Adapted from the Whittier Museum Gazette articles from April 2022, March 2023 & April 2023 by Nicholas Edmeier, Curator.An exciting point in any early 20th century city’s life was the arrival of its first movie theater, followed by the building of bigger and better rivaling theaters. Before anything we would recognize as a “movie theater” in Whittier, most film showings during the 1910s started as pop-up moving-picture shows that were shown any place people could gather: churches, community centers, school auditoriums, etc. Most of the these were traveling film companies charging a nickel to see a 15 minute or shorter …
