oving pictures had been in constant evolution for decades, the huge feature-length productions of the 1920's must have astounded even the most cynical audiences. Movie theater environments, often luxurious and opulent, captured the essence of the decade and the film industry, and surely contributed to the novelty of attending a picture.
             Reality was a major element of the 20's films. Unlike the playhouse or Broadway musicals which featured cardboard cities, false roads and prop cars, the moving pictures often depicted reality. Buster Keaton darts around a real steam engine in The General; Wings features real biplanes; Chaplin falls from real automobiles. To many, the movies must have been a sort of spectacle, or circus.
             For others, fantasy was the main attraction. On screen, the movies provided spectacular romances, such as Pandora's Box and Phantom of the Opera, and action-packed thrillers, like Wings and Old Ironsides. The movie world was sometimes more interesting off-screen, with huge Hollywood scandals involvin
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