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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio,

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that rolls out the red carpet for history every

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Speaker 1: day of the week. I'm Gay, Blues Yay, and today

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Speaker 1: we're talking about one of the world's first theaters designed

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Speaker 1: specifically for the exhibition of films. The day was April second,

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Speaker 1: nineteen oh two, Thomas Lincoln Tally opened the first dedicated

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Speaker 1: movie theater in Los Angeles. To be clear, moving pictures

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Speaker 1: had been exhibited already, both in France and in other

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Speaker 1: parts of the United States. In fact, Tally had screened

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Speaker 1: a few himself in the back rooms of the phonograph

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Speaker 1: parlors that he owned throughout la But his electric theater

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Speaker 1: was different. Its screen wasn't a temporary set up in

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Speaker 1: a pre existing stage theater, and the films showed there

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Speaker 1: weren't merely supplements to live entertainment. Instead, they were the

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Speaker 1: main attraction that made Tally's Electric theater the first in

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Speaker 1: the city and the state to be devoted solely to

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Speaker 1: the screening of motion pictures. The only other such venue

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Speaker 1: in operation at the time is thought to have been

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Speaker 1: the Vitiscope Hall in New Orleans, which had opened six

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Speaker 1: years earlier. There's some disagreement about the day on which

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Speaker 1: Tally's Theater first opened. Some say April second, nineteen oh two,

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Speaker 1: and others say April sixteenth. What we know for certain

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Speaker 1: is that one spring day in nineteen oh two, Tally's

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Speaker 1: Theater opened its doors in Los Angeles and set the

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Speaker 1: city on its path to becoming the movie capital of

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Speaker 1: the world. Thomas Lincoln Tally was born in Rockport, Texas,

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Speaker 1: in e eighteen sixty one. He grew up during an

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Speaker 1: exciting period of change in the American entertainment and amusement industry.

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Speaker 1: Vaudeville acts were beginning to tour the country, amusement parks

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Speaker 1: were starting to pop up, and mechanical marvels like the

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Speaker 1: phonograph were bringing recorded music into people's homes and businesses

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Speaker 1: for the very first time. Tally was dazzled by these

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Speaker 1: new emerging means of entertainment and resolved to break into

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Speaker 1: the business himself. He visited Los Angeles to gather ideas,

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Speaker 1: and then opened a phonograph parlor in San Antonio, Texas

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Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety three. One year later, Tally moved west

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Speaker 1: for good. Establishing multiple phonograph parlors in Los Angeles. If

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Speaker 1: you're unfamiliar with the concept of phonograph parlor, was a

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Speaker 1: place where people paid to sit at a private desk

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Speaker 1: and listen to recorded songs on a pair of ear horns,

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Speaker 1: the turn of the century version of headphones. At the time,

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Speaker 1: phonographs and gramophone were still too expensive for the average

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Speaker 1: person to own, so public parlors offered a way to

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Speaker 1: enjoy the new technology at a much more affordable price.

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Speaker 1: Shortly after setting up shop in Los Angeles, Tally learned

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Speaker 1: of a new invention from Thomas Edison that provided an

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Speaker 1: experience similar to the phonograph, but for sight rather than sound.

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Speaker 1: It was called the kinetoscope, and it allowed moving pictures

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Speaker 1: to be viewed by one person at a time through

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Speaker 1: an eyepiece or peep hoole, a forerunner of the motion

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Speaker 1: picture film projector. Kinetoscopes became all the rage in mechanical

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Speaker 1: amusement parlors. Tally invested in a few himself in eighteen

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Speaker 1: ninety five, but the following year the machines were rendered

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Speaker 1: more or less redundant. That's because Edison introduced the vitiscope projector,

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Speaker 1: which allowed films to be shown on a large screen

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Speaker 1: rather than just through a peephole. Tally believed that public

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Speaker 1: exhibition was the way of the future, so to keep

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Speaker 1: up with his competition, he worked out a deal to

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Speaker 1: screen vitiscope films in the back of his phonograph parlors.

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Speaker 1: That arrangement continued sporadically over the next six years, with

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Speaker 1: Tally's stores changing locations several times along the way. Finally,

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Speaker 1: in early nineteen oh two, Tally decided to double down

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Speaker 1: on the moving picture by opening a theater dedicated to

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Speaker 1: movie screenings. Located on Spring Street in bustling downtown, LA.

