Spatial and Numeric Data Librarian, University of Michigan, e-mail: [email protected] 406 Mapping the Motor City’s Cinemas 407 questions such as “What was the make-up of the nick- cade, Detroit was the fourth most populated city in elodeon’s audience in terms of both class and ethnic the U.S.2 Between the 1910 and 1920 censuses, Detroit composition?” and “In what kinds of neighborhoods almost doubled its land area via annexation and also were nickelodeons located, and what explains their more than doubled its population.3 In 1930 it went distribution?”1 over the one million mark for the first time and peaked Our project will renew and broaden these ques- in the 1950 census at 1,849,568.4 It stayed in the list of tions posed nearly two decades ago by allowing the top ten U.S. cities with the highest population through next generation of researchers and film scholars to un- the 2000 census.5 In the 1930s over 100 movie theaters derstand more fully the relationship of the theater to were in business in metropolitan Detroit. Today there its specific locale. Mapping technology has developed are only two operating movie theaters within the city greatly and can be used in a variety of new ways that no limits and the population has declined dramatically, one anticipated in 1995 when Singer first published his dropping to the eighteenth most populated city in the piece. A greater sense of interactivity and connection to nation according to the 2010 census with a population the material can now be achieved by using geographic of 713,777.6 information systems (GIS) to create and store geospa- From a film studies perspective, the 1930s rep- tial locations that ultimately provide the researchers resent an important era of change, innovation and with visual evidence and spatial analysis possibilities. adaptability. Often referred to as the start of Holly- Moreover, Singer’s work and that of many other wood’s “Golden Era,” studio executives of the Ameri- film scholars has been New York-centric, or L.A.-cen- can film industry centered in Los Angeles were laden tric, or Chicago-centric. The reason is obvious: those with a large number of issues to contend with: the cities were the center of production of film and enter- transition from producing silent to talking pictures; tainment within the U.S. But what may not be as obvi- the need to hire new directors, writers and actors who ous, at least to people outside of film studies, is that could adapt to the new technological demands; Eu- these scholars who directed film studies into the arena ropean film studios trying to catch up with the new of exhibition are also based for the most part in New sound craze; religious organizations wanting stricter York, Los Angeles, and Chicago as well. While film codes of decency imposed on productions; and most production is concentrated in these cities, film audi- dramatically, the country facing an economic depres- ences are everywhere. We want to look at what movie sion that left many out of work. Concurrently, Detroit goers can tell us about Detroit. had its own challenges in this decade: car production One can argue that scholarly trends are often dropped by nearly two million vehicles following the started because an individual researcher works with stock market crash and unemployment became ram- what historic data or information is available at his pant; unemployment demonstrations were frequent- or her local library. Neither of Detroit’s two major ly held; conflict between corporations and workers newspapers of record, The Detroit Free Press and The caused upheaval; and tax delinquencies created a Detroit News, has even been electronically indexed shortage of money to keep the city going. Holding the for the bulk of the 20th century, much less had the city together was the diversity of its immigrant popu- full text scanned and made available. An institution lation and the willingness of its people to help one an- like the University of Michigan, which was not part other through food drives and other charitable dem- of the original exhibition and immigration mapping onstrations of hope.7 One of our goals is to provide dialogue, can now make valuable contributions to the data that will allow researchers to make connections conversation by capturing information contained in between Los Angeles and Detroit and their respective its collections that can expand the debate and take it industries. in new directions. The availability of these materials electronically will extend the argument beyond the Data Collection coasts and into the center of the country, starting to The project consists of two distinct parts. The first is create a national discourse over an issue that has been the geographic component which consists of making regionally specific until now. a comprehensive database of movie theaters in De- We have started the project by first looking at De- troit starting in 1906 and continuing to today. Doc- troit’s movies theaters in the 1930s. During this de- toral student Ben Strassfeld has done the majority April 10–13, 2013, Indianapolis, IN 408 Philip Hallman and Nicole O. Scholtz of the work on this component to date. He initially animate the opening and closing of theaters. Any ele- populated the entries from a project published in ment in the database can be used to drive visualiza- 1994 by Stuart Galbraith IV, whose book Motor City tion of the theater locations. For example, the seating Marquees: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Reference to capacity field can be used to vary the point size to give Motion Picture Theaters in the Detroit Area, 1906- a quick sense of the size of theaters in different parts 1992 provided a foundation upon which we could of the city. build and expand. Motor City Marquees lists theaters Census data and other data sources that have a in the Detroit metro area, including name, address, geographic component allow us to further visualize and year opened, and sometimes also includes seating and potentially analyze the relationship between de- capacity, architect, and other information.8 Ben then mographic information and the theater locations and consulted several years’ editions of the Polk’s Detroit characteristics. For example, we can overlay theaters City Directory (1923-24, 1929, 1935, 1940, 1948-49, open in 1940, with point size varying by seating ca- 1953, 1968 and 1973) to add to Galbraith’s list and fur- pacity, over 1940 Census data by tract showing popu- ther refine opening and closing dates, as well as the- lation density (see Figure 1).9 ater name changes.