Stepping out to see a show in a theater like Keith’s was truly magical. Ornate palaces built in the early 20th century were designed to give the audience the best possible movie experience. When attending Keith’s Theater, the patron was escorted to his seat by a uniformed usher carrying a flashlight. The theater’s continuous show included newsreels, cartoons, short subjects, and double and triple features. After a complete cycle, audience members would whisper, “This is where we came in,” and head for the doors. This custom continued until the debut of Star Wars in 1977. Patrons paid just once to see the fantastic new space opera and then stayed the whole day. Theater operators soon changed their between-feature procedures. (Photograph by Ben Rosen; courtesy of www.cincinnatihistory.com.)

On the cover: For over five decades, nighttime streets of downtown Cincinnati nearly resembled Broadway in New York City. This week in 1929, Careers, starring Billie Dove and Noah Beery, was showing at the Lyric. Clara Bow and Richard Arlen were on screen in Dangerous Curves at the Family. Scenes like this one at Fifth and Vine would eventually disappear as social and technological developments transformed the way people saw movies. (Photograph by Ed Kuhr Sr.; courtesy of the Dan Finfrock Collection.)