First Movie House?

STEEL 6

The Buffalo International Film Festival (BIFF) came about in part as a result of the discovery of Edisonia Vitascope Hall. This was a small theater which occupied a tiny Main Street storefront (which probably led to a basement theater space) as one of the original tenants in the brand new Ellicott Square Building. Opening October 18, 1896, it is thought by many to be the very first "purpose built" movie house in America. Though movies had been shown to the public prior to this theater's opening they were not shown in spaces built specifically for movies. Even in later years movies were often shown in converted Vaudeville palaces.

Edisonia Hall was created by early movie pioneers Moe and Mitchell Mark. The Mark brothers were visionaries in the early motion picture technology and went on to open numerous movie houses in Buffalo, New York City, Boston, and other places. They also opened what is described as the first true movie palace, in 1914, in New York City, The Mark Strand Theater. The Edisonia Hall in Buffalo operated for only 2 years, but it proved that the movie industry was going to be a major new American industry. The 72 seat theater saw 200,000 visitors in its first year of operation, prompting the Marks to keep it open 13 hours a day. You can read more on the Mark brothers and Edisonia Hall here http://culturalniagara.com/edisonia.html

Edward Summer, one of the film festival founders, has been focusing his considerable research abilities on highlighting the major influence Buffalo had on the film industry in its early developmental phase. He is trying to find more information on Buffalo's Edisonia Hall, especially images of the interior. He believes that the theater very well may have been designed by the great Chicago architect Daniel Burnham ( architect of the Ellicott Square). This would be a great new fact if it turned out to be true. If you have any information to lend to Mr. Summer's search please drop a note here. He would be very grateful.

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PaulBuffalo

February 2, 2010 9:31 AM

I remember reading about the Edisonia as it related to the Pan-American Exposition and in another article about which city had the first movie theatre. (The latter has been open to debate.) I hope that more history can be unearthed about Buffalo's role in moving pictures. It would be great if the Edisonia could be recreated.

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Travelrrr

February 2, 2010 10:00 AM

Here is a good resource of information: http://buffaloah.com/h/movie/vita/index.html

February 2, 2010 10:34 AM

Some information (contact included) on the Mark family http://aronoff.com/family/i0020177.htm

grad94

February 2, 2010 5:56 PM

mark sommer first reported this find in the buffalo news back in 2007.

Buffalo International Film Festival

February 14, 2010 8:21 PM

This is a wonderful article. Our thanks to Buffalo Rising and Mr. Steel for running it.

We'd like to offer some clarifications and amplify our requests:

Requests first:

1) We believe that photographs of the theater MUST exist someplace. Perhaps they are misfiled. Perhaps they are mislabeled. If you have any photographs of anything that looks like a nickelodeon parlor in Buffalo or a small, 72 seat theater with a movie screen at one end, please get in touch with us. We may be able to identify it and it would be a great gift to your city and, indeed, to history.

2) If you have any newspaper articles, posters or the like that mentions the VITASCOPE THEATRE by name please let us know. We'd be happy to have copies.

3) If you have blueprints or building plans for Ellicott Square dated 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898 we would be very pleased to examine them.

INFORMATION:

1) The proper name of the theater is the VITASCOPE THEATER (also spelled Theatre) or the "Electric Theater."

2) Edisonia Hall refers to the entrance hall (which contained Kinetoscopes and other devices) which was NOT the theater.

3) The site of the theater has absolutely been located in the basement of Ellicott Square. We know almost exactly where it was. The staircase leading to the theater exists, and we have recently found an original air vent that matches the design and description of the theater published in several newspaper in 1896.

4) We currently describe the Vitascope Theater as the first PERMANENT,PURPOSE-BUILT, ARCHITECT DESIGNED Motion Picture Theater in the WORLD.

5) There is simply NO EVIDENCE whatsoever of another theater matching this description anywhere on earth earlier than this. This is not to say that historians wouldn't welcome such evidence, it's just to say that, so far, no such facts have been uncovered.

6) There were, of course, motion picture EXHIBITIONS prior to this date, but they were in modified public spaces like storefronts, cafes, schools, opera houses and the like.

The distinction of the Mark Brothers' Vitascope Theater is the deliberation with with these gentlemen hired an architect to design a theater exclusively to show motion pictures and for no other purpose. Over time, for financial reasons, they added live performers, but this was not in the original concept.

CONTACT:

You can contact us by posting here, by writing to BuffaloFilm
Festival AT Gmail.Com (substitute @ for AT) or by posting on the Buffalo International Film Festival Group on Facebook.

Thank you for both taking the time to read this and for going through your family heirlooms, old suitcases, closets and trunks stored up in the attic.

February 14, 2010 8:26 PM

Ohhh...

The name is Mitchel Mark (not Mitchell)

and

in 1897, the Marks moved to keep the theater open 7 days a week instead of 6 because the demand was so great.

We wouldn't call it a "movie house" because that implies a stand alone theater. That distinction likely goes to Mr. Lubin who seems to have built the first stand alone theater about a year or so after the Marks built this one. This area of movie exhibition history is a little more murky.

It is clear, however, that by 1914, the Mark Brothers were the richest and most powerful movie theater owners in the country, if not in the world. Only Thomas Talley of Los Angeles rivaled them in the eyes of Hollywood according to Cecil DeMille's autobiography.