Hierophanies and heterotopias: Magic, moving picture theaters and churches, 1907--1922

Almost from their inception, moving pictures have inspired comparisons to the supernatural and metaphysical. Literary devices such as metaphor and simile are frequently used for these comparisons, implying irony. This irony soon became naturalized to the extent that it was possible to speak of moving picture theaters as temples, and moving picture stars as gods and goddesses, without qualification.;This study is predicated on the possibility that there may be much more to the idea of "movie magic" than irony and ballyhoo. Even a casual reading of anthropological literature reveals that many aspects of the moving picture industry and spectatorship would have historically qualified as religious or spiritual phenomenon if they had been viewed by anthropologists in the context of non-western cultures. Moving picture theaters and churches are not only analogically related through language but also through architecture; in fact the architecture of the two types of spaces was and is so similar that the two types of buildings have been used interchangeably since their inception. In fact, churches and moving picture theaters were, during the period covered by this study, demonstrably engaged in fierce economic competition with each other.;This study uses both descriptive history and anthropological theory to examine the often contentious relationship between churches and the moving picture industry, prior to 1923. Chapters on Sunday closing or "blue laws," and censorship battles in the silent era establish the historical relationship of record between the two institutions. A chapter on space examines both architectural and anthropological coincidences between churches and moving picture theaters. Anthropological theories of religion are used to compare and contrast the phenomenology of time experienced in each type of building. Implications for other types of social theory are discussed in the concluding chapter. Finally, an understanding of the phenomenological essence of "movie magic" is proposed as an antidote to conceptions of irrationality in materialist social theory about power.