“Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin” — the wonderful Westport Country Playhouse production running now through August 3 — got me thinking about entertainment options, back in the day.
America’s greatest songwriter lived long enough to see Elvis Presley (whose version of “White Christmas” he loathed) and MTV (it’s unclear what Berlin thought of “Video Killed the Radio Star”).
But in 1919 — when he turned 31, and was already a Tin Pan Alley and Broadway composing star — the main entertainment in many small towns was a motion picture theater.
Westport was no exception. The Fine Arts on the Post Road (today it’s Restoration Hardware) seems like a hopping spot. I posted photos a while ago.
Now — thanks to Kevin Slater — we’ve got a great idea of exactly what Westport movie-goers were watching, exactly 100 years ago.
There were 3 shows a day: a 2:30 matinee, then 7 and 8:45 p.m.
But the Fine Arts was open just on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. (The fact that it was closed Sunday was so obvious, it wasn’t even noted on the poster.)
You had to move fast: Each movie (and accompanying shorts and newsreels) was there for one day only.
So what was Irving Berlin doing in 1919, when long-forgotten names like J. Walter Kerrigan, Vivian Martin and Madge Kennedy were stars?
That’s the year he wrote “A Pretty Girl is Like a melody” for Ziegfeld’s Follies.
And it was a full 8 years before Al Jolson performed Berlin’s “Blue Skies” in “The Jazz Singer” — the first feature sound film ever.
If you had any questions about any of the shows — and you could find a telephone — all you had to do was call.
The phone number was right there at the top corner: 325.
I remember the 35-cent Saturday matinee…we’re talking very early 60’s. Go to Colgan’s soda fountain at the corner then walk up the block to Fine Arts.
Great stuff, Dan. Reminds me that a friend 20 years ago got a grant to make photographs of every glass and film negative available of Abraham Lincoln. The brand new prints that came gave history a living sense like nothing else. Just like that movie schedule. Bravo to you and Kevin Slater.
If this was 100 years ago I would think they were silent films. I had a great aunt who would go between Fairfield and Westport playing piano for the silent movies in the early 1900’s.
I TOO HAD A GREAT AUNT WHO PLAYED PIANO IN THE SILENT MOVIE DAYS. SHE MARRIED THE GUY WHO PLAYED THE FILMS !