Samuel Lionel Rothapfel, as chronicled in Ross Melnik’s  American Showman: Samuel “Roxy” Rothafel and the Birth of the Entertainment Industry, 1908-1935, was a magnificient businessman and dreamer. When he was approached by film producer Herbert Lubin to operate a chain of theatres, Rothapfel (who had, at this point, shortened his name to Rothafel) jumped at the opportunity to build a monument to entertainment.

The Roxy Theatre, named in honor of Rothafel’s popular nickname, opened in 1927. At a cost of 12 million dollars, the theatre cost 2.5 million over Lubin’s original budget. Rothafel knew what he wanted, however, and the self-proclaimed “Cathedral of the Motion Picture” was it.

(credit: American Theatre Architecture Archive, Theatre Historical Society of America)