Why popcorn was initially banned in movie theatres.

[yuiyoshida]

The moviegoing experience seems unimaginable without a pack of popcorn today, but the snack was actually kept out of theatres till the 1920s. The early movie halls that screened silent films were designed to replicate traditional theatres and opera houses, and their impressive decor, including heavy curtains and luxurious carpets, were aimed at wealthy and educated patrons. Theatre owners did not want popcorn on the premises since it was noisy and encouraged littering.

These affluent patrons could read the title cards containing dialogue or descriptors of the action on the screen, but the arrival of the sound film in the 1920s meant that movies could be now be accessed even by the unlettered.

The broader the class of audience, the cheaper the snack – best exemplified by popcorn. It is also among the first snacks to be smuggled under coats during the Great Depression in America in the ’30s.

Popcorn became widely available in the 1890s after candy store owner Charles Cretors invented the popcorn maker. This was the beginning of America’s affair with popcorn, which has spread across the world. The year 2015 marked the 130th anniversary of Cretors’s creation.

more..
https://thereel.scroll.in/834704/why-popcorn-was-banned-in-movie-theatres-till-the-1920s

[BumRushDaShow]

1. The one thing about the U.S.A. is

if something has potential to make money, it will not stay "banned" for long!

[Ligyron]

2. Quite interesting, I didn't know that.

There aren't too many of those old-time movie houses left, the ones with palatial interiors and amazing acoustics. For awhile it was all tube theaters but at least now they are building theaters with amphitheater style reclining seats that provide places to hold snacks and drinks. Like popcorn. That's almost the only time I eat popcorn, at the movies.

[ginnyinWI]

3. then there is the "peanut gallery"

I understand that in England the people in the cheap seats up in the balcony of a theatre (showing plays, not movies back in the day) would eat peanuts.