Results: What Once Came With The Price Of Admission (To A Movie)

Serials: Serials were short subject films that formed complete stories over the course of, usually, 12-15 chapters, shown weekly at the same theater for as many weeks as there were episodes to a particular serial. The cliffhanger nature of serial episodes encouraged moviegoers to rerun to the same theater on a weekly basis. Their production in the U.S. and Europe arose in the 1910's and petered out in the 1950's, coinciding with the increasing popularity of television. Serials were produced in genres such as Westerns, superhero adventures. horror, spy stories, science fiction and melodramas, such as one of the earliest and most popular seriols, The Perils of Pauline (1914). At current ticket prices and with the kinds of movies now being made, would you visit a theater on a weekly basis to see the latest episode of a movie serial that might interest you?

Cartoons: If many of the best cartoons made in the 1930's-50's for theatrical screening hold up so well today, it's not only because they were produced with a higher number of frames or cells per second than the kiddie TV 'toons of the 1960's and onward. They were scripted with viewers of a wide age range in mind to be enjoyed on different levels. Funny-looking animals and people with exaggerated features could appeal to kids, while their dialogue and relationship dynamics could appeal to adult viewers. I've personally been able to appreciate certain cartoons on more sophisticated levels as I've aged. How about you?

Newsreels: Newsreels were exactly what the word should imply: round-ups of current affairs and stories of interest. The arguable creation of the 24-hour news cycle when CNN was introduced to cable TV in 1980 and the easy availability of news coverage, including the way in which many news providers can send push notices to smartphone and computer users probably make newsreels informationally redundant. But it could be compelling to see at least some news events reported on a screen the size of one at a multiplex. Would you welcome the return of newsreels to movie screenings?

Dish giveaways: Though one could complete a full table's worth of plate ware, etc. by way of promotions by theater operators in the 1950's as TV threatened the movie business' bottom line, the idea of giving away dishes to ticket buyers originated in the 1930s, when the economic depression of the era inspired certain china companies to sell their goods to theater proprietors at wholesale in order for dishes and such to be offered as freebies for the price of admission. Modern business writers might call the partnership between plate manufacturers and movie exhibitors as an example of synergy. But, nowadays, would the prospect of nabbing a finely- crafted saucer or serving bowl entice you to take in a movie?

A Second Movie: Double features, with the second movie on a bill like as not to be less prestigious or put together than the first, were a staple in U.S. was another innovation to arise in the Great Depression and lasted at least until the late 1960's. I know the end date due in part to my looking into Elvis Presley's last non-documentary movie, 1969's Change Of Habit; it was part of a double feature with the crime drama House Of Cards. Anyway, two movies, a newsreels, a serial and a cartoon or two would make for a full, lengthy evening of entertainment back when... or an afternoon's worth if t's a Saturday matinee geared toward children. Regardless those other, shorter offerings, could a second movie encourage you to go out to see films ore often?