After the Final Curtain: America's Abandoned Theaters

by Matt Lambros

In the early 20th century the streets of small towns and cities across America were filled with the lights and sounds of movie theaters. The most opulent -- known as "movie palaces" -- were designed to make their patrons feel like royalty; people would dress up to visit. But as time went on it became harder and harder to fill the 2,000+ seat theaters and many were forced to close. Today, these palaces are illuminated only by the flicker of dying lights. The sound of water dripping from holes in the ceiling echoes through the auditoriums. In After the Final Curtain (Volume 2) internationally-renowned photographer Matt Lambros continues his travels across the United States, documenting these once elegant buildings. From the supposedly haunted Pacific Warner Theatre in Los Angeles to the Orpheum Theatre in New Bedford, MA -- which opened the same day the Titanic sank -- Lambros pulls back the curtain to reveal what is left, giving these palaces a chance to shine again.

224 pages, Hardcover

Published November 5, 2019

About the author

Matt Lambros is an architectural photographer who began photographing abandoned buildings over ten years ago. A graduate of Boston University's Digital Imaging and Photojournalism programs, Lambros has since been documenting the decay of America's abandoned theaters in the hope of shedding light on these forgotten buildings and the efforts to re-purpose them. Part of raising awareness for these treasures is his involvement with various organizations that work to restore and reopen abandoned theaters in the United States. Lambros has donated time and photographs to support such organizations as the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts, who in 2009 acquired the historic Victory Theatre, abandoned since 1979. Lambros' abandoned theater photography has appeared in major worldwide publications, including The Guardian and The New York Times. His work with Proctor's Palace Theatre, Loew's Poli Theatre and Loew's Kings Theatre (among others) has been featured in art galleries around the world.

Reviews

[MissBecka Gee]

This was incredible and I cannot wait to get a copy for my house!
Chalked full of history on each building and filled with hauntingly beautiful photos I'm unsure how anyone would not enjoy this.
I especially appreciated the comparative photos (when available) showing more detail in how time caressed each piece of the room.
Seeing some theaters before time forgot them was a nice addition to the book.
Thanks to NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for my DRC.

[Schizanthus Nerd]

I’ve loved abandoned places photography since I first learned of its existence. Although I’ve enjoyed poring over photographs of many abandoned places, including castles, hospitals and amusement parks, this is the first book I’ve read that focuses exclusively on theatres.

Featuring the history and photographs of twenty abandoned theatres, Matt Lambros took me on a journey through America. The theatres included in this book are located in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

My favourite photograph is from the interior of Loew’s Majestic Theatre in Bridgeport, Connecticut. There’s a haunting quality to this image, with its blend of light and shadow, and it makes me want to ascend those stairs to find out what’s beyond them.

One thing I absolutely adored in this particular book is a feature I haven’t come across in other abandoned places photography books I’ve loved - images that highlight what a building looked like in its prime contrasted with ones that show its decay over time. Somehow being able to view the before and after side by side is both fascinating and even sadder than seeing the after in isolation.

The passage of time has caused RKO Proctor’s Theatre in Newark, New Jersey to be almost unrecognisable when compared to its heyday.

Then there’s Detroit, Michigan’s United Artists Theatre, whose Spanish Gothic interior had a creepiness to it even before time stripped away some of its shine. This is the theatre I most want to see in person.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Jonglez Publishing and Xpresso Book Tours for the opportunity to read this book.

[Etienne]

I have a strange affection for abandoned places and I’m always fascinated by how it’s crazy that we can abandon magnificent places and just let them fall apart. This book focuses on American theatre. It has a lot of good pictures and some description of those places. Very well done for those of you who like this type of book!

[Mehsi]

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.


I love photography books about abandoned buildings! To see how things were often left like people just ran away from it one day and left it all behind. I would love to visit abandoned buildings… but I have yet to find one that is open to the public, in general it is illegal to get into a building like this. And I don’t want to get a high fine or be arrested. No thank you. So I will just visit those buildings by these books.

I have to say I didn’t much care for the descriptions. I tried reading them in the beginning, but due to the tiny font.. it wasn’t easy. Yes I already raised the percentage to 75% but that already caused the pages to not fit on my screen and me having to scroll if I wanted to see everything on the pages. So you can imagine that any higher and I would have to scroll even more, not something I would like to do. So after a while my eyes started hurting and I just focused on the photographs.

Which were stunning. To see all those theatres and see the various stages of decay in each of them. Some looked still pristine, others you could see were falling apart. I could just imagine shows taking place in those places and how they must have looked in their prime. How gorgeous it would have been. How wonderful it would have to be a visitor of a play or a musical or a dance in that kind of building. Wow.

The ones that were falling apart just broke my heart. That people just abandoned it, that no one ever cared to restore it to its former glory or to keep it nice and beautiful. 🙁

Instead of just the inside, I would have also loved to see some of the outside. How does it look there? Is it also dilapidated? Or is that one part that is kept up with?

All in all, a wonderful book and I would recommend it.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[Nostalgia Reader]

After the Final Curtain was one of the first blogs that I followed many years ago when I found out about the magic of RSS feeds. While I ended up unfollowing it at some point, the haunting, majestic mystery of abandoned theatres stuck with me and increased my appreciation for seeing the beauty in a variety of abandoned buildings.

