In the Dark in New Mexico

Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 By the 1920s and 1930s, as many other New Mexico communities matured, their movie palaces embodied the architecture of the Southwest - Victorian and European decor had long come and gone. Pueblo architecture with Santa Fe Revival or Art Deco influences became popular, as demonstrated by the landmark Cactus Theatre in Carlsbad (destroyed by fire), Ocotillo Theatre in Artesia (transformed into a cafeteria) and Silver City's El Sol (1934), triumphantly restored in 1997.

Albuquerque's emerging status as the metropolis of the state was amply reflected in its first great movie house, the Sunshine Theatre of 1924, housed on the ground floor of a seven-story "skyscraper" designed by eminent architect Henry C. Trost of El Paso. The concept of combining a theatre and ground floor retail stores within a tall office building likely owes a debt to the great architect Louis Sullivan, who magnificently demonstrated its appeal in the landmark Chicago Auditorium Building of 1893. Thus Albuquerque looked to the "city of broad shoulders" rather than Europe for inspiration.

As was the custom during the silent film years, live music accompanied the magic images on the silver screen at the Sunshine. A full orchestra entertained a packed house at the Sunshine's gala opening on May 1, 1924, when romantic idol Ramon Navarro appeared in Scaramouche. The Sunshine continued to show films well into the 1980s, but recently has seen new life as a music hall.

In Santa Fe, the Spanish Pueblo Revival frenzy partly symbolized by the Palace of Fine Arts (1917), La Fonda Hotel, and the Federal Building (now the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum), neatly coincided with the rise of the film industry. Thus, Santa Fe built the first "Pueblo" movie theatre, El Oñate, in the early 1920s. Located across the street from the Palace of Fine Arts on the northwest corner of the Plaza, El Oñate's facade mimicked the twin church bell towers first introduced to Santa Fe's Plaza by the Palace of Fine Arts a few years earlier. El Oñate, along with the Paris Theatre, popularized silent movie festivals in the capital during the 1920s, but its star was soon eclipsed by the brilliance of the Lensic Theatre in 1931.