The Kiggins was opened up at a time when cinema was very different than the large, widely capitalist enterprise of the movie industry that we know today. Movie theaters were not just a place of entertainment where one could see a movie in their everyday clothes, but were places where one would be expected to dress up to come to. As a result, the movie theater acted as a community gathering place where an entire town could come for an evening to be entertained. Not only was there a system of rating movies like we know today, films that were shown in movie theaters were appropriate enough to be shown and approved for all audiences. The young and old could come and enjoy an afternoon or evening movie and know that they would not be shocked by graphic content.
The Kiggins opened up as a first-run and single-screen movie theater, as all of the movie theaters were back then, and the idea of the multiplex, where a movie theater would have more than one screen showing more than one movie did not exist yet. As a result, the Kiggins would rotate movies as they became popular. Movies that were first shown at the Kiggins included "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), "The Little Princess" 1937, "Gone with the Wind" 1939, and "The Wizard of Oz" in 1936.
As the Kiggins opened up at a time where the movie theater was considered to be a place of community gathering, the movie theater would offer more than just the average Hollywood movie. Cartoons were often shown for the younger audiences and national/international news was shown for an older crowd. Double features were also shown [and have all since vanished in multiplex cinemas], where two movies that related to a common theme or message were shown back to back to each other. Often between films during double features was an intermission, where an audience could purchase refreshments at the marquee.
Source: Interview with Dan Wyatt, December 2016
Source: "American Cinema of the 1930s: Themes and Variations," Screen Decades: American Culture/American Cinema, 2007.
The Kiggins opened up as a first-run and single-screen movie theater, as all of the movie theaters were back then, and the idea of the multiplex, where a movie theater would have more than one screen showing more than one movie did not exist yet. As a result, the Kiggins would rotate movies as they became popular. Movies that were first shown at the Kiggins included "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), "The Little Princess" 1937, "Gone with the Wind" 1939, and "The Wizard of Oz" in 1936.
As the Kiggins opened up at a time where the movie theater was considered to be a place of community gathering, the movie theater would offer more than just the average Hollywood movie. Cartoons were often shown for the younger audiences and national/international news was shown for an older crowd. Double features were also shown [and have all since vanished in multiplex cinemas], where two movies that related to a common theme or message were shown back to back to each other. Often between films during double features was an intermission, where an audience could purchase refreshments at the marquee.
Source: Interview with Dan Wyatt, December 2016
Source: "American Cinema of the 1930s: Themes and Variations," Screen Decades: American Culture/American Cinema, 2007.