The Best Remaining Seats: The Story of the Golden Age of the Movie Palace

New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc./Publisher. Very Good+ in Fair dust jacket. 1961. First Edition. Hardcover. A stated first edition of Ben Hall's description of American movie palaces which sprung up after the end of Prohibition and ended by the time of the Great Depression. Per the jacket flap, ". . .the Golden Age of Movie Palaces. . .swept in on a floodtide of splendor, fantastic architecture, music, laughter and dreams." With dozens of black & white photos and illustrations showing the interiors and exteriors of some of these palaces, and many of the actors, theatergoers, advertisements and marquees of them. Also with a few pages of color illustrations showing painted designs for some of the theaters. --- In full red cloth-covered boards with spine titling in yellow. Dust jacket with John Reed photographic portrait of the author to back flap. --- A clean, tightly-bound, bright copy but with a couple of small smudges and corner bump to front cover. Fair-only jacket with large open tear to front panel, other tears with creases but remaining mostly intact and wrapped in removable archival mylar protector.; Small Quarto - 9 to 11 in. tall; (16), 5-266 pages .