"Idle Wives"

We pay a visit to the Hollywood Theatre, 6764 Hollywood Blvd., in "Idle Wives" (Universal, 1916). Thanks to famed silent film detective John Bengtson for investigating the film and providing the screenshots seen here. Lois Weber directed herself  in the film. Other performers include Phillips Smalley, Mary MacLaren and Edward Hearn.

We get many shots of the exterior of the Hollywood Theatre as various characters in the film make their entrance. They're from different economic classes and have a variety of problems yet all decide going to the movies is better than staying home. John calls our attention to the name of the theatre in the mosaic tile seen at the entrance in this shot.

Only the first 29 minutes survive of what once was a seven reel film. Long believed entirely lost, what we have was discovered in the collection of the New Zealand Film Archives. It's online from the National Film Preservation Foundation. They comment:

"Characters in the film attend a movie titled 'Life’s Mirror' (pointedly directed by one 'Lois Weber'), where they see parallel, cautionary versions of their own lives. A shop girl 'stepping out' with her boyfriend watches her screen surrogate conceive a child and retire to a home for unwed mothers. An estranged married couple watches as the wife’s onscreen counterpart, played by Weber herself, leaves an uncaring husband to return to her post as a settlement worker. A working family struggling to make ends meet learn the perils of living beyond their means. In each case the recognition of oneself onscreen proves revelatory—film viewing provides opportunities for identification and affect unavailable elsewhere."

A wider view of the entrance. 

The marble boxoffice. John notes: "It’s the same theatre and year where Harold Lloyd filmed 'Luke's Movie Muddle.' The prices and lettering on the box office are the same." He has the Hollywood as #19 on his "Hollywood's Silent Echos: A Tour of Silent-era Hollywood Film Locations." It was assembled as a bonus following a talk he gave at the 2013 TCM Festival.

While the exterior shots for this film and the Harold Lloyd film both used the Hollywood Theatre, "Luke's" shows us quite a different interior. It's unknown where that one was staged. See the post on "Luke's Movie Muddle" for shots from that film.

Another boxoffice view. 

Perusing the displays on the east side of the entrance. 

A fine view of the theatre's house right wall and the loge section. The areas of the theatre we see here actually appear as a pan shot in the film. Thanks to a bit of magic by John we get this CinemaScope version. 

 Getting shown to a seat by an usher.

A group coming in for the cheaper seats. 

The theatre's act curtain. John notes that the businesses we see advertised are local Hollywood concerns. He adds that the image in the center of the curtain is of the Ponte Sant'Angelo in Rome.

 
The house lights dim as the curtain rises revealing the screen. 

Thanks, John! Check on his latest explorations via the Silent Locations blog "Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd film locations (and more)." He notes that the movie is included in the Blu-ray set "Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers" from Kino-Lorber.

John's books are available through Amazon or your local bookseller.

"Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster Keaton"

"Silent Traces: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Charlie Chaplin"

"Silent Visions: Discovering Early Hollywood and New York Through the Films of Harold Lloyd"

See the page about the Hollywood Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for many photos of the building. It opened in 1913 and is now a Guinness Book of Records museum.

On IMDb: "Idle Wives"