This book provides a lovely gallery of a variety of theatres around the country that have fallen into ruin and Lambros’ photography of them is as mesmerizing as I remember from the blog. While the brief blurbs that accompany each theatre’s gallery tell much the same story, there are still unique little tidbits in each theatre’s history that make the ruins even more intriguing and beautiful.

If you love abandoned buildings, theatres, or melancholy nostalgic history in general, please check this book (and Lambros’ blog) out!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy to review!

(Cross posted on my blog.)

[Theediscerning]

I was really surprised recently to see photos of my favourite band's USA tour, and in particular some of the venue architecture. Fancy, classical quirks here and there, even rococo flourishes, amazed me. If I'd read this two months earlier I wouldn't have been surprised at all, for those places must have been nicely restored picture houses of old – the old movie palaces that flourished in the golden age of cinema. But not all venues have been nicely restored – and this book pays tribute to the ghosts of vaudeville, the cinema organist, and all the projected films since then. Here are places where ceilings look likely to drop upon you at any instant, holes in floors, some odd piping or something cutting through lovely frescoed artwork. These spaces since became church venues, warehouses, sports places, and are now subject to lengthy and costly renovations, or yet remain open to entropy and graffiti taggers. One – possibly the best – that had an amazing, Taormina-meets-Manhattan ethic, in Brooklyn, is now apartments and shows no sign of its former self, so even the photos here are of irreplaceable phantoms. Succinctly telling us the history of each venue, the twenty instances here get several pictures each, showing the seating areas, the views of and from the stage, and many front of house areas too. It's a shame some and not the rest have before and after shots, where the original splendour is dimmed by being black and white and the modern splendour is dimmed by rising damp, but this is still a splendid book, for those interested in derelict urban spaces, and of course in the past of our entertainment history. The photography standard is very high throughout, and whatever your interest you find the spirit of each theatre captured for ever.

[Nic]

Many thanks to Netgalley and Jonglez Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Matt Lambros has done it again. In After the Final Curtain: America’s Abandoned Theaters, his photography preserves the memory of theaters that may not survive for much longer. For some of these architectural masterpieces, Lambros’ images may be the only reminder we have of these once-gorgeous structures. After years of abandonment, structural damage, weather, vandalism and public indifference, theatres such as the Proctor’s in New Jersey and The National in Detroit are scheduled to face demolition. Others, like the Hamilton in New York may soon face demolition or fall victim to reconstruction that erases any hint of the building’ former purpose such as the Loew’s 46th Street Theatre in Brooklyn.

Lambro’s photography is exquisite. In a single image, he can capture the past’s stunning grandeur and the tragic modern decay of these forgotten structures. His photographs spotlight the artistic quality of the initial design and decoration while showcasing the results of years of neglect. The images are beautiful. I don’t think I could ever tire of looking at them.

This book is a must for anyone who likes history, architecture, theatre, or modern urban photography. I highly recommend it.

[Sharon Tyler]

After the Final Curtain: America’s Abandoned Theaters by Matt Lambros documents the current state of the once opulent movie theaters that were designed to make their patrons feel like royalty. People would dress up to visit. But as time went on it became harder and harder to fill the 2,000+ seat theaters and many were forced to close. Today, these palaces are illuminated only by the flicker of dying lights. The sound of water dripping from holes in the ceiling echoes through the auditoriums. From the supposedly haunted Pacific Warner Theatre in Los Angeles to the Orpheum Theatre in New Bedford, MA ― which opened the same day the Titanic sank ― Lambros pulls back the curtain to reveal what is left, giving these palaces a chance to shine again.

After the Final Curtain: America’s Abandoned Theaters offers readers a look at the once beautiful movie theaters in their current states, along with information on the location. I found a sad beauty in most of the pictures, a faded grandeur and a look at what was glorious inthe past. I have always loved theaters- the magic and wonder in getting lost in a story and someone's acting or musical talent isa wonderful thing. The faded glory of these theaters hold on to some of this wonder, as sad as the state of some of these buildings are in. I think that Lambros did a wonderful job of documenting these locations, and the changes in the world that triggered some of this decay. I really enjoyed learning about some of the projects that have happened, and are still happening, to preserve, restore, or repurpose some of these buildings. While we cannot go back, providing space for history and the arts to live on is a wonderful thing. I only wish more of these buildings had futures as bright as their pasts.

[Amy Dale]

Another haunting, poignant and perfect book by Lambros. The photos of these extravagant and abandoned theaters are stunning and heartbreaking and give both feelings of deep reverrance and regret, how places with such details, opulence and history can be ignored and left to rot is truly infuriating. The author's work is extremely important to opening the public eye and get more of these treasures restored and reopened.
While the theaters in this sequel aren't quite as jaw dropping as in his first volume, they are still awe inspiring and I was elated to read that there are plans in place or in motion to save most of them featured in the book, so the text was much more happy than book one.

Fantastic book, I love it and hope he will write more!

[Mary]

Beautiful, but sad. Makes me glad that the Fox in St Louis was restored.

[Alexandra]

Quick information about abandoned theatres in America. A small number of buildings are looked at in this book. You are introduced to them with some information and about half a dozen or so images of the building.