Suburban cinemas were often pretty comfortless places. While the entrance could be quite imposing with the box office generally at the top of a flight of white marble steps, presumably to accommodate the rake, the auditorium itself was often not much more than a hangar, the aisle carpeted but he seats on lino or even bare concrete. Wartime meant there was no ice cream but enroute to the cinema we would generally call at a sweet shop and get what Dad called ‘some spice’, provided, of course, we had the points, sweet rationing the most irksome of wartime restrictions and still in force as late as 1952 when I went in the army.
Alan Bennett
Walter Sickert The Gallery at the Old Mogul, (1906). This painting is thought to be the first significant artwork featuring modern cinema. According to art historian Richard Morris, The Old Mogul was the original name for the Middlesex Music Hall in Drury Lane variously known as ‘The Mogul Tavern’ or ‘The Old Mo.’Carel Weight (1908-1997) theatrePoster by Henri Ott, 1953Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Salon de la rue des Moulins (1894-95)DIE WUNDERFAHRT (1929) Sándor BortnyikPet of the Met Don Freeman 1953The theatre in west Hannelore Marek Peter Spier 1965Russian Ballet I, by German painter August Macke (1912). Kunsthalle BremenIn the Front Row at the Opera William Holyoake (1834–1894)Walter Bayes 1917Helene Funke (1869-1957) In the Lodge, 1904In the Box (1879) by Mary CassattMIXED NOTICES (1963) Osbert LancasterCinemas were mushrooming and street advertising was crucial in 1910 when U.K. artist G.L. Stampa created this drawing for Punch Magazine.Amore e morte 1979DAS IMAGINÄRE PORTRÄT (1965) Vladimir Fuka William Shakespeare theatre‘Gatti’s Palace of Varieties,’ in 1905 Walter SickertSeymour Joseph Guy – At the Opera 1887Mary Stevenson Cassatt In the LogeRamon Casas (Spanish, 1866-1932) theatreIllustration by Anton Franciscus Pieck (19 April 1895 – 24 November 1987) old school moviesSybil Andrews, Concert Hall (1929)Verney L. Danvers Underground Theatres Poster 1926‘A view from the Royal box of the Rossini Opera House in Pesaro’ (circa 1900) Illustration by Achille Wildi, 1969At the Opera, Harrison Fisher, c. 1901Arthur Getz (1913-1996) New Yorker cover 1961At the Theatre by Ward Brackett (1914-2006)Edward Hopper – A Theater Entrance (c1906-10)‘Christmas at Dreamthorpe’ Illustration by Charles Edmund Brock, 1920Marcellin Auzolle French (1862 – 1942) 1896Arthur Getz (1913-1996) 1958Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), Charwomen in Theater, 1946George Hughes Theater Rehearsal With MaidFrom the French children’s picture book series about pigs named Gaston and Josephine
Ancinemation: The curious act of waiting in line to see a movie and watching exiting movie goers’ reactions to see if they liked the movie or not.
Cinemuck: The sticky substance on the floor of a movie theater.
– from the Sniglet entry of Wikipedia
Paris Opéra Nocturne by Daniel Gerhartz. American painterBallerinas in Pink , 1867 by Edgar DegasKoiso Ryohei (1903-1988)Jean Louis Marcel Cosson (1878-1956) Dancers In Dressing Room 1930, French, Post-ImpressionistLaura Knight (1877-1970)Laura Knight (1877-1970)Piet van der Hem, 1885 Wirdum – 1961 La Haye (The Hague) In The Theatre 1930Dancer Tilting, 1883, Edgar Degas 1834-1917Cressida and the Opera by Paula HarrisA Play To The Festival by Mabel Esther AllanFirst row orchestra, 1951, Edward HopperTwo On The Aisle, Edward Hopper, 1927
Header painting: The Rossini Opera House (r.) Pesaro – Illustration by Achille Vildi, 1969
CONTEMPORARY FICTION SET IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (2023)
On paper, things look fine. Sam Dennon recently inherited significant wealth from his uncle. As a respected architect, Sam spends his days thinking about the family needs and rich lives of his clients. But privately? Even his enduring love of amateur astronomy is on the wane. Sam has built a sustainable-architecture display home for himself but hasn’t yet moved into it, preferring to sleep in his cocoon of a campervan. Although they never announced it publicly, Sam’s wife and business partner ended their marriage years ago due to lack of intimacy, leaving Sam with the sense he is irreparably broken.
Now his beloved uncle has died. An intensifying fear manifests as health anxiety, with night terrors from a half-remembered early childhood event. To assuage the loneliness, Sam embarks on a Personal Happiness Project:
