New York? Movie Theater & Famous Person in Crowd

Hello. Got 2 pictures here i'm trying to figure out and thought i'd see if others had any ideas about them. The first shows an early 1910ish movie theater. There is a sign but the angle is such that the only thing you can read is theater. The one mans hat has the theater name but again he's angled wrong to read it. The only real clue I see is a man holding a New York Clipper newspaper. Also, the lion heads might be a clue.

The second picture I believe is mid 1890's to 1900 and shows a large crowd of people looking at a man standing up in a carriage. He has an interesting suit on and a thick beard/mustache. There is another man to the left that has a tall hat and feathers? hanging from it. Clues in this picture: it seems the 4 paw and sells brothers circus was in the area at one time. There is a building with a sign saying ??lesale??ation (station?).

 

Interesting Picture.....The only things I noticed is that there are very few women in the crowd (standing) I see some in a carriage in the back,,,,,but i can only see a handful in the crowd. Also the square pole behind the man standing in the carriage has climbing rungs on it, I don't know if that's a clue....or if they were made that way back then.

The first theater photo is cool too. The person in the ticket booth looks bored to death LOL

 

These are so interesting! In the first one, I see at the left side a sign that says "Theatre" and "To-Day". There is a poster in it with words that can be partly read. Looks like "Charles" and "..EHERAIRE." Maybe....

I love this site for looking up information about movie theatres. It started out being only about historical theatres, many of which no longer exist. Now it includes current ones as well.

http://cinematreasures.org/

 

There is also in the first photo a big poster on an easel behind the two men towards the left. All I can see is
ITE at the top...
(NOTE: I just noticed the corresponding sign to the right of the picture. It says ELITE at the top. Maybe this was the name of the theater?)

Then
RED
OMS
Both are ends of words.

There is also something lighter at the bottom of the poster that says A in the middle, and at the right seems to start with "Film"... can you see anything more there?

Oh, and at the right there is another poster in the background. Only parts of letters can be seen, and part of a picture.

 

This could be a long shot, but this book about Brooklyn theatres includes an advertisement for the Elite Moving Picture Theatre, which was at Georgia and Atlantic Avenues in 1909:
https://books.google.com/books?id=X...age&q="elite theatre" "new york" 1910&f=false

I'm sure there were other theaters named "Elite" -- if that is the correct name.

 

I wonder.....looking at the poster easels.....the one on the left with ITE......Could be White, because the one on the right looks like it may say BLUE at the top. Maybe designations for 2 different screens?

 

Hi Digger,
The electric poles had the climbing rungs back then (no cherry pickers). There are more women than you think standing in the crowds. I enlarged the photo and unless men are wearing big fancy hats there are women there.. Wonderful photo I thought it is about a sideshow or medical quack sell.
greg

 

Your ELITE sighting is very promising, Fig!

 

I enlarged it Greg, and there does seem to be more women then I thought. Looked at the other poles in the picture too, did not see climbing rungs on them, and they seemed to be round, although now I don't think that has anything to do with the picture. 4Paw and sells were famous for their animal (lion and big cat) shows, and employed the famous lion tamer Terrel Jacobs. I THINK the man standing in the carriage is Adam Forepaugh , The only pics of him I could find only had Mutton Chop Sideburns, but it isn't a far stretch to that beard.

 

The guy in the crowd picture definitely has the look of a "showman" (what a coat!), but I'm wondering about those 4Paw and Sells posters on the wall in the background. The one on the left has been partially ripped off right down the middle and the one on the right has had the Brothers part partially covered already. I would think they'd be fresher looking.

Does anyone else remember a carriage driver with a fancy hat like that from The Wizard of Oz - the scene where Dorothy et al are first arriving in the Emerald City? Or am I dreaming?

 

Hmmm. The original Adam Forepaugh seems to have died in 1890, but the circus continued long after that. Oddly I found one reference that seemed to say that the Forepaugh and Sells Brothers circuses didn't combine until closer to 1900. I know you can't believe everything you read on the web, but is it possible that there was an Adam Junior who took over after his father died?

