Changes in the Prologue Scenes, 1923–1926
摘要
This chapter tracks changes in the production of stage prologues as the consolidation of the film industry began to limit trade-press reporting to the East and West Coasts after 1923. Plunkett and Hyman continued to gain prominent press coverage as exhibitor producers in New York, and Hyman even wrote columns extolling his prologues as models. While McCormick joined the Hollywood film industry and Grauman spent more time building new palace cinemas in Los Angeles, Frank Cambria became known for designing prologue spectacles for Balaban and Katz theaters in Chicago. Among the more elaborate stage sets were Cambria’s two-story dance hall for The Girl of the Golden West (1923), Grauman’s giant locomotive driving through a forest fire for Ninety and Nine (1923), Plunkett’s three-part prologue for The Swan (1925), and Hyman’s four-part prologues for So Big (1925) and Memory Lane (1926). An incongruous “contrastive” prologue was Grauman’s lengthy fashion show, “The Pageant of the Allies,” introducing The Big Parade (1926) at the Egyptian theater in Los Angeles.