I always skip them on dvd. it seems silly to sit there watching nothing. And let's face it - they were designed to sell popcorn bruce
Well, Intermissions may have sold some popcorn, but I doubt that Overtures ever sold a single extra box of popcorn. The Overture signals patrons that it's time to enter the theater, not to lag around the concession stand.
I'm coming VERY late (two years? three?) to the discussion about movies that opened with an overture.
I'm interested by the use of the overture in movie theatres in the 1930s, when there was still an orchestra (or—at least—an organ) that opened the show with an overture that was NOT related to the movie (often a piece of classical music).
Does anyone know how long that old-fashioned kind of overture persisted? At Radio City Music Hall, an overture prior to the movie was being played as late as the 1960s (and occasionally even later). What about the other picture palaces in NY? Does the overture disappear there by the mid-1930s? What about Chicago, L.A., Kansas City?
