“We live in a box of space and time. Movies are windows in its walls. They allow us to enter other minds, not simply in the sense of identifying with the characters, although that is an important part of it, but by seeing the world as another person sees it.” - Roger Ebert
The history of cinema now covers more than a century, with the twentieth century being the first to be recorded in motion pictures. Since the invention of films at the end of the nineteenth century, they have been known as a mode of preservation, preserving for future generations not only the images but the actions of people from history. It can be said that cinema not only records the visuals of past time, but the actual passage of time itself, making it extremely useful as historical evidence.
The cultural and political changes of the 1960s brought the United States closer to social revolution than at any other time in the twentieth century. Simultaneously, the American cinema went through a radical change. A new ratings system replaced the Production code and the studios system fell, giving rise to runaway
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‘Runaway ' productions were being made abroad to save money. By the end of the decade the industry was facing financial difficulties and an all time low that had been developing over 25 years. Due to these difficulties the studios were quickly taken over by multinational companies. Stanley H. Durwood opened the first ever mall multiplex composed of two side-by-side theatres in 1963, and became the father of the ‘multiplex’. From then it was only downhill for the downtown movie palaces of the 20s. Architectural wonders, such as the Paramount Theatre in Times Square, projected its last scheduled film in 1964. The RKO Theatre in Los Angeles became a garage soon after and the RKO Orpheum Theatre in San Diego was replaced by a bank. The Hollywood studio era was fast approaching its