Events

• 1902 – “Electric Theatre”, the first full-time movie theatre in the United States, opens in Los Angeles.
• 1956 – As the World Turns and The Edge of Night premiere on CBS.
  • The two soaps become the first daytime dramas to debut in the 30-minute format.
• 1972 – Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labelled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s.

Movie Theatre

A movie theater (American English), cinema/theatre (British English), or cinema hall (Indian English), also known as a picture house, the pictures, picture theatre, the silver screen, or the movies, is a building that contains auditoria for viewing films (also called movies) for entertainment. Most, but not all, theatres are commercial operations catering to the general public, who attend by purchasing a ticket. Some movie theatres, however, are operated by non-profit organisations or societies that charge members a membership fee to view films.

The film is projected with a movie projector onto a large projection screen at the front of the auditorium while the dialogue, sounds, and music are played through a number of wall-mounted speakers. Since the 1970s, subwoofers have been used for low-pitched sounds. Since the 2010s, most movie theatres have been equipped for digital cinema projection, removing the need to create and transport a physical film print on a heavy reel.

A great variety of films are shown at cinemas, ranging from animated films to blockbusters to documentaries. The smallest movie theatres have a single viewing room with a single screen. In the 2010s, most movie theatres had multiple screens. The largest theatre complexes, which are called multiplexes – a concept developed in Canada in the 1950s – have up to thirty screens. The audience members often sit on padded seats, which in most theatres are set on a sloped floor, with the highest part at the rear of the theatre. Movie theatres often sell soft drinks, popcorn, and candy, and some theatres sell hot fast food. In some jurisdictions, movie theatres can be licensed to sell alcoholic drinks.

As the World Turns

As the World Turns (often abbreviated as ATWT) is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from 02 April 1956 to 17 September 2010.

Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light. With 13,763 hours of cumulative narrative, As the World Turns has the longest total running time of any television show. In terms of continuous run of production, As the World Turns at 54 years holds the fourth-longest run of any daytime network soap opera on American television, surpassed only by General Hospital, Guiding Light, and Days of Our Lives. As the World Turns was produced for its first 43 years in Manhattan and in Brooklyn from 2000 until 2010.

The Edge of Night

The Edge of Night is an American television mystery crime drama series and soap opera, created by Irving Vendig and produced by Procter & Gamble Productions.

It debuted on CBS on 02 April 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that network for most of its run until 28 November 1975. The series then moved to ABC, where it aired from 01 December 1975 until 28 December 1984. 7,420 episodes were produced, of which some 1,800 are available for syndication.

Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin and six other artists were blacklisted in Hollywood during the Red Scare.

Led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, these stars were accused of being a member of the Communist Party or sympathetic to foreign powers during the Cold War.

The FBI referred to Charlie Chaplin as a “parlour Boshevik,” believing him to be a Communist sympathizer and a possible security risk to the country. Although Chaplin denied being a Communist, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was determined to have the actor deported and worked with immigration services to prevent him from re-entering the States after he flew to London to promote one of his films.

Hoover even had MI5 spy on Chaplin, but in the end, the foreign agency concluded he was no security risk and instead, believed he was merely a left-leaning progressive.

Still, Chaplin was banned from the US Instead of fighting to re-enter the country, Chaplin decided to make his home in Switzerland and released a statement about his experience:

“…Since the end of the last world war, I have been the object of lies and propaganda by powerful reactionary groups who, by their influence and by the aid of America’s yellow press, have created an unhealthy atmosphere in which liberal-minded individuals can be singled out and persecuted. Under these conditions I find it virtually impossible to continue my motion-picture work, and I have therefore given up my residence in the United States.”

The Red Scare

“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” was the $64,000 question asked by the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the US House of Representatives.

Between the late 1940s and 1950s, the Second Red Scare was an era marked by great fear that communism was on the rise in America. Led by Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, government officials accused hundreds of Americans of being members of the Communist Party or being sympathetic to the cause. Most of those accused of treason and/or subversion were union workers, government employees, prominent intellectuals and Hollywood artists.