 

Aha! There was an Adam Jr. Unfortunately the picture on his FindAGrave listing shows him relatively young. Born 1861.

There a link to his father's listing that confirms the death info from above.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6780632

 

Well a thorough search for pictures of Adam Jr. proved inconclusive. Most show him looking very much like the young man in the FAG listing. The most facial hair seen was a healthy mustache. And I didn't find a single one with grey hair. He died 1919 at the age of 58, so I'm sure this is not a picture of him.

Edited to add: I think we may be on the wrong track altogether.

 

Figtree3: I hadn't noticed the name on the easel until you pointed it out. I took another look at the ushers hat and it does look like it says Elite Theater. Looking at the lighted sign, the name looks short and looks like it starts and ends with an E, so I believe Elite Theater is correct. Thank you.

--

It seems to me that the man standing up in the crowd photo must have been someone instantly recognizable. His rather plain carriage has no advertising and there doesn't seem to be much going on in the way of promoting him or what he's a part of.

 

Eyebrows are wrong for my first impression - Walt Whitman. Then I saw the dude in the hat with hair. It's giving off a New Orleans Mardi Gras vibe, but obviously somewhere else.

 

This site has Circus history. They mention 4Paw & Sells.

http://www.circushistory.org/Query/Query07f.htm

The sign on the bridge is ripped, so it looks like that circus was gone, but if you post the picture, one of the members might recognize this duo. I have to say, the guy with long "hair" on the white horse is posing rather like Lady Godiva. Too funny

 

The poster on the easel looks to me like ...emeraire. I found a reference to a famous British ship, The Temeraire. It's possible an early movie was made about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Temeraire_(1798)

From the article:

The Temeraire became the subject of a number of poems and songs commemorating her life and fate. An early work by James Duff written between 1813 and 1819 referenced her role as a prison ship, and was set to music in 1857 under the title The Brave Old Temeraire.[65] More generally, an anonymous poem entitled The Wooden Walls of Old England appeared in Fraser's Magazine shortly after Temeraire‍ 's arrival at Rotherhithe, and lamented the fate of the great sailing warships.[65] Turner's painting created an enduring interest in the story of the Temeraire and several poems appeared in the decades following her breaking up. Gerald Massey wrote The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to Her Last Berth, Herman Melville produced The Temeraire, and Henry Newbolt wrote The Fighting Temeraire, with its closing lines

Now the sunset's breezes shiver,
And she's fading down the river,
But in England's song forever,
She's the Fighting Temeraire

 

Bev -- Good clue! I think I found the movie. It's not about the ship, though. It's called Charles le Temeraire, (Charles the Bold).

The movie was from 1910, so exactly when Kronos estimated the photo.

Here is an IMDb entry for the film:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0935056/

It was a French film, but released in the USA on 11 August 1910.

It was based on Anne of Geierstein, a novel by Sir Walter Scott.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Geierstein

This page from an index includes information about the film in the left-hand column:
https://books.google.com/books?id=Yyqc0Qa6b60C&pg=PA414&lpg=PA414&dq=Temeraire+melville+film+-jackson&source=bl&ots=K9XhzWp0F7&sig=e6-N_crRzJImPIOYE_Huwmgd_rk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Uix3Vc6EO87toASWsYDwAQ&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Temeraire melville film -jackson&f=false

Original title of the film was
La fin de Charles le Téméraire

 

The British Film Institute has a little more about the film, here:
http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b7d0d9750

 

This is a long shot. The second photo reminded me of photographs I have seen of Anton Lang. He was a German Potter who also acted and was famous for his role in the Passion Play. He visited the USA and was interviewed by reporters. I couldn't find any photographs of him while visiting the USA which seems odd since he was interviewed. Here is a Wikipedia page on him

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Lang

Here is a link to Google images. Most of his photographs are at the top of the page:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Ant...ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI6crvqIWExgIVRXetCh3B5gBu