"The House of Flickers"

At the boxoffice of an unidentified theatre in "The House of Flickers," a rare 18 minute Fox "Sunshine Comedy" released March 15, 1925. The screenshots are from a print in the Danish Film Institute collection. It was directed by Ben Stoloff and features a cast including James Parrott, William Courtright, Bob McKenzie, Kalla Pasha, Bobby Dunn, Pete the Pup, Louise Carver, Eddie Boland, and Bynunsky Hyman. 

 

Thanks to John Bengtson for spotting the film online and sharing the data about it. Keep up with his latest investigations on the site Silent Locations. Some exteriors were filmed on Larchmont Blvd. but it's unknown if the Larchmont Theatre was used. It opened in 1922. See the page on the Los Angeles Theatres site for shots from several movies in which it appears.  

 

The booth, with access via ladder and trap door. 

 

 

Threading up a reel on one of the Powers projectors.

 

 

The rear of the auditorium.  As John Bengtson notes: it's a bit too elaborate to just be a set. 

 

 

 

The crowd pouring in for the first show. 

 

 

A shot at the back of the house. The manager is on the right. 

 

Striking the arc -- with the door open. Later he'll lose a hot carbon out one of the ports. 

 

A view to the screen as the show starts. 

 

 

A closer look at the proscenium decoration. 

 

Another proscenium view. At times the actors in the film interact with the audience. 

 

 

A Larchmont Blvd. shot. That's a reel of film rolling across the street toward the drug store. 

 

A ticket lobby view. There's an organ grinder in the audience. His monkey threw the film out a window.

 

Another ticket lobby view. Trying to deal with runaway film. 

 

A nice shot of one of the projectors. But with the film running onto the floor. 

 

 The resultant mess. It's all the monkey's fault. 

 

 

There's still a picture on the screen but it's now upside down and backward. 

 

 

Here's a flipped version. At the theatre at least three kids and a dog do headstands to look at it the way it was being projected. We're on Broadway looking north from 7th St. Down the block on the right is the Orpheum, a house that opened in 1911. It's been renamed. See the pages about the Palace Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for lots of information and many photos.

The film can be seen on Vimeo from the Danish Film Institute. It's under the Danish title "En biograftur med forhindringer." That translates as "A Cinema Trip With Obstacles."

 On IMDb: "The House of Flickers"