Lowes’s theatre in Brooklyn after it quit showing movies – courtesy of Matt Lambros
Toronto. The digital era brought with it amazing television, incredible cameras, smartphones with a multitude of devices built-in, digital movies sent by internet or satellite, and much, much, more.
It also hastened the demise of antiquated infrastructure such as old movie houses, hard copy books, newspapers, magazines, film, snail mail, etc. some of which still function, but in a much reduced capacity.
One sad example of movie houses is this shot of the Lowe’s theatre on 46th Street in Brooklyn, NY. The theatre was first opened in late fall, 1927 for Universal Pictures. A year later it became part of the Lowe’s Theatre chain under a new name. When Lowe’s bailed, it became part of the Brandt chain and showed movies up to late 1969 – long before the impact of digital technology. Matt Lambros is an architectural photographer and author based in Boston. A graduate of Boston University, Matt chose to record the abandoned movie theatres in America in an effort to have some restored and repurposed.
We have had speakers from time to time who recorded some of the abandoned technologies of yesteryear both here and abroad. Hard to imagine in today’s super heated real estate market, but often abandonment was cheaper than the cost of removal and disposal.
Note: the title of this post is a riff on a 1971 ‘coming of age movie’ called, “The Last Picture Show“. The Lowe’s photo is courtesy of my good friend George Dunbar and his diligent work researching items of photographic history.
