Thomas White Lamb was a Scottish-born, American architect. He was one of the foremost designers of theaters and cinemas of the 20th century.
Lamb in 1926
Interior of B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre, Boston, 1928 (1970)
Pitkin, Brooklyn, 1928 (2010)
The United Palace Theater, formerly Loew's 175th Street Theatre, New York, 1930 (2009)
A movie palace is a large, elaborately decorated movie theater built from the 1910s to the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 1925 and 1930. With the advent of television, movie attendance dropped, while the rising popularity of large multiplex chains in the 1980s and 1990s signaled the obsolescence of single-screen theaters. Many movie palaces were razed or converted into multiple-screen venues or performing arts centers, though some have undergone restoration and reopened to the public as historic buildings.
The Uptown Theatre in Chicago
The interior of the Grand Lake Theatre, built in 1926