Silver Screens on the Prairie: An Illustrated History of Motion Picture Theatres in Manitoba
Support Canada's History in other ways (more)
by Russ Gourluck
Great Plains, Winnipeg, 2012.
328 pp., illus., $29.95 paperback
People have been going to the movies for more than a hundred years. In that time, the theatre industry has seen a lot of changes.
Silver Screens on the Prairie, the fifth book by Winnipeg author Russ Gourluck, tells the captivating stories of the people who ran Manitoba’s theatres and of the patrons who frequented them. With hundreds of photos, plus reproductions of advertise¬ments, Silver Screens offers a visual guide to the intriguing and often bizarre history of going to the pictures.
Theatre owners used more than just films and popcorn to attract moviegoers. For example: “As competition between movie theatres increased, the newly opened Furby Theatre … found novel ways in 1913 to attract patrons,” notes Gourluck. “Monday was ladies’ coupon night, Tuesday’s event was a blueberry pie–eating contest, Wednesday was called bargain night because extra reels were shown, Thursday was ‘Counting Stone Night,’ and Friday was the ‘well–known amateur contest.’”
Perhaps today’s cinemas have something to learn from their forerunners a century ago.