AFTER THE FINAL CURTAIN:THE FALL OF THE Format: Hardcover

In the early twentieth century, movie theaters stood at the center of communities across America. The grandest among them, the movie palaces, were designed to impress from the moment patrons stepped through the doors. Ornate plasterwork, painted ceilings, grand staircases, and thousands of seats transformed a trip to the movies into an unforgettable experience.
As audiences moved to multiplexes and many downtowns declined, these once magnificent theaters fell silent. Some were restored and found new life. Many remain abandoned. Others have been demolished, making the photographs in this book a record of places that no longer exist.
In After the Final Curtain: America's Abandoned Theaters, photographer Matt Lambros continues his journey across the United States, documenting these remarkable buildings before they disappear forever. From the Pacific Warner Theatre in Los Angeles to the Orpheum Theatre in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which opened on the very day the Titanic sank, Lambros reveals spaces that few people have ever seen and preserves details that time has erased from many of them.
Featuring more than 200 photographs, this collection is both a celebration of America's great movie palaces and an important visual record of a disappearing chapter in the nation's cultural history.

Matt Lambros is an architectural photographer whose work documents America's historic theaters, from beautifully restored landmarks to long abandoned movie palaces awaiting an uncertain future. For nearly two decades, he has traveled throughout the United States photographing these remarkable buildings, creating one of the country's most extensive visual records of their decline, preservation, and restoration.
A graduate of Boston University's programs in Digital Imaging and Photojournalism, Lambros believes that photography plays an important role in historic preservation. His images have helped raise awareness of endangered theaters and have supported organizations working to restore and reopen these architectural treasures. He has donated his photography to preservation groups, including Friends of the Historic Variety Theatre, and has documented restoration projects such as the celebrated revival of Brooklyn's Kings Theatre.
Lambros' work has been featured by The New York Times, The Guardian, New York Magazine, io9, and numerous publications and exhibitions around the world. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Theatre Historical Society of America, where he continues to advocate for the preservation of historic theaters through photography, education, and public outreach.