Our Story
Theatre Historical Society of America was founded in 1969 by the late writer and theatre historian Ben M. Hall, author of the first book celebrating America’s movie palaces,The Best Remaining Seats. After Hall’s death dedicated founding members, led by Brother Andrew Corsini Fowler, were instrumental in making THS the foremost organization cataloging and archiving the unique history of theatre architecture in America.
“We are forming the Theatre Historical Society. The name is purposely all-purpose; though we all love movie palaces best, deep down we share an appreciation for any place where people are entertained in rows of seats – from nickelodeons to the newest Kultur Komplexes – in other words, all kinds of theatres and auditoriums.”
While people are at the heart of THS, our vast archive collections and publications have been our vehicle for growth. During the early years of THS our collections existed primarily in private homes. Brother Andrew, acting as the first editor of Marquee™, assembled the collection and secured space at Notre Dame University in South Bend Indiana to house the materials.
During the 1970s the collections were only accessible by the editor and used to publish our journal. It was the foresight of early members who envisioned an archival research center to serve the public. By the early 1980s Notre Dame needed to recover the space housing the THS archive and the collection was moved to the basement of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Chicago, IL. It was here on North Avenue volunteers began the massive process of cataloging and organizing thousands of items. By 1986 THS was providing archival research services to a growing number of clients while continuing to grow the collections and expanding its scope.
In 1991 THS moved to its location in the York Theatre building to Elmhurst, a suburb of Chicago. While Elmhurst served us well for many years, it became evident that our collections were growing and THS would soon need more space.
In 2016, THS took a bold step in relocating to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh is home to a dynamic, creative arts and culture community, universities are plentiful, and the history is rich. In fact, Pittsburgh is widely regarded as the birthplace of the stand-alone, commercial movie theatre, the Nickelodeon.
Through a partnership with the Senator John Heinz History Center, the THS Archives are now housed in a state of the art archival facility, while THS remains a fully independent non-profit, educational organization.
From just a handful of interested enthusiasts, THS has grown into a national organization with an international membership of individuals, university and public libraries, theatres, performing arts organizations.
Support from individuals like you is essential to our success.
