I found this 'advertorial' sponsored by 'the leading motion picture exhibitors, distributors and producers of the United States and Canada' on a two leaf newspaper page in  the Nicholson trunk. I tossed the yellowed page  out, but my husband, the packrat,  pulled it from the trash and said, "Why are you throwing this out?" I replied, "Who cares. It's just a section from a November 1938 Montreal Star."

Then I looked at it and saw this ad: It's as if the Nicholsons were calling to me from beyond (through my husband, their descendant). Written before 'the best year ever' in cinema, 1939, this advertorial claims that going to a movie is better than visiting neighbours.  I wonder if this is why the Nicholsons, such social people, kept it. Or maybe they kept the page for the story about the demolition of the Reford home. Many of the grand homes around Sherbrooke in Montreal were destroyed during the 20th century - as were most of the sumptuous  era cinema houses. The art deco Snowdon theatre is still around, but derelict.  (This Reford house 'on the southern slopes of Mount Royal'  is described in the article as  being constructed of the finest materials, 'many now unobtainable'. The floors are quartered oak and ash, the article says. The doors are made of solid walnut 2 1/2 inches thick.  The house is being demolished because Mrs. Reford has just died. Edith mentions seeing Mrs. Reford in one of the letters.  Her name pops up in a suffrage exhibit clipping on The Nicholson Family Saga Page of this website. She was a society woman and social activist. See The Society Woman's New Role.)

This advertorial claims that going to the movies affirms that we are social beings. I don't know. In 2006,  where life is becoming increasingly privatized, 'socializing' by sitting in an unadorned room with complete strangers watching people up on the screen interact (even have sex) with each other seems to me an odd ritual--although I guess it is as old as theatre itself. Then again, DVD's permit even more privatization, although you  save on the over-priced popcorn by staying at home.  Do motion pictures "intensify life" as the advertorial says, or take the place of it?  (Last time I went to AMC I bought a popcorn and bottle of  Evian and they cost more than the movie. "14.00 for air and water," my friend quipped. )

Odd that in 1938, the year before the best year ever in cinema, and before over-priced popcorn,  the motion picture industry felt it necessary to take out a half page ad in newspapers promoting going to the movies. There must have been a reason.  (Montreal's great theatre fire where many children died had happened way back in 1927.  That's why children under ten couldn't go to the movies in Montreal until the 70's.) In 1910, the evils of the Nickelodeon were well publicized. 

<<Going to the 'movies' has become as much a part of modern life as going to work or going home to dinner. It is a habit that survives wars, strikes, political upheaval and national crises.

The first 'movies' were gaped at in much the same way as their contemporaries, the first automobiles. Today nobody stands at the curb to yell, "Get a horse!" at the streamlined version of either. The modern motion picture is as far a cry from the nickelodeon "flicker' as the sleek, sixteen cylinder limousine is from its one-lunged ancestor.

This development was possible because going to the movies, like automobiling, became a national habit.

(In 1910, traditional theatre owners blamed the decline in attendance on both movies and the automobile.)

Why? Why do we go to the movies? It is because the motion picture has taken unto itself some basic functions in society. Motion Pictures intensify life!

For the younger generation, especially, an evening at the movies offers nearer kinship with other people - a greater insight into life - than a visit with neighbours.

The movies has given our eyes new ways of seeing. Because a star's face appears before us on the screen in a hundred foot close up, we are more familiar with his features than those of our sister.

A portrait of a motion picture audience would show peace in the darkened theatre, happiness…freedom from care… hands held. As the audience reacts at what is taking place on the screen, it shares its feelings - and affirms that man is a social being. It is a group experience that is good for all of us, good for our individualities.  Motion pictures are the chief cultural possession of the average man and woman. Millions who are removed from the other arts find it in the film their literature, their expressions of beauty in form and design, their interpretations of the world about them.  While the motion picture theatre is itself a great classroom in which our generation has acquired matchless knowledge of far regions and understanding distant peoples. There is more than a passing connection between the American way of life and American leadership in the world of motion pictures. For the movie is by its very nature a democratic product - a cooperative effort of the talents of many people. Their work is subject to the approval of the box office - a referendum as accurate as that of the ballot box itself. It is in this pubic expression that motion pictures have found their greatest inspiration, their constant challenge to a new endeavor… Great stories, splendidly produced…love-filled romance, stirring drama, gay adventure, hilarious comedy, tuneful musicals, star studded casts filled with your favorites -new talents for which the world has been searched. One after another these fine pictures are coming to the screen of your favorite theatre, a world within four walls.>>