An enchanting visual journey for anyone who loves movie theaters, film history, and architecture! This remarkable photography book features 395 individual outdoor and single-screen movie theaters built before 1965 when the multiplex began to dominate the landscape. For more than forty years, Benita VanWinkle has traveled across the country in search of hometown movie theaters and drive-ins to photograph for her ongoing documentary project "Please Remain Standing"--a visual appeal to preserve these treasures. VanWinkle has captured every architectural type: from the simple Washington Theater in Shelby, North Carolina, built from a Quonset hut, to the grand Ohio Theater in Columbus, Ohio, with its dazzling chandelier. Her photographs highlight elaborate marquees and neon-lit blade signs, whimsical drive-ins and a vast range of indoor theaters. Many boast splendid Art Deco detailing, while others showcase decorative schemes that enhance the make-believe world of cinema, often evoking great civilizations of the past with facades that recall Egyptian tombs, murals depicting Italian Renaissance cityscapes, and Mayan-inspired carvings, among other fanciful motifs. Selected from thousands of images VanWinkle has made to date for the project, the 512 reproduced in this hefty volume represent theaters from each of the fifty states and the District of Columbia. Extensive captions tell a brief history of the theaters represented, conjuring up a time when Americans embraced the shared experience of going out to the movies--a few hours in which strangers are united through mutual tears and laughter. VanWinkle's photographs celebrate these structures and their continuing importance in preserving a sense of community.