TRANSITION: TELEVISION AND THE DIVORCE OF THEATRES
It’s December 18, 1948…New Orleans’ first TV station is on the air –
WDSU – Channel 6.
1949 saw sharp increased TV sales… By 1954, one-half of all U.S.
households had a television. Also in 1948, the Department of Justice
banned movie studios from owning theatres. Studios owned 16% of the
theatres in the U.S. and was cashing in on 90% of the box office.
Independent theatre owners could not compete. The Government
forced studios to close or sell off their theatres.
Profits dropped by 60% -- Now the studios did not have a guaranteed
play-off of their movies, so production was cut from 52 pictures a year
down to 15-20 features. With the decrease of production, so went
theatre attendance.
The 1950’s saw Hollywood re-work its existing technology to woo
audiences back to theatres.
The 3-D fad started in 1952 and lasted until 1955.
In 1953, Fox introduced CINEMASCOPE with “The Robe,” the most
successful new process with magnetic stereo. Other processes were
VISTAVISION, SUPERSCOPE and TECHNIRAMA.
In 1955, 70 MM and Todd-AO launched a rediscovery of the epic film.
That decade saw films such as “Ben Hur,” “Giant,” “The 10
Commandments” and “Oklahoma.” Another process, called CINERAMA
– which used 3 cameras, premiered in 1952. New Orleans’ Cinerama
theatre opened in 1963 on Tulane Avenue.
The Cinerama was a beautiful theatre which had a short life.
The late 1950’s saw two more TV stations start broadcasting in New
Orleans. WWL-TV in 1957 and WVUE-TV in 1959. This was the final
blow to the neighborhood theatre. United Theatres owned the majority
of them.
With the development of TV, New Orleans’ theatre growth slowed down
tremendously. Some of the theatres built from 1947 to the early 1960’s
were:
Grand Metairie
Jeff Jefferson
Aereon Metairie
Carver Theme area
Pitt on the lake front
Abalon Algiers
Fox Gentilly
The following is a comprehensive list of the openings from 1947 to
1963:
Gallo (1947) to Cinerama (1963)
With Hollywood making fewer films, theatre owners were forced to play
movies longer, which meant smaller profits. Cartoons, serials and the
newsreels slowly faded. Although the neighborhood theatres suffered,
drive-ins prospered.
©2005 Rock Productions