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Speaker 1: The Electric Theater wasn't a freestanding building like the Nickelodeon

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Speaker 1: theaters that would later dominate the area. Tally's theater was

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Speaker 1: a converted storefront with other businesses on either side and

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Speaker 1: above it. There was only one screen, and it could

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Speaker 1: seat about two hundred and fifty people. Tally advertised his

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Speaker 1: new venture in the La Times, billing it as a

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Speaker 1: quote new place for up to date, high class moving

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Speaker 1: picture entertainment, especially for ladies and children. Tally charged ten

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Speaker 1: cents for an hour's worth of entertainment. Double the cost

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Speaker 1: of the nickel rate that would become the standard a

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Speaker 1: few years later. The Electric Theatre was initially open only

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Speaker 1: between the hours of seven thirty and ten thirty PM,

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Speaker 1: but because tickets routinely sold out even at the high

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Speaker 1: price of a dime, Tally started running afternoon matinees as well.

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Speaker 1: The films of the era were produced and distributed by

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Speaker 1: Edison's own company. They featured very short run times due

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Speaker 1: to technical constraints, with many lasting only a minute or two.

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Speaker 1: It would have taken a decent number of films then

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Speaker 1: to fill a solid hour, but we only know of

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Speaker 1: two that screened for certain during Tallly's opening week. The

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Speaker 1: first was New York City in a Blizzard, a three

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Speaker 1: minute documentary of sorts that provided a panoramic view of

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Speaker 1: the city during a February snowstorm. The second film that

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Speaker 1: played at Talli's was a two minute recreation of the

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Speaker 1: daring capture of the criminal Biddle brothers following their escape

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Speaker 1: from a Pittsburgh jail three months earlier. Both films, and

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Speaker 1: all the others produced at the time, were black and

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Speaker 1: white and fully silent. Tally's Electric Theater was a massive

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Speaker 1: success during its first few months, but without a steady

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Speaker 1: stream of new motion pictures to show, audience's quickly lost interest.

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Speaker 1: In a surprising twist, Tally's shut down the Electric Theater

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Speaker 1: just one year later, and then reopened it that summer

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Speaker 1: as the Lyric Vaudeville Theater. It would still show movies

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Speaker 1: on occasion, but they were no longer the primary draw.

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Speaker 1: Tally sold the theater soon after that, and in nineteen

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Speaker 1: ten it was turned back into a movie house and

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Speaker 1: rebranded as Glockner's Automatic Theater. The new owner, William Glockner,

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Speaker 1: kept the theater going for twenty years, but in nineteen

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Speaker 1: thirty it closed its doors for good, Gone but not forgotten.

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Speaker 1: The Council of Motion Picture Organizations held a year long

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Speaker 1: festival in nineteen fifty two in honor of the theatre's

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Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary. Unfortunately, the celebration didn't lead to a revival

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Speaker 1: of the Electric Theater, nor did it grant it the

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Speaker 1: historic preservation status that it probably should have. Instead, the

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Speaker 1: theater was repurposed for a number of different businesses before

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Speaker 1: finally being demolished in nineteen ninety eight. Although it only

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Speaker 1: operated for a little over a year, Tally's Electric theater

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Speaker 1: left a lasting mark on the motion picture industry. Other

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Speaker 1: entrepreneurs cited Tally's early success as a reason to build

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Speaker 1: their own theaters, not only in Los Angeles but all

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Speaker 1: over the country. As a result, the number of dedicated

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Speaker 1: movie houses in the US went from about two in

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Speaker 1: nineteen o two to ten thousand by nineteen ten. Now,

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Speaker 1: more than a century later, the country is home to

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Speaker 1: about six thousand theaters represent a total of roughly forty

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Speaker 1: thousand screens. That's not too shabby for an artistic medium

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Speaker 1: that's just a few generations old, especially one that's had

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Speaker 1: to face some stiff competition from the likes of video games,

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Speaker 1: social media, and streaming. That said, if you want movie

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Speaker 1: making to endure in the same way as concerts or

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Speaker 1: stage plays, now's the time to show it, because, just

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Speaker 1: like with Talli's, if the audience doesn't turn out, there's

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Speaker 1: no guarantee that the show will go on. I'm Gay

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Speaker 1: Blues Yay, and hopefully you now know a little more

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Speaker 1: about history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like

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Speaker 1: to keep up with the show, you can follow us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show And

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Speaker 1: if you have any comments or suggestions. Feel free to

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Speaker 1: send them my way by writing to This Day at

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Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Kazby Bias for producing the show.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back here

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Speaker 1: again tomorrow for another day in history class