1912 Cinema Etiquette

This week's Friday Ephemera frmo the always-interesting David Thompson included an interesting link: Cinema Etiquette, 1912. The page at Visual News includes a link to the Library of Congress, so I have no particular reason to believe that these photos are a hoax. (NB: The photos are at the Visual News link; David Thompson's Friday Ephemera has a bunch of other interesting, but not necessarily movie-related, stuff.)

There are a couple of photos pointing out that women should remove their hats, which are much fancier than the one that Greta Garbo fell in love with in Ninotchka. Of course, there's nothing telling people to turn off their cell phnnes, since nobody could even dream of such a technology back then.

And then there are some that seem quaint: "Ladies and Children are cordially invited to this theater. No offensive pictures are ever shown here." Everything has somebody who will consider it offensive. I'm sure some people of today would look at the movies exhibited in 1912 and scream about ethnic stereotypes or if there aren't any of those complain about the lack of black people on screen. But, as another of the cards reads, "If annoyed when here, please tell the management."