Fascinating New Photobook Reveals the Lost Movie Theaters of Early 20th-Century America

Fascinating new photobook unearths America's lost movie theaters, grandiose buildings abandoned or turned into bus depots, gun shops and gymnasiumsMovie Theaters, published by Prestel, showcases the work of photographers Yves Marchand and Romain MeffreThe couple photograph movie theaters since 2005, with 200 of their photos featured in the tomeThese buildings were inspired by the 'eclectic settings' of 'great European opera houses and theatres'

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Posted: 12:17 BST, 23 Aug 2022 | Updated: August 23, 2022 5:34 PM

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They're in every American city and town - grandiose movie palaces, built in the height of entertainment industry, which today are abandoned, empty, decaying or repurposed.

Photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre have long been fascinated by these early 20th century relics. Starting in 2005, they criss-crossed America capturing them on camera, eventually collecting their shots in a riveting new book titled Movie Theaters, published by Prestel.

The editor says: "In hundreds of lushly colored images, they have captured the rich architectural diversity of theater exteriors, from the Neo-Renaissance From Gothic, Art Nouveau to Bauhaus and Neo-Byzantine to Jugendstil, they also went inside to capture the commonalities of a dying culture: crumbling plaster, rows of crushed velvet seats broken paint, chipped paint, outdated equipment and abandoned concession stands.

Highlights among the spellbinding images include a shot of a large theater-turned-gym in Brooklyn , a 1920s theater in ...